As I know lots of you have noticed (since I have a lot of Twitter replies, Facebook messages, and Tumblr messages), I haven’t gotten a chance to put up a review of The Two Towers. I wanted to let you know what’s going on with me this week so you’re not left all in the dark. In just eight days, the Mark Does Stuff Tour 2012 begins, and that means I’m pretty much in full-on panic mode. The Intensity In Ten Cities Tour was largely an experiment, and now I know what needs to be different this time around. First of all, I am determined to book all fifteen dates before I leave, so I’ve been spending many hours every day calling and emailing places to find venues. As of today, only Salt Lake City needs a venue!

Anyway, one of the things I wish I hadn’t done was save posts to write whilst on the road. I only got a slight head start before I began tour, and this time around, I’d like to get as much done ahead of time so that I’m not writing on the road. It’s too stressful and creates a logistical challenge that isn’t fun when I’m constantly on a bus or in a new city I’m unfamiliar with. Because of that, I AM UTTERLY SWAMPED RIGHT NOW. On top of that, I’m putting the finishing touches on Mark Watches Doctor Who: Series One, releasing a new project later today, and recording videos of me reading AWFUL THINGS to raise money for my AIDS/LifeCycle ride. If I can muster up some time in the next few days, I’ll throw up a post, but I can’t promise anything. I’ve only got a week before my days are packed, but I’ll try my best.

In the meantime, there’s a lot folks want to discuss (and I’ll jump in when I can) about The Two Towers, so I’d like to host that here. OH GOD I LOVED THE MOVIE SO MUCH. Well, the Eowyn changes were weird and Aragorn died for a hot minute? But omg the Battle of Helm’s Deep WAS SO FLAWLESS HELP ME.

Anyway, because of the stress that comes with touring, starting next week, my Buffy / Angel posts will go back to five per week, with no double post days. I simply can’t sustain twelve posts per week while on tour, even if I manage to get a large amount done before I leave. I reserve the right to go back to the double-post schedule for the next season, but for now (and my own mental health), we’ll just have one review per weekday posted at 1pm PDT.

All the liveblogs will still happen on schedule! I may miss a Fringe review here and there, but if I get a week or two ahead of myself, then I’ll make time on the road to write about the show. It’s just that I don’t foresee myself having all that much time. To save money this time around, I’m skipping on getting any hotels and taking a lot of red-eye bus trips, which takes away time I used on the last tour for writing. It’s much cheaper this way. The last tour cost me about $2,500, and I’m (so far!) keeping this one under $1,000. TOURING IS EXPENSIVE SO HELP OUT IF YOU DECIDE TO ATTEND ANY EVENTS.

I am so very excited to go on tour, though, and I can’t begin to explain to you the joy it brings me to be doing something that is, quite literally, a lifetime goal of mine. I grew up in punk rock and hardcore, and I missed touring so much. It’s one of my favorite things in the world, and I am just so honored and flattered that nearly 1,000 people came out to ten dates in February and assured me that I could sustain touring for a long time. So make sure to thank all those folks who came out and gave me money, because it is keeping me fed, housed, and it’s keeping Mark Does Stuff online.

Please check the tour dates to see if I’m coming near you! All my events are absolutely free and will only have a voluntary, sliding scale donation policy if you’d like to support me. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. The only exceptions are Los Angeles and Spokane, where I’ll be hosting dinner meet-ups and you should plan to buy dinner. If you’d like to hear me speak about what this experience is like, ask me a billion questions about what I do, and then witness a real-time Mark Reads experience as people give me bad fanfic/novels to read with no prior knowledge, I implore you to RSVP for the Facebook pages that are linked in the tour schedule. I had so much fun on my first tour, and I’ve refined my presentation down to a fine art. Y’all will be getting a much more polished experience, and there’s no need to be familiar with anything I have written about on both sites.

So thank you all for the support and love that you give me. I have never, ever been so happy in my whole life. I’m watching Buffy and Angel and loving both shows, my sites get a billion pageviews a month, and I’m about to travel the US doing something I adore. You all mean the world to me, and I’d like to meet and thank you all in person.

Thank you. <3