DargonZine
Volume 11, Number 10 |
Distributed: 12/19/1998
Circulation: 679 |
 |
DargonZine is the publication vehicle of the
Dargon Project, a collaborative group of aspiring fantasy writers on the
Internet. We welcome new readers and writers interested in joining the
project. Please address all correspondance to
<dargon@shore.net>
or visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.shore.net/~dargon. Back
issues are available from
ftp.shore.net
in members/dargon/. Issues and public discussion are posted to newsgroup
rec.mag.dargon.
DargonZine 11-10, ISSN 1080-9910, (C) Copyright December, 1998
by the Dargon Project. Editor: Ornoth D.A. Liscomb
<ornoth@shore.net>,
Assistant Editor: Jon Evans
<godling@mnsinc.com>.
All rights reserved. All rights are reassigned to the individual
contributors. Stories and artwork appearing herein may not be reproduced
or redistributed without the explicit permission of their creators, except
in the case of freely reproducing entire issues for further distribution.
Reproduction of issues or any portions thereof for profit is forbidden.
|
Editorial
What a difference a year makes!
About this time each year I take stock of how the previous year
went, and take the opportunity to articulate goals for the coming year.
On December 14th 1997 I wrote a lengthy post to our writers, summarizing
how I felt 1997 had gone. Although it was a spectacular year and we
printed 26 stories in eight issues, my biggest criticism was that
despite printing all those stories, we only printed one new writer.
That's a particularly aggregious shortcoming, because, as I alluded to
in the Editorial for DargonZine 11-5, our mission is to reach out to
aspiring new writers and help them improve their writing.
As a response, in that same posting I articulated that our number
one goal for 1998 should be publishing stories from six to eight new
writers. Now, at the end of the year, I can take great pleasure in
saying that with the publication of this issue, we will have introduced
you to seven new writers this year. And perhaps you can appreciate the
pride I feel when I announce that this particular issue contains *only*
new writers -- the first time this has happened since we began printing
Dargon stories back in 1986!
Contrary to what you might assume, we didn't recruit more writers
in order to make this happen. The biggest reason for this amazing
turnaround has been the mentoring program which we established this
spring. When new writers join our writing group, they not only have to
learn how the group works, but also have to come to terms with a massive
body of previously-printed material which constrains what they can
portray in their stories. Having a partner to turn to who knows the
group, how it works, and what will fly takes much of the frustration out
of getting up to speed, and helps new writers produce viable stories
faster.
Before our mentoring program went into effect, a new writer might
be with the group for a frustrating year or more before their first
story would appear in our pages. A testament to how well the mentoring
program has worked is that of the three new writers to appear in this
issue, one has been with us five months, one four, and one just three
months!
So now that you understand why this is a big deal, let me introduce
our newest faces! First up is Rena Deutsch, who begins a compelling
series of stories about an abandoned young girl. Next is Jon Ballinger,
who also prints the first chapter in a planned series dealing with his
characters. And we close with Cheryl Spooner, who introduces us to some
interesting new characters she will be following in future stories.
However, Cheryl has already completed her next work, which is an
unrelated standalone piece that should follow closely on the heels of
this one.
So join me in welcoming these three new writers who have recently
joined us, and in celebrating all of the aspiring writers who have
contributed the works that made this such a banner year for the Dargon
Project.
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