[Editorial] An update and note to all members…

This is going to be somewhat of a more personal piece for you all, firstly as an FYI and secondly because it feels like quite a good time to reflect. Personally it’s been a wild ride for me over the last month and I have never had to deal with so much emotionally and physically that has completely taken it out of me.

As you can imagine, working on Ghouls Magazine is one of my absolute biggest dreams come true, and continuous day-to-day passion that I feel very fortunate to be able to fulfill, however, it can be demanding, tiring and time-consuming even at the best of times. We had a change of personnel behind the scenes at Ghouls which has left me with a few more responsibilities than normal, and whilst the wonderful team are stepping in to help (because they continue to always be amazing like that) it has meant that in the transition phase there have been extra things I have picked up, including aspects like paperwork and numbers, which as a writer certainly does not come naturally whatsoever. On top of this, I have been working ridiculously hard at my day job to deliver on our biggest project of the year and therefore spare time has become nearly non-existent in my life, therefore meaning that anything related to Ghouls has become secondary. After that all quietened down I thought I would finally find myself back on the productivity train and smashing all things Ghouls which happened for about a day, and then just like that the pesky COVID hit me hard and I have been out of action. In all honesty I feel it was perhaps a combination of burnout (work plus being a social butterfly plus a gym bunny) and COVID that made my health rapidly decline and in all honesty, looking at a screen for more than ten minutes made me want to vomit all over my laptop and crawl into a big black hole. But that time was interesting for me because I finally, for the first time in maybe 7 years, just stopped and rested and said okay fuck everything but looking after myself. I’m not one to prioritise my own health over everything else, and I have been known to work myself to the bone so it has been refreshing to just stop for a second and focus on health rather than all the rest, and the funny thing was - nothing stopped and is still the same the moment I’m feeling back up to it again. The good news is that after a few months of what has felt like a barrage of bullshit from every side, I am feeling a lot more myself and ready to spring into action once more but also notice that periods of rest and rejuvenation are equally good to disperse into a busy lifestyle too. Within all this I do have to thank the Ghouls team who no matter how slow I have been, always have my back in all of this - their continuous help and support is like a genuine lifeline, and they have become this incredible team of people that feel more like family than anything else. And of course, there’s Rebecca who is an absolute babe of a human and sometimes I’m pretty convinced a witch because she’s just that damn special. If Ghouls didn’t have Rebecca then it most likely wouldn’t exist anymore because that woman keeps the whole thing afloat and also keeps me in check when I need it the most. (Picture above is an accurate representation of me trying to hold on whilst life is being a dick)

Due to all of this, I feel that the membership aspect of Ghouls hasn’t been the strongest it could have been and I hope that we are going to pick that back up again and make things even better for you in 2022. Revising how we’re running things and what we’re offering at the moment is going to be the first stage of looking at what we can be doing better for you because it doesn’t feel like we’re quite there yet with it all. Weekly articles haven’t been happening for the last couple of weeks due to the aforementioned but I’m very keen to get these back up and running again and try to bring you some more articles by other writers - the key problem we have here is that the membership covers the cost of running the site and everything else we have outgoing and until we are profitable and can offer writers payment for their work, it doesn’t feel quite right to put their work behind a paywall (being fully transparent here). So for that reason, most articles are typically from myself or Rebecca, with occasional video content thrown in too, which you will have seen does oftentimes come from some of the other writers which is because I spend a fair amount of time editing and uploading them, something that destroys my little laptop and can be surprisingly time-consuming to do. Asides from that I want to find a better platform to hear from you as we haven’t quite cracked that yet - we have tried Facebook group and some other methods but it just didn’t pick up, so I’m currently considering how we could utilise a platform like Patreon to our advantage a little more as I feel that with their built in interactive elements such as polls and comments it might work better, and also offer a tiered element so we can offer better perks. I have so many other ideas, some of them include in-person aspects but obviously this pandemic continues to be a little bitch so it’s been hard to actually pull off some of those bits but let’s keep praying that 2022 is going to allow that. So for now, thank you so much for continuing to support Ghouls because you’re pretty much single-handedly helping a small business survive and helping me to keep things running without completely destroying my bank account. I’m going to be working hard on looking at what better we can do for you in the coming months. 

Finally, it’s a good time to talk more generally about this year. Let’s start by saying it really hasn’t gone to plan - we all cried because 2020 was the worst year but it feels like 2021 has been just as bad as the last and as here in the UK we sit on tenterhooks waiting to find out if we’ll go into another lockdown just in time for Christmas, it feels like the years are slipping away from us. I’ve seen how hard this pandemic is hitting all of us personally, financially, socially, and it’s really taking a toll, with no end in sight at the moment. We all knew the pandemic wouldn’t be over within a few months but I don’t think any of us could truly comprehend that it would be two years down the line and we don’t seem to be that better off, especially when we have new variants doing the rounds and wiping us all out. It is a tough pill to swallow, but I do have to say that during another shitty year the horror community has continued to be a place of solitude and comfort. As always there is some shit in there, but overall it has felt like as a community we have come closer and closer together to really remind each other just how amazing people around us can be and why horror can also be a genre that gives us so much hope and brings us together. I have been lucky enough this year to meet a lot of people from the horror community in real life that I never thought I would get to meet - including a big Ghouls meet-up we hosted in London which was just the most wholesome and heartwarming day of my life. Meeting these talented and wonderful people and finding out that IRL they are even more awesome just made me feel so incredibly grateful to have them all in my life. There’s been even more though - going to the Celluloid Screams Horror Festival up in Sheffield and meeting so many directors, actors and fans for the weekend was so lush, and even though I had a hangover for the most part of it, it was great to hear the passion behind everyone. It was also so lovely to meet Polly Allen, who is one of the first people I interacted with in the horror community about 9 years ago - it was honestly such an honour to finally meet in person. Then there was Mitch Harrod from Soho Horror Film Festival that I met before the festival, but has been someone that has become one of my closest friends and someone I can always turn to. He has given Ghouls so many wonderful opportunities this past year, which I cannot thank him enough for, and he also parties just as hard, if not harder, than I do which makes Mitch even more amazing. I have also bonded a lot with Phil Nobile and Angel Melanson from FANGORIA over not only horror, but a love of candy corn (thank you Shudder for the introduction to the sweets) and although they are over the pond, it feels like chatting to good friends online all of the time. One final person I’ll mention is Jed Shepherd who is one of the most hard-working and dedicated people in film right now, and deserves everything and more! Not only has he been so kind about Ghouls and shouting us out on Clubhouse, he also joined our found footage panel and has become one of my favourite people to hangout with in London. If you asked me ten years if I ever thought I’d know any of the people mentioned above, I would have genuinely cried with laughter at the audacity of it, but here we are - and that’s all thanks to your support and belief in Ghouls Magazine. I truly do not believe all this wholesomeness and greatness would have happened without everyone taking a chance on Ghouls, so thank you for your continued support, as always. 

Before you go, we have our top 10 horror films of the year coming up so make sure you keep your eyes on the site… And make sure you let us know yours on Twitter, Facebook or email (editor@ghoulsmagazine.com!

Z x

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