Call for Moderators

[Dan]

I have never created and moderated a successful Goodreads group and am not certain I know how to. I'll give it my best shot here, but I would certainly welcome assistance, especially if you already moderate another group or have previous experience at Goodreads as a successful moderator. If you're interested, please shoot me a message through Goodreads. I'll leave this call for moderators up only as long as I am seeking one; so if you're reading this I'm still interested in having a co-moderator. Thanks!

[Scott]

I don't have a lot of experience either, but I'd be willing to help out.

[Dan]

Thank you for volunteering Scott. You are now co-moderator of the Werewolves group. You may update your resume and list me as a reference!

Two areas I could use some help on. We have eight members so far. There has to be more than eight people on this planet of 7 billion or so with an interest in reading about werewolves. Do you have any ideas how to bring members in?

Check out our videos section. In most groups, I would not attach much importance to the video section. However, in our werewolf group I think the video section hugely important. We have no Bram Stoker writing the key book for our monster. Much of the lore that sets up the werewolf comes from films. That's why I put up as many of those 30's and 40's classics as I could. I want to add only complete films though. I'm not a big fan of finding 12-minute part 1, followed by 12-minute part 2, etc.

As co-moderator you can now add as many werewolf films as you want. If you think of a way to better arrange and describe our video section to make it even more accessible and useful, go for it. No pressure though. Just if you're interested in working on that section of our group.

Anything else that you can think of to do that would be fun, useful, or interest-generating, feel free to do and/or discuss. Thanks again for volunteering!

[Scott]

Thanks for the promotion! I'll see what I can do. I don't know of too many public domain werewolf movies, though.

I invited a few people. We could always post in other groups, I suppose.

[Pamellia]

I know I am not a moderator, but I would like to comment on the size of this group.

I am in several groups on Goodreads from probably well in the thousands to a small horror group of 18. The 18 member is my favorite group. This is where my dearest friends are. I have learned so much from that group, authors I love that I would never had known walked the face of the earth. We are friends there and have some similar interests and uphold one another. If someone in the group beings to never come around, then the moderator sends them a PM to see if they are still interested.

So I don't expect this group to ever be like that group, but I think there are advantages to a smaller group. If we just keep things going, I think it will grow. Sometime we might see another reader that we learn is interested in our genre and we could invite them to join.

I look forward to some good discussion. However I am not as eloquent in putting my thoughts into words as you two seem to be.

[Scott]

A little more activity would be nice, but I agree that smaller tends to be better.

[Dan]

The size of the group is one of those things I have decided I can't control. I therefore determined to find the wisdom not to worry about it. I hope you are right Pamellia, that we just grow into a small-to-medium tight-knit group of werewolf story lovers. I'm just doing what I can to make lycanthropy as fun an experience for me and others as I can.

By the way Scott, I am really grateful you decided to help moderate this group and really impressed by your contributions in responding to posts. I'm also loving your suggested summer read now that I'm approaching 100 pages in. This author would have to mess up some not to eventually get five stars from me.

I wonder if my two nominations might be too heavy on the horror for most readers. If so, hopefully another nomination will win.

1981 was THE YEAR for werewolf films. May we ever have another year as rich! Besides films based on these two books I nominated, my favorite werewolf film of all time debuted in the Fall of that year: An American Werewolf in London. It was the only 1981 werewolf film not based on a novel. I've seen the film many times, though the first time or two was a bit too scary for me. The romance (the leading lady was so appealing), humor, horror, local moorish atmosphere, and special effects all blended in unbelievable aesthetic balance to my tastes. They still do. I trace my love of lycanthropy to that film.

[Scott]

Thanks, Dan. I am happy to be involved. And I am glad you're enjoying the book now!

I am fine with horror. I would think that most werewolf fiction would fall under that category, anyway.

[Pamellia]

I don't mind horror as long as it supports the story. However having said that, in about a month my puppy and I will be returning to our home up north deep in the forest. It's just we two (us two, hmm, can't think at 2 am) and I will not be reading anything there that might possibly scare me.

If you had ask me just 5 years ago about werewolf stories, I would have said, not so much. But in these past few years every werewolf story I have read I've enjoyed! I was always a vampire gal. But I simply enjoy well written books these days and certainly lean towards horror.