The Written Universe

Good afternoon constant reader.

It's been almost two months since I last posted to The Written Universe. It's not that I've run out of books to review, it's I've run out of the ability to read and review.
I've spoken to this problem before, and it seems to have returned.
For those of you who don't know, I lost my father in February 2009, my son, my only child in September 2010, there was a lawsuit regarding his death in 2011, and my mother presented with Alzheimer's in 2010, and had to be removed from the family home in 2011 and put in independent living for the time being. It was also at this time I had to clear out the family home as the house had been reverse mortgaged.

All this has taken a toll on me, and has impaired my ability to concentrate on and retain what I read. That's a deadly combination for a book reviewer. I've gone through this once already, and it seems after the holidays to have returned again.

Because of this, I've stopped reviewing and am trying to work back up to reading by reading strictly for pleasure. Even that has been hard to do.

If you're a regular reader of The Written Universe, I ask your patience and understanding.
If you are an author wanting to submit a book for review, please note it may be some time before I undertake any new books for submission, as I am currently back logged. I may also be forced to be more selective about what I take on for review. I don't want to waste my time reading things that aren't worthy of my time, and I don't want to waste an author's time, either. I try to be as fair as I possibly can.
Along these lines, I'm also toying with the idea of only posting positive reviews. If a book doesn't strike my fancy or is poorly written from the get go, I may decline to review it and notify the author. I haven't decided yet.

At any rate, The Written Universe is still something near and dear to my heart, and I intend on continuing to review books. I may also throw in the odd review from time to time of a film, or a CD...you never know. ;)