To Combine, or Leave as Separate?

2 blogs. 2 very different subjects. 1 very complex woman. What to do, what to do...

Back in my younger years, in fact, when I was 18, the age of my oldest son... I made some very stupid mistakes and became involved with a man who almost killed me. That sounds very dramatic, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it's the truth.

Several years ago, I created a blog to write about my experiences with it. For many years, I couldn't speak about it because of the shame and heartbreak it caused me. I think the hardest thing for me to face was the fact that I sold myself short. I wanted someone to love me so badly that I settled for someone who was not good for me... someone who wasn't who God has planned for me to marry. But I did it anyway.

So, out there in cyberspace lies a blog about domestic violence. It has stories that are true, yet unbelievable. Stories that are raw and sad, but it was my reality for six years. And while I'm not proud of what happened during that time, I am convinced that telling my story might help someone else get out of their living hell. If even only one person is saved, it's worth it.

I'm trying to decide what to do with that blog, http://leavingdvbehind.blogspot.com. I had actually compiled the stories into a manuscript, but it was lost in the big computer crash three years ago. And there, lying within the confines of my blog, I found my writings and were thankful they were saved. I've recently written another post and renamed the blog.

Because I also wrote a fictional story revolving around the subject of domestic violence, though the story doesn't necessarily focus on it, I've let the REAL story go... kind of. While the situations in my yet unpublished book, Around the Next Corner, are not based on real people or situations, the qualities of several characters are me. And the situations are fictional, but they could be true. I wonder what would happen if I try writing the real story again.

How different might it be from the last time I wrote it?

Well, for now, I'm going to keep these two blogs separate, but when my book is published, and I say that with determination and belief, I'll combine the two. Maybe.