make me a monster
march zine of the month
It’s Saturday. Let’s doodle and get a little weird.
For much of the drafting and revising of my book Homebound1, I’ve talked about it as my “novel-creature.” The playful moniker undercut any intimidating seriousness — I wasn’t writing a Novel, I was playing with a novel-creature.
Too, I imagined the book as a chimera, the multiple narrators and timelines wriggling around, tugging at their shared body.
Homebound continues to feel like a many-headed creature.
I could tell you:
“It’s about a queer teen in the 1980’s who codes computer games to deal with the death of her favorite uncle,” and that would be true.
But I could also tell you, “It’s about a 26th century pirate, on a desperate mission to save her only crew member,” and that would also be true.
Or I could say, “It’s about a lonely, immortal robot on a quest to find another like them.”
Or I could say, “It’s about an astronaut, far from home, slipping through time as she tries to save a ship full of sleeping passengers.”
All true! 2 I am fond of wriggly monsters.
Anyway, this month’s zine is all about monsters you can make at home. It requires only doodling and a willingness to be a little silly.
Inspired by my love of chimeras and an exercise I’ve done with my middle schoolers, the zine contains five blobs ready for you to adopt.
Give them names, write down their likes and dislikes, help them come to life. And I’d love to meet your monsters, when you’re done — you can share them with me over on Instagram @portiaelanwrites or over email (portiaelanwrites@gmail.com).
I feel delighted by my little monsters! Look at them, being excellent weirdos!
Until next time —
-Portia (aka, Dr. Crow Lordenstein, cryptozoologist)
Coming Spring 2026 from Scribner! It’s not on Goodreads yet, so all I can say, really, is to subscribe here for updates!
I am suddenly remembering a book I had as a kid — the internet tells me it was this exquisite flip-flap book, Croc-gu-phant — where you can flip the heads, torsos, and legs separately to create hundreds of different chimera creatures! Did you have a book like this? And if I ordered this book, could I call it “research”…?
