And Thanks for All the Fish

By Cheryl Morgan

As you will have probably seen on the blog, Emerald City will be ceasing publication over the next couple of months.

This is actually a decision I took back in early June, well before the most recent attack on the integrity of reviewers. I haven’t been able to announce it until now because announcing a fold just before the voting deadline might have been perceived to affect the Hugos and that would never do. (I will, of course, decline any nominations I might receive next year.) If I’ve been a little cranky over the past few weeks, now you know why. I’ve just wanted to get the whole thing over with.

The reasons for this decision are many and varied. One of the least obvious is that I have a major logistical problem. It simply isn’t possible to run an operation like this when you don’t have a permanent home. In addition, over the past year or so I have become very disillusioned about both the quality of my own work and the general usefulness of online book reviews. The bottom line is that if you don’t think what you are doing is worthwhile then it is very difficult to maintain the level of commitment necessary to produce something like Emerald City.

There will be a September issue. There may even be an October issue, because you make commitments about reviews months in advance and I don’t want to back down on any promises I have made.

Another issue is subscriptions. I’m going to try to cancel all repeating payments myself, but I’m not sure that PayPal will let me do that, so if you have signed up for a subscription you should cancel it yourself. You can do so here. In addition it seems likely that someone in fandom is going to complain that I have taken in vast sums of money and am now cutting and running with the profits. Therefore I am offering to pay back any money donated to Emerald City over the past year. As you can guess, the sums are not that huge. Even if everyone asks for their money back, my bank account can stand it. If you want a refund, just email me and ask.

Finally I should thank everyone who has helped make this magazine possible over the years. I would certainly have succumbed to the pressure of producing it long ago had it not been for the support given by Kevin. People would have had much less respect for me had I not had Anne to fix all of my spelling and grammatical errors. Very many people have contributed reviews and articles over the years. And many readers have kindly thanked me for what I have done. Although it may not sound like it from the above, I have mostly enjoyed producing this magazine, and I’m very sad to have to give it up.