Editorial Matters

By Cheryl Morgan

This issue is a little shorter than we’ve had of late, but given my schedule that is probably a good thing. I just hope I manage to get it online in reasonable time. It would be embarrassing to be late for the first time immediately after announcing the fold. But I have no idea what Internet access I’ll have in Helsinki.

A huge thank you is due to all of the kind people who have written to say how much they appreciated Emerald City and (in some cases) beg me not to stop. I’m sorry, I didn’t want to stop either, but sometimes circumstances get the better of you. I think I have managed to reply personally to every email I have received, but if you just posted a note on your blog then I may not have seen it. My apologies if I haven’t responded.

A number of people have also been asking about what happens next. Here are a few things I do know.

The Emerald City web site will not be disappearing in the foreseeable future. If it does turn out that I can’t afford to maintain it, I have at least three offers of people prepared to host the archives, so they won’t be lost.

Given that the web site will stay there, I will continue to write a blog of some sort, but it will be much more intermittent. The blog was always a means to an end — that is, attracting traffic to the site — and it is far too much work to keep up at the same level when I have much less reason to do it.

I asked on the blog whether the Hugo Recommendation List should continue, and while I got very little feedback all of it has been very positive, so I guess that will continue. I do, however, need to find ways of increasing participation. The more people who make recommendations, the more legitimacy the list has. While I very much understand the reluctance of people to state their Hugo preferences publicly, it is necessary to show that the recommendations are from real people. One suggestion I have had is to list the recommendations and the names of participants, but not connect them. I’d still show how many recommendations each work/person got, but not who made them. If you think this would make you more likely to participate, please let me know.

I do have a few other things in mind to do with the copious free time I will have soon. However, I need to talk to various people at Worldcon first. Don’t expect any announcements for a while.

Definite up for next issue are Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley and Elemental: The Tsunami Relief Anthology, edited by Steven Savile and Alethea Kontis. I am hoping to pick up Idolon by Mark Budz at Worldcon. I’ve also made firm promises to Jay Lake and John Shirley about their new novels. If I don’t get them in time there may have to be an October issue. Not that I’m short of reading material. I picked up novels by Umberto Eco and Jan Morris recently, and of course I have a vast pile of unread books. We shall see.

Oh, and I will be attending a couple of conventions over the next few weeks. Should the last issue have a Worldcon report in it? It seems kind of appropriate that a magazine that was born at a Worldcon should die at one.

Best wishes,

Cheryl