DargonZine
Volume 16, Number 1 |
Distributed: 3/21/2003
Circulation: 682 |
 |
DargonZine is the publication vehicle of The
Dargon Project, Inc., 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@dargonzine.org>
or visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.dargonzine.org/, or our FTP site at
ftp://users.primushost.com/members/d/a/dargon/.
Issues and public discussion are posted to newsgroup
rec.mag.dargon.
DargonZine 16-1, ISSN 1080-9910, (C) Copyright March, 2003
by The Dargon Project, Inc. Editor: Ornoth D.A. Liscomb
<ornoth@rcn.com>,
Assistant Editor: Jon Evans
<godling@covad.net>.
DargonZine is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial
License. This license allows you to make and distribute
unaltered copies of DargonZine, complete with the original attributions
of authorship, so long as it is not used for commercial purposes.
Reproduction of issues or any portions thereof for profit is forbidden.
To view a detailed copy of this license, please visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0 or send a letter to
Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford CA, 94305 USA.
|
Editorial
anuary and February always seem to be a fallow time for us. In the
preceding months, our writers often set aside their writing and
critiquing in order to celebrate winter's seasonal holidays, and the
first thing we do when we return is to sit back and set our goals for
the coming year. That means that we usually don't have very much
material to print until well after the new year has begun. There's
always a longer than usual lag between our last December issue and our
first issue of the new year. However, during the twelve weeks since the
publication of DargonZine 15-11, we've done a whole lot of work, and I'd
like to share some of the changes with you.
The biggest announcement is that DargonZine has finally been
incorporated. While this might not sound like a big deal, incorporating
opens several doors for us. It will allow us to apply for funding from
various grants for the arts, and open bank accounts under the
organization's name. The official set of bylaws that we were required to
develop will ensure the stability of the group, even if something should
happen to the editorial staff. We are presently in the process of
applying for nonprofit status, which means that any financial
contributions from our writers and readers will be tax deductible. It
should also assure everyone that we aren't running the magazine to make
money for ourselves.
Speaking of contributions, there's now a link on our home page that
will allow you to donate money to DargonZine using the popular and safe
transaction service provided by PayPal. Over the years, readers have
occasionally expressed a desire to help the zine in some fashion, and
we've decided to give this method a try. If you want to help us defray
the costs of attracting new writers and running our Web site, we
encourage you to use this facility. If you're not interested, don't
worry about it. Donations will never be required, and we aren't going to
harass you to contribute. DargonZine will always be entirely free and
noncommercial.
The costs for running DargonZine have gone up a little this year
because in January we began placing ads for DargonZine on the Google
search engine. Our longtime readers will know we hate advertising of any
kind, but we had to finally admit that we needed to find a better way to
get the word out about the magazine. In the past few years, we haven't
been very effective at letting people know about DargonZine, so we
decided to test whether ads on Google would bring in more readers and a
cadre of new writers. Nine weeks later, the ads are definitely working,
so we're continuing to run them. An enthusiastic welcome goes out to the
dozen or two new readers who discovered us through those ads. Thanks for
taking the time to check us out, and we hope you enjoy the zine!
You might overlook two more changes that are hidden in our issue
masthead, which appears above. The first one, of course, is that we now
describe ourselves as "The Dargon Project, Inc.", but there's a second
item that is yet another significant development for us. We are now
releasing DargonZine under the terms of a license developed by the
Creative Commons corporation. Creative Commons gives artists an easy yet
reliable way to tell the world that the artist permits certain uses of
his or her work, while prohibiting other uses. DargonZine, in
particular, will allow people to copy and distribute our stories, but
only if they are distributed as entire unmodified issues, the original
authorship attributions are kept, and no commercial gain is made. For
specific details about Creative Commons or our use thereof, see our
masthead, above, and the link to Creative Commons.
One change that you're sure to notice in this issue is the addition
of a new illustrator. David Nelson, a 34 year-old graphic artist from
Houston has volunteered to illustrate our issues free of charge. Loyal
readers will know that our new stories have been devoid of artwork since
longtime writer and illustrator Carlo Samson left the project a year
ago. Although he doesn't aspire to write for us, David is an
enthusiastic reader, and his illustrations will definitely bring life to
our stories. We hope that our partnership is rewarding for him and lasts
for quite some time.
I'm proud to start the year by announcing so many positive changes.
Things have looked a little rough around here lately, with readership
slowly declining, a reduced number of writers, and correspondingly fewer
stories to print. However, as you can see, we are putting thought, time,
effort, and money into fixing those problems and making DargonZine better
than ever. All these
changes are just the beginning of a bunch of improvements and lots more
good news that I look forward to sharing with you in the months to come.
Thank you for your interest and your support, and I hope our stories
continue to entertain and delight you as we begin our unequalled 19th
year on the Internet.
We open this year with two exceptional stories. The first is
brought to us by Victor Cardoso, whom you should remember from last
year's haunting "Jakob Sings of Monstrous Things". His new work,
entitled "For the Love of Amante" is another masterful tale of wonder
and mystery. It also ties in with the series of recent stories that
relate to Dave Fallon and P. Atchley's "Heir to Castigale" storyline.
The balance of the issue contains the sixth and final part of
"Talisman Nine". As the name implies, this six-part story is itself the
ninth chapter (well, actually tenth) of a very long ongoing storyline
that began back in February 1999 in DargonZine 12-1. Dafydd, its author,
has been with DargonZine since 1986, and is our single most prolific
writer, having printed over fifty stories in these pages. Although this
part completes another chapter, "Talisman Nine" still isn't the end of
the larger "Talisman" story arc. Still, everything is starting to come
together, and like you, I'm very anxious to see the text for the
much-anticipated "Talisman Ten", which Dafydd hopes to produce this
year.
It also looks like our next issue is beginning to come together, as
well, so you shouldn't have quite as long a wait for DargonZine 16-2.
All I'll say about it right now is that you can look forward to the
first piece from a brand new and gifted Dargon writer! With that, I'll
leave you to enjoy this issue and the excellent works these two Dargon
veterans have crafted for you.
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