"How can I help?"

In some ways, I've been with Lemon Difficult since day one. 

I've always enjoyed theater (immersive and otherwise), weird fiction, the occult, mysteries, interactive live games, historical costuming, and a good meal. So when I first heard about 'The Locksmith's Dream' in 2022 I nearly hit the ceiling. It was like someone was describing my perfect vacation. Having just presented my research on asylums in the works of H.P. Lovecraft at Necronomicon, I was elbow deep in the weird, both at work and in my off-time.

My husband Eric and I doing nearby touristy things after enjoying a weekend at Treowen.

Thanks to a lovely partner and the flexible schedule of online teaching, I found myself getting lost in the Welsh backroads before I knew how I'd gotten there! It was the first Beta weekend for ‘Locksmith's Dream’ and I had made it! All too quickly it was over and I found myself incessantly chattering about it to anyone who would listen. I talked about how thrilling and luxurious it was! More than once I was asked if I worked for the people who made it (foreshadowing).

Once I was back home in the States I was, again, incessantly chattering about the show to anyone who would listen. "It's in a great big manor house in Wales and there are actors and a formal dinner and everything!" Working in academia alongside demographers and ecologists, I spent a lot of time learning how to describe Treowen, 'Locksmith', and weird fiction in general to people who usually don't engage in that particular “dark mystery” milieu. Turns out knowing how to describe their shows would become a marketable skill.

The yearbook-style postcard that I took around at the end of the LD beta. Everyone was so kind!

The following year a Locksmith's Ball was announced and I emailed, asking if returners were welcome - of course they were! I eagerly returned to that beta event and then again to the much anticipated beta for Lemon Difficult's new show 'The Key of Dreams'. The incessant chattering from me could be heard at a thousand yards at that point and again I was asked if I worked for the folks making the show (more foreshadowing). 

While I'd had a fair few chats with Laura and Ivan over the years and had come to call them friends outside of the show, I was surprised when they reached out with the offer of a job! They know that I know and love the shows they create and I'd always told them I'd be happy to help however I could if they ever needed someone. Well they did need someone! Keeping track of so many moving parts and trying to make the best use of the time they have to do both creative and mundane work is no small feat. 

That's where I come in, they told me. Handling guest feedback and building better tools to collect and interpret that feedback, consulting on social media trends and marketing tactics, and doing project coordination to keep all those moving parts running smoothly on their calendars can go a long way to let them do what they need to do - write and run the show! It isn't unusual for social scientists with training in quantitative and qualitative methods to use those skillsets in business settings, but I doubt that too many of us get to do so on projects that involve eldritch terrors and 17th century manors. 

Unrelated to the article, I just really like this pic of these two

I come from (and still happily reside in) Appalachia, a mountain region in the eastern US. It's a place known for howls in the hills, strange shadows and strange lights, and a truly impressive number of cryptids, along with the folk stories that accompany them. Making sense of the uncanny and mysterious is in my nature. I told the Lemon Difficult team after my first visit that I'm so glad they're making weird and wonderful things. The only way weird and wonderful art continues to exist is if it receives support and I want to support this work the best that I can.

I couldn't be more pleased, or more grateful, to join the Lemon Difficult team.