DargonZine
Volume 13, Number 2 |
Distributed: 2/18/2000
Circulation: 711 |
 |
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 correspondence to
<dargon@shore.net>
or visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.dargonzine.org/. Back
issues are available from
ftp.shore.net
in members/dargon/. Issues and public discussion are posted to newsgroup
rec.mag.dargon.
DargonZine 13-2, ISSN 1080-9910, (C) Copyright February, 2000
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
argonZine's purpose since day one has been to help amateur writers
improve. Back when the magazine began, I didn't really know what I was
looking for, but I knew that I wanted to be able to exchange ideas,
techniques, and works with other writers. I also knew that the Internet
was a tool with awesome potential for communication between people. What
I didn't know was that I was looking for the same things as other
aspiring writers: a community of like-minded writers and a place to
publish my works. Since there were no such things on the Internet at
that time, I started both a community and a publishing outlet, and
(fortunately) they flourished. But still I remember very clearly being a
solitary writer with no way to reach an audience and no one to turn to
for critiques, support, mentoring, or understanding.
Thanks to the Internet, DargonZine can provide those things to
writers who otherwise might not have a place to publish or other writers
to work with. That's why I always feel a lot of satisfaction and pride
when I can welcome new writers to the ranks of those who have had
stories published in DargonZine. Recruiting new writers not only helps
our magazine thrive and grow, but is an integral part of our mission to
support and encourage aspiring writers. Surprisingly, that's something
we lost sight of for a while. After a strong initial start, as
DargonZine matured we settled down with a core group of writers. As the
world of Dargon became more and more detailed and complex, we never made
much of an effort to find new writers or help those who joined get
ramped up on the environment. It took a long time for us to notice, but
we were floored when we finally looked back on the nine years from 1989
through 1997 and discovered that we had printed only thirteen new
writers -- barely one new writer per year!
We all knew that this was a serious problem. If we couldn't attract
and support new writers, the magazine would soon fold. After that
realization, the group made a huge effort to recruit, support, and
mentor new writers. We began asking for feedback about why new writers
left the project, and what would make things better for those who
stayed. We gave new writers more information about the milieu, better
reference tools, more story ideas to key off, better writing guidelines,
and mentors to support them. Everyone has helped, and those efforts have
paid off wonderfully. Since then we have printed thirteen new writers;
in just two years we've welcomed as many new writers as we'd printed in
the previous nine years combined!
And in this issue I am delighted to introduce you to two new
writers -- Nicholas Wansbutter
and Victor Cardoso -- who joined us last
fall. Nick is a student in Winnipeg, and his debut is the first of a
three-part series that will run in the next couple issues. Victor is the
son of Portuguese expats and lives and works in Ann Arbor. Be sure to
congratulate them on getting their first stories through DargonZine's
lengthy peer-review process!
We're very pleased to welcome them, as well as all the other
writers who have joined our ranks in the past two years. The influx of
new blood has enlivened our discussions and rejuvenated the project, and
reinforced the importance of welcoming and supporting our new writers.
And that's something we should never lose sight of again.
Return to Table of Contents
