If you follow @fictionrow on Twitter or “Like” /fictionrow on Facebook, you’ll hopefully remember that about a month ago I tweeted and posted that this website needed to remain on hiatus until April. April is here now, and I’m (tentatively) ready to come back! I don’t want to bore you with the details surrounding the hiatus, but let’s just say that “real life” took over.

In months and years past, FictionRow.com has been through several hiatuses, but this hiatus felt different. When I posted back in February that I was planning on getting back on the writing horse that same week, I truly did intend to do just that. With previous hiatuses, my heart wasn’t really in the writing. I didn’t write here because I frankly didn’t think about my website. Moreover, I didn’t think that my website mattered; no one was reading (much less commenting) anyway.

But this time, seriously not a day went by that I didn’t think about writing–I simply had to prioritize. I couldn’t take the time away from my busy schedule with teaching English full time, preparing my English students for the state standardized reading tests, teaching fifteen piano students, filling in as a long-term sub directing the pep band while our usual band director was on maternity leave, playing the organ for my church for two services a week during Lent, plus the rehearsals that go along with being a part of two choirs and a musical. I’m not going to say I’m the busiest person I know, but I really am.

Lent ended today (Happy Easter!), so I have one less service per week to play for, plus one less choir to rehearsal for. My English students are taking their standardized reading tests tomorrow and Wednesday, so I’m done preparing them for that (hope it goes well for them)! Our band director is coming back next week, though pep band has been done for a while. I daresay I thankfully have some more time back in my life to write–plus read for pleasure–again.

Over the past two months, every time I came across a news article elsewhere that I wanted to report on, I would either bookmark it or start writing some notes about it, so I have plenty of material to start with. The problem is reducing it down to a manageable amount so that it feels less daunting to get started. I really must “take it one day at a time”.

Articles that I will be working on today

My top priority at the moment is Game of Thrones, which returns next Sunday (April 12th) already! I can’t decide if I want to avoid spoilers myself or release spoilers to you! I think I’m going to go with the latter. Spoiler away!

Episode 3 of the Game of Thrones video game by TellTale Games was just released recently, and I haven’t had a chance to play past Episode 1! I plan to report on the game’s new episodes as much as I can, but I think I will wait until every episode is released to play them all at once and write my full review on the complete game here when I’m done.

NerdCon: Stories was HUGE news in my world last week, because it’s going to be in my home state!

Articles that I will be working on later this week

• I still plan to write a “future of the Harry Potter books” opinion piece, in light of the new fully illustrated editions.
• I still plan to review the new Jurassic World trailers and websites that have came out over the past few weeks.
• I want to write a “Farewell to Glee” article. I have never written about Glee on this website before, but I did watch the show semi-religiously while it was on the air, and I feel the need to write a fitting eulogy for it now that it’s done.
• The Paper Towns trailer was released recently, and I haven’t even watched it, because I want to see it with fresh eyes while I write down my thoughts about it for an article about it. This one needs to happen soon; I’m too excited.

So there you have it. A plan. Now, if I can stick to the plan, I should be in good shape. Come back soon!