My Dear Readers, I will, once again, apologize for my absence on this site. Between my musical theater teaching commitments and my anxiety being one hell of a liar, I have been unable to allocate time and energy to writing, period. I love what I do at Sketchy Details and would not give it up for the world.

With that said, I will be changing the format of the site. This is a good thing for everyone, believe me.

You can now expect one long form, well-researched and planned, post every Friday. I always want to devote as much time as possible to quality work in everything I do. Spreading out my work load throughout the week, rather than rushing for five posts a week and feeling tremendous guilt and shame when I miss a post, will improve the consistency and quality of the site.

Media criticism is a passion project and has been for the past 12 years of this site's various incarnations. I, at best, break even on hosting and tech expenses. True, I've picked up many other gigs over the years through Sketchy Details, but they almost always end the same way--editorial disagreement and my dismissal. If I had a nickel for every time a game site dumped me for praising the wrong title. Sigh. So political.

The ones that let me carry on with whatever strain of academic criticism and social commentary I want are, without exception, non-paying gigs. Regular entertainment writing jobs are elusive when you refuse to just dish out snark, bland praise, or dull rage. I don't get joy out of snark like I used to, and I think readers want more nuance than best/worst ever.

Now, I will be expanding my social media presence, posting more timely reactions and content on Twitter (@robertjgannon), Instagram (@robertjgannon) and Snapchat (@robertjgannon). I will be experimenting with new video formats on my YouTube page (@writingsketch) and livestreams on Twitch (@otherrobert). I'm also taking the summer off from traveling to various conventions. I will spend that time planning new panels, producing items to sell, and scheduling new appearances starting in the fall.

Thank you for your years of loyal readership. I started Sketchy Details to fill what I saw as a void in the quality of online media criticism. Now there are quite a few people willing to put hours upon hours into a review of an obscure indie genre film and we're all better off for that. Yet you continue to come here, and I can never fully express my appreciation for that.

--Robert Gannon