March Madness! (but not a good kind)

Hey, friends!

Some of you may be wondering where the heck I've been. Sure, I've posted in the past few days, but I did two cover reveals and two memes, and I completely skipped a few days. Well, there are a few reasons that have contributed into a ginormous snowball from Hell of "Mary doesn't want to blog right now."

Reason 1: This is the biggest contributor to my March blahs, but I have been utterly uninspired this month. There are three novels I've been reading for weeks, but I haven't finished any of them because I just couldn't get into them entirely. I haven't felt like reading. I haven't felt like writing. Basically, I haven't felt like doing blog-type work at all this month because my tank has been pretty low. This wouldn't have been a problem if I'd maintained my posts for Event Recap Month, but....

Reason 2: I cancelled Event Recap Month. This reason itself is the effect of some less-than-pleasant factors, but it boils down to the fact that Event Recap Month ended up not being as awesome as I had hoped it would be. It just wasn't working how I wanted it to so I unscheduled all the posts I had planned. This left me with very little scheduled content and none of it original. As reason 1 points out, I was out of creative juice this month. I could have scrambled to punch out some reviews, but I feared they wouldn't be quality posts. I once read blog advice that said you should put out something rather than nothing, just to get views or whatever, but I don't like that advice. I want my readers, you guys, to have quality material to peruse. I'd rather take a few mental health days of silence rahter than post meaningless drivel.

Reason 3: Hulu Plus. Since I was having a really hard time reading, I got hooked on a few shows. I watched all of Brooklyn Nine Nine in a week and am now all caught up on Star-Crossed. I think it was good that I cleansed my palate with some tv because it left me hungry for new books!

Reason 4: Real life got in the way. You know how it is. 

BUT there is some good news on the horizon!

Good news 1: I just read two great books in a row! Seriously, I'm feeling better already about upcoming reviews because I have things to say!

Good news 2: I'm finally ready to launch my new features! I announced Mary's Minute and Audio Adventures way back at the beginning of February, but with all the traveling I did, it wasn't a good time to launch them. March obviously wasn't good either, but it's finally the right time. Guys, I am so excited about these two additions to the blog! I enjoy memes, but these will be regular features that are all mine!

Good news 3: TLA 2014 is coming up in a week and a half! If you weren't around last year, TLA 2013 is what really kicked me into gear to be a better blogger. The first four months were pretty rough, but TLA opened my eyes to so many possibilities! It was absolutely the best experience, and I can't wait to attend this year!

Good news 4: I can FINALLY share my most awesome news with you guys! I've had to sit on this news for a while so it feels weird to put out publicly, but here goes! The Dark Days of Summer tour is coming to Dallas, and I get to moderate the panel!

So even though March has been pretty meh, I've got a lot of things to look forward to, and I hope you guys are just as excited as I am! Thank you so much for all your support and for hanging in here with me during all the blah days. I can't promise it won't happen again, but I'm going to do my best to...well, do my best! Blogging is a lot harder than I ever imagined it would be. There are so many things I never considered when I started. At times, I just want to pack it in and be done, but I'm glad that I have been able to keep with it, and I wouldn't have been able to if I didn't have you guys backing me up. So, really, truly, thank you.

Love,

Mary