Editorial

     At well over 2000 page views in two years of publication, we're making out better than the Mayan Codices, the scribblings on Tut's tomb or the Easter Island ciphers.  Nevertheless, I know my magazine computes pretty well.  There've been no complaints about it, the screen stays intact, and people report having found it.  Our listings with the search engines are in good order.  We get a lot of net contributers, no hassles to or from them, and are linked off some pretty good sites, and our letter column is at least better than that in the October 1934 issue of Amazing Stories.

     Another Net SF Magazine didn't fare so well, as you might know by checking out our link in the last issue.  Regrettably, Revelations SF suffered a computer crash, and its staff was unable to restore the site.  They had a good thing going, regardless of the assault upon them in the F&SF Forum, and it just shows what can happen.  I am glad to be able to show you, our readers etc., that we are still afloat.

     Other Net Magazines have been rather kind to us.  Gateway made Surprising its site of the month for about a month, Bewildering has made a lot of references to us, and Speculative Fiction Reviews gave us a cautious okay, reviewing stories in our May issue by Lou Antonelli, Steve Bomkamp and Roberto Sanhueza with a lot of interest and enthusiasm.  Said the reviewer, Patrick Samphire, “Surprising Stories shows a good range of  stories of both science fiction and fantasy.  It's well worth a read.”

     This is the end of our second year of publication and the beginning of the third year of it.  You can find several earlier issues in our limited annals, but the first three need indexing here, for the benefit of any researchers there might be. (We can make these issues available to researchers on CD, but the system does not support our maintenance of a complete archive—somewhat of a loss, but on the other hand no proof remains that we printed what we did.)  Herewith a description of our earlier products:

  Issue #1 , January 2003 , had a cover showing a modern production crew and had a sort of effigy effect.  The fiction in it was, I think, eye-catching.  Steve Sneyd's “To Die On Eden” showed modern pioneers and pilgrims at the end of the line in space, Michael Korn's “The Man Who Loved in Light Years” showed the effect Space Age traditions have on culture and life, Joanne Tolson's “Man on Mars” kept up with and surpassed spaceflight ventures, retaining a homey touch; an article by Michael Hailstone kept a goodly pace with the science one reads in the news, and the poetry was nicely out of this world.  Number two kept up this pace with fiction closely resembling the currently available pro-market sf,  and some really outstanding poetry.  The third issue brought around Deep Bora, with “Mars Accelerates;” you've seen and reacted to him, I think, a far-out metaphysical speculator, or at least a describer of them.  Chester Cuthbert's “Experiment” came out of the past at you and showed psychic speculation still of interest currently.  Charles Moulton and David Young gave you examples of modern experimental writing techniques and Lawrence Dagstine fulfilled your desire for horror with “Efrim 7.”   In our fourth issue, RLA Thorne treated of “The System,” Lawrence Dagstine described a robot who had been “Programmed to Kill,” Hilda Diaz showed alternate realities affecting a college, Jeffery Marzi brought on a most interesting Pterodactyloid (more of him in our next issue), and Bob Bolin presented a battle with a pseudo-Almighty.  Some really interesting special features commenced in this issue with a writeup on Jessica Alba's DARK ANGEL role and an interview with Phillip Jose Farmer.  You can still find that issue and the rest, with features on MST3K and Arnold Schwarzenegger, in our annals.  Click there and have the pleasure of reading them at your leisure.

     In the Computer Corner this issue, Flint Mitchell mentions discussions of myself that have been going on at a fandom site since 1996.  These predate my online magazine and speculate about whether I'd ever do a professional magazine.  Someone at my printer's mentioned the existence of this discussion some years back, but it took Flint to point out where it was at.  All I can say about it is, I didn't do a pro magazine, but it took some effort and even deftness to get this one on the Net.

     We don't want to change any life-styles, but we do want to keep discussions of those that now exist at their optimum.  I hope you will all be with us, and invite other acquaintances to join you at this website, as we proceed with our adventure.  There's a cautious look into the future being taken here, too---and it might well be an interesting one for a lot of people.  Why don't you let us know?

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