A shift in the schedule

Hello everybody!

As of this May (2021), the Monster Meet blog will officially be 6 years old. 6 years! In that time, we’ve covered 81 monsters in 6 continents, and I’ve enjoyed every one of them. It’s my hope that you have, as well.

Because I like doing this blog and bringing to you all the wonderful variety of horrors that the human imagination has to offer, I’m going to keep doing it. However, recent Life Stuff™ has made me realize that I need to be taking more care in how I delegate my time and energy. I love reporting on monsters, but more, I love creating them, and love fashioning long-form experiences where readers like you can get to know them intimately.

To create those experiences, especially around the increasing demands of my day job, I need more uninterrupted stretches of time. So, at least for now, I’m going to slow Monster Meet down from posts every full moon to posts on the equinoxes and solstices (for some reason, I just can’t bring myself to do something reasonable like the first Monday of the quarter).

For those following along at home, that means that the dates for the remainder of this year will be as follows:

• Summer Solstice: June 20, 2021
• Autumnal Equinox: September 22, 2021
• Winter Solstice: December 21, 2021

I’ll evaluate at the end of the year and see where we’re at, and let you guys know what you can expect from there on out.

Thank you as always for sharing my love of weird, sometimes frightening, sometimes hilarious darkness. I’ll see y’all in a couple of months.

-JMP

This is what came up when I searched “solstice.” I dig it. Thank you to Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash.

Pause

Out of respect for everything happening in the U.S. right now, I’m not going to do a Monster Meet post this month. I stand with my black friends and commit to doing the anti-racist work necessary to move our country forward.

Looking for something to read? Support black writers like those in these lists and interviews!

• 5 Black Female Horror Authors You Should Be Reading
• 5 New Books By Black Writers Every Sci-Fi and Fantasy Lover Should Look Forward To
• 5 Black Children’s Authors and Illustrators You Should Know
• Changing the Face of Crime Fiction: 6 Writers of Color on Writing Mysteries, Crime Novels and Thrillers
• 45 Upcoming Books by Black Authors You Can Preorder Right Now

Buy them from black-owned bookstores like these!

• The Black-Owned Bookstores You Should Be Supporting Right Now
• You can order today from these black-owned independent bookstores
• 16 Black-Owned Bookstores To Shop From Today And Every Day

Please also consider donations to the ACLU, the NAACP, and the many other organizations working to right wrongs and ensure equity.

I hope that you all are staying safe and well. ❤

Featured post on SF Reader

Hey, everyone! For those of you who don’t know, I took last summer off to attend the mind-bogglingly challenging and wonderful Odyssey Writing Workshop in Manchester, New Hampshire. I wrote a blog post about exactly how transformative the experience was, and it was just published here:

http://sfreader.com/r/industry-news/odyssey-writing-workshop-expectations-vs-reality/

Me at Odyssey, happily working away on 3 hours of sleep.

If you are a writer interested in attending Odyssey (my humble opinion is that any neopro fantasy/science fiction writer who can manage to take off for 6 weeks should strongly consider it*), please get in touch. I’d love to answer any questions you have and convince you to fill out that application.

The early decision deadline for the 2019 workshop is January 31. The regular application deadline is April 1.

Get crackin.’

-J

*Yes, 6 weeks can be very hard, financially and otherwise. It’s worth noting that Odyssey does have financial aid and work-study programs. I considered it an investment in myself instead of going to grad school–hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper, yippee for me!

You can also check out Odyssey’s winter online courses, one of which I am taking right now and is also great. Those classes only meet once every other week, making them easier to manage with one’s work and family schedules.

I’m doing site updates!

Any of my long time readers will (should? Meh; I won’t take too much offense if you don’t) notice that the site now looks different! I will continue to make incremental updates over the next few months–one big update might make more sense, but that would require admitting to myself that this is all one giant exercise in procrastination.

Seriously though: jmplumbley.com has been around since 2015 and not once have I altered its look or user experience. It’s about damn time. There are a few shiny new things that may be of interest to you:

• A new series of “What’s New” posts (like this one) that are not about monsters (???!!!), but things in my actual life. And by “actual life” I mean fiction things, because let’s be real–I have no life outside of that.
• Coming up, a (hopefully) better user experience re: sorting through old Monster Meet posts.
• A new icon for the browser tab. It’s so small that you can’t really see what it is, but it’s a candle, folks. And I think it’s cool. WordPress logo, begone!

Hopefully these things are of at least mild use and/or interest to you. Otherwise, this is even more an exercise in procrastination than I feared.

Tally ho,

J