Happy New Year! Welcome back to Page & Screen! It has been a long, long time since I last posted anything on this blog. While I missed sharing my thoughts on movies and books with my readers, I had to take some time for myself. To find out why and if I’m back for good, keep reading.
Reason for the Break
I chose to stop in the late summer of 2015 because my wife, whom blogs about beauty products and more at Southeast By Midwest, were both starting classes at a local community college. With the stress of filing paperwork, helping manage her blog (which is way better than mine will ever be), and starting class, it was all too easy to let planned reviews go. After missing several planned posts in a row, I let myself believe that I would never have time. Plus, I got back into gaming on a Wii U and 2DS (more on that in a sec). So I walked away.
What Was I Doing

Press release originally published in The People-Sentinel, Barnwell, SC
During my break, I mostly went to class. I’m currently making all A’s in a criminal justice program with thoughts of returning for cyber security. I also helped my wife as much as I could in a support role on her blog, even writing a guest post or two. Lastly, I let my self get sucked back into video gaming as I said. That is something I swore would never happen again. This really took up a lot of my time and I didn’t read as much as I wanted to.
One cool thing happened while I was away. A newspaper published a press release I wrote! Sure, it was only a local paper, but I was able to write a press release for the school I’m attending! You can see a photo of the article above.
What Changed Heading Into the New Year?

Using GoodReads to hold myself accountable
I got rid of my gaming systems, started watching more movies, and started reading more books by the end of 2016. When the New Year started, I decided to challenge myself with reading a book a week in 2017 (be sure to follow my progress on GoodReads!). I figured there wasn’t any real reason to do this if I wasn’t going to talk about it with you guys!
Will the Blog Stay the Same?

A brief glimpse of my new review rating system
You can more or less expect the same content as before on the blog. I’m still going to review movies and books, talk about TV shows you should be binging on Netflix and Hulu, discuss relevant pop culture topics, and maybe even review some apps and tech that relate to entertainment. However, with a New Year comes a new focus. I’ll be the first to admit that I got a little long winded with my reviews. So, from now on, I’m going to try and streamline my thoughts into easy to browse lists of likes and dislikes. Also, for those that just want a quick and dirty recommendation at the end, you’ll be able to see at a glance whether I think a book or movie is worth buying, renting, or skipping all together.
Goodbye… For Now
That’s it for now. I hope all of you will want to retake this journey with me. I’ve missed talking with you guys and I hope that you will give me the chance to share my thoughts with you again.