What’s Going on With Gecko Time?

Five and a half years, 305 articles published weekly.  No, we’re not “going under” but our priorities and publication schedule have changed.

Gecko Time has successfully published weekly articles since March of 2009.  Under the stewardship of Aliza Arzt and Matthew Kammerer, Gecko Time has produced a wide range of gecko related articles including breeder interviews, DIY project descriptions, field herping reports, species profiles and care descriptions, medical articles, feature stories about specific geckos, gecko art and many others.  Some of my particular favorites include an article published on American Independence Day about geckos native to the US, the entire “Three to Get Ready” series, and the wonderful leopard gecko morph articles written by Rebecca Hassler of Dragoon Gecko.  Check the Archives page for a complete listing of all our articles with links.

Although Matt and Aliza have written a number of the articles, Gecko Time’s strength has always been the willingness of novices and experts within the hobby to write entire articles, or to collaborate with others by submitting a part of an article.  There have been many times where Gecko Time has had articles scheduled several months in advance.

Where we are Now

This weekly pace has been difficult to sustain.  I’m amazed we’ve sustained it for so long!  Lately, however, we have not been able to publish weekly, for a number of reasons:

♦ The absence of an article series:  being able to devote 1 or 2 weeks of the month’s articles to a regular series makes it much easier to maintain a full schedule of articles.  We had several series, including Three to Get Ready and Breeder Chronicles that ran for over a year.  We have not been able to come up with another series with that kind of longevity.

♦  Finding things to say:  Although there are always interesting things to say about geckos, as more information gets written, it gets harder to find new and interesting things to write about, though a look below at the plans and suggestions will show you that we’re not done yet!

♦ Living our lives: Believe it or not, Matt and Aliza do other things besides produce Gecko Time.  Matt moved from Boston to Georgia this past September and is currently fulfilling his travel dreams with an extended stay in Costa Rica.  Aliza remains at home in the Boston area with many irons in the fire, including the recent production of a 418 page prayer book in 2 languages.  As much as we love Gecko Time, other aspects of our lives have taken over to an extent.

♦ Finding people to write:  We have a core of people who have generously given of their time to contribute to articles by responding to questions we’ve emailed them.  There are fewer people willing to actually write an entire article.  The strength of Gecko Time has always been the variety of perspectives and opinions we include, as opposed to a magazine written entirely by one or two people.

What’s Coming Up

Gecko Time will continue to publish, just not every week.  We have some very interesting articles planned and will publish them as soon as we receive them.  Upcoming articles include:

♦ Several installments of “Leopard Geckos for Dummies” written by a prominent breeder

♦ A perspective of 20 years of breeding geckos written by a different prominent breeder

♦ A review of the newest book about leopard geckos (The Leopard Gecko Advisor by Ray Roehner)

♦ An instructive article about photographing reptiles in the field

♦ An article translated from the French about a rare gecko species

Articles We Would Like to Publish

There are a few articles that we’ve been looking forward to publishing but haven’t been able to find the individual or group to write them.  Here are a few articles that are looking for authors:

♦ A series of short essays by kids (aged 10-15 or so) about their geckos.  We have submissions by 2 children, and need at least 3 more for this to be viable.  We do have specific questions, which are available on request, to guide their writing.

♦ An interview with a cricket or mealworm supplier.  We had identified someone who was interested, but he seems to have faded back into the woodwork.

♦ A review and explanation of recent changes in gecko taxonomy, new gecko species and how they are identified and named.

If you are able to help with these articles, or if you have ideas for other articles (especially if it’s something you’d like to write about),  please send a comment to let us know and one of us will be in touch with you to see what we can work out.

We are hoping to have the next Gecko Time article available soon, and to keep publishing, albeit at a decreased frequency, for many years to come.