[Editorial] Editor’s Note: Humbled by all of your support

Damn! How do I even go about beginning to describe how overwhelmed and humbled we have been with the support that has been shown? It has honestly been so incredible seeing the horror community support our project, and has acted as a reminder to just how many incredible people there are in this community and why I fell so ferociously in love with it in the first place. When setting up the project I hoped it would get a little bit of attention, but I certainly did not anticipate that it would have such a hugely positive response, and from so many people that I admire within the industry too!

We’ve been working so hard on this project for months, and to be honest it has been a bit of a sounding board throughout the shit show that has been the pandemic. During the winter months when here in the UK it’s felt like being isolated in an igloo made of despair and loneliness, Ghouls Magazine has been something keeping my mind busy and stopping me from overthinking too much about when I might actually get to hug another human being again. So releasing the baby into the world was a bit of a moment; it felt incredibly surreal. Of course, this wouldn’t have been possible without my partner, Emanuele Bellini, who put up with my stroppy moods and also built the entire website from scratch. He’s done an incredible job on making Ghouls Magazine look ultra slick and pretty. Also, I need to give a shoutout to Ben Errington from Blinded by Faith Designs for bringing my awful 5am sketches to life and also never once complaining when we constantly kept changing our mind about how the logo looked!

There is a huge, huge, huge thank you to the absolutely amazing Rebecca McCallum, our Assistant Editor, for being the most organised and on-it person I have ever had the pleasure of working with. If you ever need a bombass flowchart, spreadsheet or calendar created then  Rebecca is your woman for the job. She has worked her ass off on this project, and has always been there for me when I needed a second opinion. Rebecca truly is a talent in this project and continues to dedicate her spare time to making this project a reality, which means so much to me because I appreciate it does require a lot of extra dedication and time. I also have to thank her for never thinking I’m unprofessional when I turn up to our meetings half a bottle of wine down and glugging the other half whilst trying to make notes and discuss everything we have on our agenda… So thank you for not judging my borderline alcoholism! Keep being awesome babe!

Then we have the team… And my god, what a fucking team they are! Waking up in the morning and looking in our Whatsapp chat to see we’ve all just been suggesting movies and talking about the pretty snow really makes my day. These are people in the community that I have admired for a long time, and have been following their work just wondering how I could bring all these awesome voices together to make something amazing, and here we are. Our contributors are what make the site possible and every single one of them mean the world to me, it’s a constant pleasure being able to converse with them on a daily basis, and then read their intelligent and powerful insights on the horror genre - everytime I read something from one of our writers I feel like I’m learning something new and will look at a movie, TV show or book with a fresh and meaningful perspective. I would really encourage you to support all our individual writers where you can by following them on their social media sites and reading their articles on other sites too - they all write for some of the best horror outlets in the industry so make sure you consume as much as possible. 

I also want to say an enormous thank you to everyone that participated in the events we hosted on Saturday. Trust me when I say that hosting four events is tiring work, but they made my heart so full. Huge thanks to Rebecca, Becky Darke, Melissa Cox, Kim Morrison, Ariel Baska and Liz Bishop for joining me to discuss all things horror, that was super fucking fun. Then a massive thanks to the very inspiring Dani Bethea who kindly hosted the ‘Black Women’s Horror Panel’ in celebration of Black History Month in the US and also Women In Horror Month. We had a dream panel consisting of Xero Gravity, Kat & Jazz of Girl, That’s Scary! Podcast, Kyasia Fields, Zena Dixon and Chauncey Robinson. If there ever was a dream team, then that’s it. Then a shout to Rebecca for hosting the Women In Horror Quiz, which really put to shame a lot of our knowledge, but it was such a well-thought out quiz. Well done to Andrew Pope for putting us to shame with his knowledge and winning! Finally, thank you to everyone who joined me for our afterparty… That was hella fun! But please, someone discourage me next time when I suggest shots at 1am because the day after was not as fun. 

Then finally, it just comes back to you guys. If I could cover you all in red lipstick kisses, you know I would be doing it, but unfortunately that’s probably wildly inappropriate and given the fact COVID is still being a little bastard, I better refrain from doing that. But what I’m trying to say is essentially: THANK YOU. So fucking much. Your support with this endeavour has truly brought tears to my eyes, and that’s something even my therapist didn’t think was possible. Being able to connect with you all and see your support on this has just reminded me how much I love each and every single one of you all, and how much of an empowering, genuine and caring community this is. Horror fans get a lot of stick, but the truth is, horror fans are the most loyal and amazing people that exist on this planet and I’m truly honoured to be a part of this community with you all. 

Thanks for reading my gushing and gross essay, but I just really needed to share my appreciation for you all because you’re all just fucking awesome. 

Keep it ghoulish!

Z xoxo

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