Macabre Monday Announcement

A Small Change to the Newsletter

Photo by Michael Mouritz on Unsplash

Happy Monday ghouls!

Shaina Read and John Coon here - for those of you who don’t know, John and I are the grave tenders at this Macabre corner of Substack. We have spent the better part of a year (maybe two?) keeping the lights on at MM, but over the past few months, we have found ourselves struggling to keep up.

Writing weekly articles on top of reading through each week’s stories and posts, along with curating special features is proving difficult in the midst of everyday life things (dogs, kids, jobs, personal newsletters and writing) the two of us are dealing with day to day. For that reason, we have decided to switch things up.

John and I got together to talk through what we want to provide the community, as well as what would be a realistic schedule for the both of us to write articles and contribute, and here is what we decided.

We’re making a small shift to the format of the newsletter.

Macabre Monday has always been about giving horror writers on Substack a community. It provides a place to find readers and be recognized for the work you all are putting out each week. The weekly mentions have been a big part of that, and we want to keep that momentum going.

What we’re changing is the structure.

Instead of pairing a weekly written post with the shout-outs, we’re moving toward a format that feels a little more like a digital horror zine.

Weekly posts will focus on recognizing writers and highlighting work from the community through a few consistent sections:

• New Voices – Writers who are new to the community or posting for the first time

• Featured – Standout stories or writers we want to highlight that week

• Published – Community members with recently published work in magazines, anthologies, or books

In addition, we’ll be introducing a monthly feature article. These will be more editorial in nature, something closer to a zine piece than a quick post. Expect essays, horror commentary, themed pieces, and possibly even featured art (calling all you artists out there).

The goal is to keep the weekly recognition of writers while also creating space for more thoughtful and creative features once a month.

We’re excited about the shift and the opportunity to shape the newsletter into something that feels a little more like a small horror magazine built around the community.

Thanks for writing each week and keeping things rolling!

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Have a book that you want featured in our Published section? Drop us a line! Be sure to include your name, the work(s) you want featured, and links to your books. We’ll add your book to a living section of this newsletter, and be sure to feature your works in our weekly posts!