This is the last post to appear on Wild Muse. It’s been a fun few years writing here, but things are changing and I’ve decided the time is right to mosey on along. Wild Muse was born as a science blog in the summer of 2009. I was just getting started in freelance writing and enjoyed the idea of having my own little sandbox to play around with in cyberspace. A few years later, as work responsibilities grew to encompass a book project and my personal life expanded to encompass a baby, I had much less time than ever before to blog.
A year after my son was born, Wild Muse was reborn as a science, nature, and nonfiction book review site. It was the summer of 2013. I wrote reviews sporadically, when I had time, for every second or third book that I finished. My posts became more and more spaced out. Infrequent publishing is often the death rattle of a blog, and so it was with this one. As my family continues to expand, and we prepare to welcome a second baby into our home, I’ve taken a long and reflective look at what I spend my time on, as well as what I envision my time budget to be in the near future. This reflection allowed me to see that posting to Wild Muse has begun to feel more and more like a chore, and less and less like the invigorating outlet it once was.
Not many people know that after finishing my nonfiction book on red wolves, I began working as a financial oversight coordinator in a dental practice. I’m as trained in bookkeeping as I am in beekeeping. Ditto for human resources management, dental practice operations, and small business strategic growth management. But that’s what my time has been consumed with since October 2011. It was in that month that my life pivoted, and my path forever changed: all within a few weeks time, I discovered I was pregnant, I submitted my completed book manuscript to UNC Press, and I began working for the dental practice.
My path to working in the dentistry field was wholly unplanned. It was a byproduct of my marriage to a dentist who struck out as a sole practitioner in 2011. It often feels like we’ve been fighting to keep our heads above water since then. I won’t divulge specifics, but let’s just say that every single step of the way to getting this business going has been a struggle — every week, and every month. My husband works 60-70 hours per week. I work about half that while also being the primary caregiver to our beautiful son and running our household. There is so much to unpack in those last two sentences, it humbles me knowing the meaning with which they are suffused. Continue reading