Episodes: What's Up? (not the one by 4 Non Blondes)

(When I have a lot going on, I tend to stress eat, just like this stock photo model.)

You may have noticed in recent months that the frequency of this newsletter has dropped precipitously. Some of that has been traveling, with events like Comic-Con, TCA, and a vacation coming right on top of each other. Some of that has been garden variety laziness. And some of it has been assorted other conflicts.

But a lot of it has been an incredibly unusual confluence of events that has made me drop all non-essential writing (i.e., everything I'm not getting paid for or that doesn't have the potential to pay me at some point). Which has put the newsletter on the back burner! And, sadly, it's going to be there for the next little while, as I wrangle a bunch of projects that have all come together at the exact same time. (My gift for cramming my life full of things has never once failed me.)

First of all, my good friend Zack Handlen and I sold a book! It's about The X-Files! It's coming out in the fall of 2018 from Abrams! It's going to feature some of our AV Club reviews, yes, but edited (finally!) and then lots and lots of new material because we're rewriting some, completely starting from scratch on others, and coming up with some new stuff for still other things (to say nothing of the whole new season that will air sometime next year and will be included in the book). Anyway, the deadline for that is coming up in the first week of November (this is important).

Second of all, as you might have heard in this very newsletter, my wife Libby and I have had some success with a spec pilot we wrote, which was one of seven finalists in the "drama" category at the New York Television Festival. We're going to be heading there the last week of October, and we're doing our best to make sure our I's are dotted and T's are crossed for that, working on both the spec pilot we've already written and some new stuff, just in case.

Third of all, a long-gestating scripted podcast I've been working on for a little over a year has very quickly started to come together. We're going to start recording that in the middle of November, hopefully (and if you live in Los Angeles and want to be an actor and want to know how to audition, I can send you the links to our casting information).

Finally, I don't know if you know this, but I have a job, which still requires me to turn up every day and write stuff about TV, film, and other things. It's a job I love, so I'd like to keep it, and they generally like to have me giving them their full attention.

So with all of this, something had to fall by the wayside, and I regret to say it's been the newsletter. I'm going to be returning to this full steam ahead in the last weeks of the year, but for October, at the very least, we're going on hiatus. This is sad! I love writing about horror things! And October is when that makes the most sense! But I will survive somehow.

In the meantime, please keep telling your friends! We're creeping ever closer to the 1,000 subscriber mark (at which point I will write an edition of Episodes about the Showtime series Episodes). I also love when you suggest topics, and frequently go to look at your ideas when I'm strapped for my own.

Thank you for understanding (assuming you understand), and I'll hopefully see you all again on November 1, when I am no longer able to form coherent sentences.

If you haven't read the archives, you totally can. If you just want me to recommend greatest hits, let me know, and I'll do some reruns from the earliest days of the newsletter, when nobody read it.

--

Episodes is usually published three-ish times per week, and more if I feel like it. But it's on hiatus until November 1! It is mostly about television, except when it's not. Suggest topics for future installments via email (just hit reply to this email!) or on Twitter. Read more of my work at Vox