Ten Ways to Survive the Hellatus

With the hellatus in full swing, you may find yourself already counting down the days until Friday, September 23rd. I know I am. So in order to help ease the pain of a world where Friday nights don't mean new episodes, I came up with a list of ten ways to survive the hellatus. Hope you enjoy! Feel free to add any other suggestions. I'm sure we could all use them!

1. Re-watch all the episodes with commentary. It's really fun to hear stories from behind the scenes and learn about how they achieved certain camera angles and effects. Plus, who doesn't like to hear Jared and Jensen's pretty voices? 

2. Read the Pilot as it was originally scripted here. Sam and Dean Harrison? It's a really fun read, in fact I've read it more than once and always enjoy it.

3. Read 'In The Hunt', a collection of unauthorized essays about Supernatural. It's a bit dated at this point and only makes references through season three, but it's an interesting read nonetheless! With essays like Dean Winchester: Bad-Ass...or Soccer Mom?, Good and Evil in the World of Supernatural and Back in Black, there's a little something for everyone. Plus, it's really fun to see how the characters have developed since the book was written and how the essay authors predicted future events correctly and incorrectly.

4. Check out some Supernatural fan fiction. There are tons of ways to get it. Whether you're a fan of wincest or not, there's definitely something for everyone. There is a whole database of Supernatural fanfic at http://www.fanfiction.net in fact, last I checked there were 49,923 entries. That should be enough to last the hellatus! Suggestions are welcome, that's a lot of entries to sift through!

5. There are also plenty of Supernatural novels out there to fill that summertime void.

You can check out the graphic novel prequel 'Supernatural: Origins' written by Peter Johnson, series Executive Producer, Geoff Johns and Matthew Dow Smith (ISBN 140121701X)

'The Unholy Cause' is another Supernatural novel written by By Joe Schreiber and Eric Kripke (ISBN 1848565283)

Keith R. A. DeCandido has also written a series of Supernatural novels including 'Nevermore' (ISBN 0061370908), 'Bone Key' (ISBN0061435031) and 'Heart of the Dragon' (ISBN184856600X). I haven't 

read any of these books so I don't know how good they are. Has anyone else read them? I'd be interested

to hear what you thought. Did they stay true to the characters and overall mythology of the show?

6. Sometimes when I'm having a bad day I really love to watch the bloopers from season one all the way 

through season five. Sure it only takes 45 minutes, but it's 45 minutes of bliss. I love a good blooper reel, and one 

with Jared, Jensen and Misha is even better. 

7. Check out past articles on The Winchester Family Business. The site is updated constantly and there

are so many talented writers, not to mention the insightful comment section! Since I just found the site 

this past year I've had a great time catching up on back articles.

8. There are also tons of games on the WinFamBuisiness site like Supernatural Bingo, word searches and scrambler games. Why not throw a Supernatural themed party? Just don't forget to invite me!

9. On July 26th you can own Supernatural: The Anime Series. The series will make history as the "first-ever live-action series to be re-imagined in Japanese anime style". With a whopping 22 episodes, it's sure to help you fill the Supernatural-sized hole in your heart.

10. If you've already completed the first nine time-killers, desperation may begin to set in. So you may need to resort to things like photoshopping your head on to the Winchester's various love interests, memorizing episodes word for word and reciting them for your friends, staring at Alice's countdown clock watching the seconds go by. I didn't say these were healthy ways to pass the time...