Hello, everyone! There’s a new year not far around the corner! It’s the busiest time of year for me – and probably everyone else – and I have finally decided how to arrange the future of my werewolf/folklore blog, in particular what I run on Tumblr (and crosspost here and elsewhere).
I have been trying to work on my art skills, so you might see things like this howling werewolf Tom [one of my characters] pop up on the blog now and then
I’ve been quiet for a while, quieter than I would like to be, but this is out of necessity.
One thing I must clarify: Before you read any further, know that I am not putting my folklore/werewolf posts behind a paywall! I would never do that. You can interact with me and my posts and vote on the next ones through my Patreon, but I will never hide my posts themselves behind some kind of + paywall or subscription or whatever.
With that out of the way, I have several announcements to make…
1. Folklore posts may be once a month
It is with a heavy heart that I announce some sad news: I will not be returning to a regular schedule of folklore posts. If I do, they will be once a month, at most. I will, however, still be posting folklore posts as specials and every now and then, when I have the time! I’m not shutting the blog down, but things will be a bit different. There will still be a few posts, especially on Wednesdays, for werewolves. Things just aren’t going to be as frequent or quite as scheduled around here.
I started posting on a regular schedule when my life was at a point where I could easily do so – now, it is not. I simply do not have the time anymore to make as many regular, lengthy posts as I was doing before. I hope you’ll stick with me for the posts I can make now and then and to follow my fiction and nonfiction as I continue to publish books. Here is a longer version, as well:
As much as I hate to say it, because I have gotten so much positive reception here and I do not want to let the negative side of it drag me down for all of you who truly do enjoy my posts – I have been getting far too much hate-mail and flaming across the board that it’s reached the point of starting to affect my books and how they are reviewed. I do not want my blog to be affecting my books and the reception thereof, especially since that’s so immensely silly. My books are extremely important to me, moreso than anything else, and I want people to take them at face value as books instead of dragging my writing down on official channels just because they disagree with some opinion they read on my blog or because I didn’t specifically mention their favorite movie/game/whatever somewhere. I have essentially been told my entire life it is unwise to have opinions openly, especially if you’re a woman, and that does seem to be true, if you want to find success. I like to challenge that, but I do not want my challenging about something as unimportant as which werewolf movies I like to start killing the potential success of my books before they even get started. It’s just not important enough to me; my characters and stories and research are more important.
I WILL be continuing Vampire Facts next year (and I will be posting werewolf content and other folklore things), but they won’t be every other week. We’ll see how a schedule works out, if I can figure one; at most, it might be once a month, but we’ll see.
2. I will continue other, irregular post series
Before I started getting so much negative reception again, I was planning a new series called Werewolf Reviews; I may still do those occasionally, along with other posts, but if nothing else, I’ll be doing less opinionated pieces. So I’ll still be doing various posts on werewolves and things related to them, since they have been and forever shall be my “thing,” but they may not be very frequent. I’ll also do posts on other folklore, as mentioned, and occasionally post on writing and worldbuilding advice, as I have been doing for a while, with a focus on werewolves and occasionally other folklore/mythology creatures.
3. Werewolf Facts: The Book is on the way!
I do have some good news – I am planning to publish all of my Werewolf Facts in book form, expanded and with citations included! I don’t know exactly when this will happen, but keep an eye out for it in the coming year or two.
This will be the perfect book to reference for some quick info on werewolves in general as opposed to including full and specific legends (I will be publishing my own anthology of werewolf legends in the later future, as well). It will be useful for reference for academic work as well as worldbuilding and simply general info. It will be divided into sections detailing various aspects of werewolves, as do the werewolf facts here on the blog, but it will be much more organized and in-depth (again, with citations, as well, as I never had time to organize those on the werewolf fact posts themselves – I have all this info permanently branded into my head! But the book will definitely have the citations, the same way my current book, The Werewolf: Past and Future, does).
The book’s working title is Werewolf Facts: A Guidebook to Folklore versus Popular Culture. Stay tuned for updates!
4. I will publish at least 1 book a year
I’ve had this goal for the past two years (and even managed to meet it so far!), but I’ve never really formally announced it: I plan to publish at least one book every year from now on, barring extreme circumstances. I have a schedule plotted out that includes a mixture of fiction and nonfiction (the latter is pretty much entirely focused on werewolf legends for the time being), and I cannot wait to get these books out there.
5. Sharing focus with my fiction
This goes hand in hand with those aforementioned books – I write both fiction and nonfiction, but fiction is still my focus and always will be. I have only rarely let my fiction leak over onto this blog, mostly for fear of boring or running off my many followers who are clearly uninterested, but… you’re gonna have to hear about it now! Sorry. I promise it won’t be but now and then, and seriously, I think you’ll love it if you ended up on this blog in the first place.
So you an expect to see more about my fiction here in the future, as well, especially my fantasy universe of Wulfgard (very werewolf-centric) and the sci-fi universe of Nova Refuge (which also has wolfish creatures).
I am eternally driven by my fiction, my characters and stories (especially characters), and I always have been. It’ll be great to be more open about sharing that passion here, as well as my passion for werewolves – which is, of course, directly related to my fiction. I cannot emphasize how important it is to me to tell my stories and share these characters with you. I hope you’ll come along with me for the ride and say hi to my casts, like Tom Drake, Caiden Voros, Gwen Vergil, Kye Vakurseth, John Atlas, Henry Darrow, and more.
6. If you want to help me keep the blog running and regular, please support me on Patreon!
As I said, I will never put this blog itself behind a paywall, but that doesn’t mean you can’t support me if you want to help keep the blog running!
Part of the reason I am unable to dedicate as much time to this blog is, obviously, that I do all of this out of passion and in my free time. Free time is getting less available and more costly, unfortunately. Every single little bit on my Patreon helps me make more time to work on this blog!
If you prefer one-off payments, I also have a Ko-fi! I’m grateful, from the bottom of my heart, for all donations. If you send me something on ko-fi and want a shoutout or to send me a question or anything, please shoot me a message here on tumblr! I’ll try to do something nice for you to show my appreciation!
I deeply appreciate any and all contributions, and I always try to keep my Patreon active and fun.
That’s all for now! I hope you’ll continue to stick with me for what lies ahead. I want to extend and extra special thank you for all my most loyal followers on tumblr. I know who you are and I love you so much. Your support has always meant the world and it always will.
See you soon – and stay tuned for more special posts and updates over the holidays (including, of course, folklore – and werewolves)!