Ahem! May I have your attention, please?

Yes, very well. Ah—hello!

My name is McKenzie Johnston and you are now citizens of my duchy. I’m a member of the Apex Publications team and will be taking over management of the Apex Patreon and its associated Discord! We have big changes coming to Patreon, so I encourage you to start checking here often to see what’s happening!

Before I dive into the details, I request your patience while I provide a bit of personal background. Some of you may already recognize my name—or even know me quite well. I’ve been with Apex a little over a decade as an on-again, off-again . . . associate? My first Apex assignment was as a slush reader for Apex Magazine many moons ago. I’ve worked convention booths, helped with the website, made promotional graphics, and have contributed web content once in a while. I edited Geoffrey Girard’s collection first communions and helped edit Alex Livingston’s Glitch Rain. I’ve even done a little financial work, random author interviews, and other miscellaneous tasks over the years. I’m the kid with fingers in every pie—I wash my hands first, at least! So, if you’ve been around Apex for a long time, you may have seen me in the periphery. I’m back again and am elbows deep in the Apex Patreon now.

Educationally, I received a BA in Spanish and English (Creative Writing emphasis). I took so many mythology classes that they threw in a minor in religious studies, too. For graduate school, I earned my M.A. in linguistics and am intently eyeing a PhD. And then there’s my professional life. I’m a dabbler. I’ve dispatched for 9-1-1, I’ve taught (and am currently teaching college), I’ve been a journalist, I’ve worked at restaurants, I’ve run a children’s museum. I write horror, too. I want to collect new experiences in every corner of my life, and every interaction with the fine people on the Apex Patreon will help to continue growing the robustness of my strange little world.

Now we come to the part where I tell you what to expect from me here. I’m not about patterns. I don’t like to get stuck in doing the same thing over and over. The first thing you can expect from our revamped Patreon is that it will be fresh. Don’t worry, people who do like patterns. There will be cycles, and your familiar things aren’t going away. But I want to bring in interesting, engaging new facets to this Patreon that I think most of our backers will enjoy.

Each quarter (and maybe more often . . . we’ll see) we will feature an Apex book and its author. First up will be the Stoker Award-winning Tim Waggoner and his new novella Some Kind of Monster. We’ll be posting a lot of content on Patreon about Waggoner and about the book (no spoilers though!), and at the end we hope you will all have had time to read it and discuss on the Discord server.

Also, keep an eye out here for special events—anyone want to play Phasmophobia or Among Us with the Apex crew?—and announcements. Want to make editor-in-chief Jason Sizemore break into a full-tilt gamer rage? Make managing editor Lesley Conner throw her joystick? Those opportunities are coming, friends.

Don’t forget to sign up here on Patreon to support everything we do.  A $1 a month pledge nets you access to most of our Patreon content, events, and Discord. Anything $2 and greater nets you fantastic issues of Apex Magazine and Apex Books.

I will make this a fun and vibrant Patreon community. Don’t miss out. Join us if you can!