Getting back to online journaling?

I keep thinking about trying to get myself to write more personally on this blog. For years, I actually used my blog as a personal online journal. Then in early 2005 I had some personal issues interfere with my ability to post freely about my life and emotions, and after the first oppressive year or so of that, my predilection for meaningful journaling had atrophied. After I left my last job in 2008 and began working full-time as a creative, writing about my ongoing projects and the progress of my business created a semi-steady flow of things to write about, without much getting into what was going on in my life. There have been a few painfully personal posts since then, but almost all within the context of posting about my work.

My life isn’t only my work, though my work certainly defines and consumes most of my life. So where are the posts about my happy marriage and the fun and interesting things Mandy and I do together, about the ups and downs, the adventures and the goose chases? Where are the posts about food; I’ve been baking and cooking more and more, adapting, following, and inventing recipes, where are the posts about how I find the culinary arts to be an important part of my overall creative life? Where are the posts about diet and exercise, the descriptions of the successes and frustrations Mandy and I have had, about losing fifty pounds (each) in the last couple of years (mostly 2 years ago; mostly plateauing last year), and about how we’re in the best shape of our lives? I used to write book reviews, movie reviews, product reviews, and more – I still read, et cetera, I even write reviews sometimes, but why aren’t they here on my blog? I finally started attending church regularly again, a few years ago, and I’ve been working little by little on giving my faith more prominence in everything I do; I’ve even been more overtly (it was always there, but it was less than obvious to some readers) writing Christian themes, characters, and lessons into my books, but where is any mention of that on my blog?

Heck, what about politics and economics? I construct book after book with my political and economic ideas as foundations on which the stories and characters’ lives are built – my two new books, Never Let the Right One Go, are so chock full of political commentary I keep worrying readers will choke on them. (Luckily, the rest of the content seems to have been well enough crafted to carry people through.) I have strong reactions to quite a bit of the ignorance and idiocy and injustice I see taking place in the world, but where are the posts about it? I live in a state which, because 55% of the (voting) residents can be convinced to vote for crazy people, has a horrible reputation for passing bizarre, draconian, often unenforceable and sometimes unconstitutional (even re: our own state constitution) laws. I’ve been biting my tongue (restraining my fingers from typing) about these things for years, now, not just here but also keeping myself from commenting on news articles, blogs, and social networks when these topics come up – now I’m considering, at the least, posting my thoughts here, if not smearing them all over the web.

I suppose the answer is that I’m going to try to actually get myself to start posting here, more, and more about the parts of my life beyond just writing and publishing books, creating and selling art, and the business of it all (though that stuff will continue to be a part of this blog, too – it’s still the biggest part of my life). Hopefully I’ll be successful, too.