“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”
And that is what this announcement is all about. The end of my journey with Macabre Monday and Substack, but also a new beginning for the community.
I can fondly recall the start of my journey here on Substack. I was a struggling freelance writer that was looking for an outlet that I could use to get away from the tedious, boring writing work I had to slog away at during the day. This was meant to be where I could create and share the worlds that lived within me. Like many others, I was nervous, yet excited to venture into this space to start writing my own fiction for others to read and maybe make a buck or two on the way.
Little did I know, Substack had other plans for me.
After a lot of stumbling around and shouting into the ether, I finally found some sort of foothold within the fiction community here. At that time, before the week was full of themed days I mean, it was far more difficult to find “your people” and stay relevant in the conversation.
It was equal parts awful and amazing. I say awful because I am not, and have never been, a person that enjoyed social media. I gave up Facebook and all the others big names years ago. It felt gross trying to sell myself and my personal work in hopes of someone subscribing, but hey, my day job was not so different so might as well!
I could feel the creep of social media’s addictiveness taking over. Who’s reading my work? Who’s subscribing to it? Why didn’t this person like this part? Was it not as good as the last? I need to reach my subscriber goal! How can I accomplish this? What changes will draw more people to read my work? And on and on and on and on and on and on.
Then one day, I see a note about Sci-Friday from
. What’s this? Someone not selling a get-subscribers-quick scheme, bragging about their metrics, or posting LinkedIn level cringe. No, something fun for people to just talk about and celebrate sci-fi. Hell yeah, count me in! Wait, its weekly?! Now your talking!And that was it. I was shown that it was that simple to gather people together in a shared space that left everything else at the door.
Not even a month after joining in on the Sci-Friday fun, the idea to start a day like this for horror was fresh in my mind. And so I took the leap, but first I needed a name. Terrifying Tuesday! Hmm, nah. Maybe Sinister Saturday would work…eh, it’s the weekend and people are less active. Wait, what is generally considered the most haunting…the most daunting day of the week? Monday. Macabre Monday. That’s it!
Thus Macabre Monday was born.
Man, the early days were something. Some of you were there, so you know. Everything was on Notes, people were joining much more quickly than I anticipated and the tagging list went from less than 10 to over 30 within a month. People were taking this serious and dedicating their Mondays to it. It was awesome, but I felt a power behind this new movement. A power which I could wield to use in order to help out the community. It astounded me that I now had this influence. Me, just a normal dude, new father and very unpolished writer. (Why did y’all follow me into this again??)
I needed to do more than just let this be a shadow of what it could be. And so the newsletter was ushered into existence through a collaboration with someone you all have come to know and love—
. She mentioned having a fun little contest with the members of Macabre Monday. The theme? Liminal Spaces. I thought it was a fantastic idea and I pitched the idea of working together on this. Wicked Writing had been born and the first contest launched. It goes without saying that I was rather quick in asking Maya to join in on the team officially, it was a no-brainer.New ideas came quickly as long as I asked myself, “how would this benefit the community?”. Meet the Maniac provided a much needed look into members of our community both serving to promote their name and work. The Cemetery was created around the same ideals, but allowed everyone to join in to promote themselves. I would be lying if I said that
did not inspire me with his project called “The Pitch”.The first month of the newsletter concluded with the results of the first Wicked Writing and I really realized that I could not do this alone. Not if I wanted Macabre Monday to reach the potential that I knew it had. The winner of the first contest,
proved to me he was an absolute unit of a creative force and I couldn’t help but ask for him to join. Thinking back, there are so many fantastic pieces of art of different mediums that he killed it with. My favorite being the Dinner Party. For those of you that do not know, that entire project was mostly Jon. floated around Macabre Monday during its origin, always kind, always engaging with others, always tagging and so she was the next victim. If not for her organization efforts Macabre Monday would have floundered after that first month. She has held everything together in the background and I owe her so much. Her journey with Macabre Monday has come to an end as well.Another one of the top 5 in the first contest,
, showed me how much he cared about lifting up other authors with his notes and proved he had quite a bit of knowledge of publishing. Without him the anthology likely would not have happened, or at least not been nearly as professionally polished as it was.More than anything, I am happy to not only call these amazing souls part of the Macabre Monday team, but my friends.
Since officially creating the team we have all tirelessly worked at improving and refining Macabre Monday in order for it to be the best it can be for the community. I cannot express in words how well I think we accomplished this.
The experience you just read about when I started Substack doesn’t exist anymore for fiction writers. That may not be entirely because of Macabre Monday but we had a large hand in changing that and I could not be any more thankful for that. Allowing fledgling authors to easily find a way to their community means the world to me.
I think the best thing to come from Sci-Friday and Macabre Monday was inspiring others to fill the rest of the week with themes. Now, whether you are a seasoned professional, a published author, a hobbyist or new writer you have the means to connect with a vast community with untold resources and support within your chosen genre. That was the dream, and now it is reality.
That is why this farewell is so bittersweet.
I accomplished the vision I set out to achieve with Macabre Monday, yet I had so much more to give and create. Alas, all good things must come to an end sometime.
Without going into too much detail, on top of an already rough year, I received a rather devastating medical diagnosis earlier this month. The future, my future, is now unknown. I no longer have the time or energy to put forth into Macabre Monday. It now has to be focused on my health and family. Essentially, I am retiring from Substack. Possibly permanently, but at the least for the foreseeable future.
Maya, Jon and John have decided to keep Macabre Monday going but things will not remain the same. Changes are coming and I hope that you all welcome this new beginning as but another chapter in the amazing book that is Macabre Monday. Maybe one day a future chapter will see my return, but we will just have to see.
Don’t expect me to just disappear. I may be around now and then on notes and I still am talking to the team about what they are doing. I’m just no longer part of making it all happen or writing the weekly newsletters. I’ll be cheering you all on from the background, hoping you all accomplish the goals you set out to achieve when you joined Substack.
Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for everything. I’ve never felt such sense of belonging. I’ve never had the chance to inspire or help others on this level. I’ve never experienced anything like this in life.
Much Love,
Jeff
(P.S. the best memory I have of Substack is hands down everything relating to The Suff. Thank you all for taking it and running absolutely wild with it.)
A special thank you to the ones that had more than a little impact on my journey here:
Jeff, prayers abound. You're a pillar of the community, no doubt, and it will take some adjusting for the rest of us to bear the weight of your absence. Take whatever time you need--uncertainty is a scary thing, it's hard to be more macabre than that. But you took an idea (themed days) and turned it into an institution (THIS THING RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW). You've got a lot to be proud of, and this community has a lot of reasons to be grateful for you. Thank you for all you have done and--no doubt--will continue to do.
We're going to miss you. It is an honor to be mentioned in that list of fine people, and it is a real blessing to have been able to share this journey with you in one form or another.
Please don't be a stranger. This is "see you later" and not "goodbye". But in the meantime--I'll be praying hard for you. God bless you, friend!
Oh Jeff, I'm so sorry to hear about this. It has been such a joy getting to know you here on this platform, and you'll definitely be leaving an empty space behind you that no one can truly fill.
You, my friend, are a force. That's never going to change. Thank you for everything you've done for fiction, for Substack, and for the lives you've touched through Macabre Monday. You created something truly beyond any of us, and it's showing no signs of stopping!
Stay spooky, and (if you'll permit me) I'm praying for this next chapter, for you and for your family. You are loved!