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Written by Jane Blackmore
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WE ARE COMING UPON OUR LAST ISSUE OF ECLECTICA MAGAZINE, and the emotions are mixed. I cannot tell you how much Robynn and I have enjoyed doing this publication; in many ways, we have poured our life's blood into it. The irony of the situation is that the more successful we got, the further in debt we sank. Advertisers pay our bills, and as long as the circulation was small, our small-but-dedicated band of Constant Supporters kept us afloat. But when the circulation went up, the costs went up - and the advertising dollars did not. It is extremely difficult to compete with publications that are seen by tens of thousands of people (where would YOU put your advertising dollars?!), but one of the basic premises of our magazine was to keep the focus on the contributors - the local artists and writers who would otherwise go unnoticed - not on pages and pages of advertising. Okay, we're naive, and more than a little idealistic, we'll be the first to admit that. Anyone with any kind of common sense wouldn't even have started this venture in the first place! It breaks our hearts, in many ways, to have to admit defeat, but we don't have the resources to keep taking a $500 loss on every issue, and that's simply a fact of life.
Reality tells us it's time to move on, back into the world of Ordinary Jobs (with a few creative projects thrown in to keep us sane), Financial Stability, and Retirement Planning. We have our own futures to think of, and time is short on our hands these days. But in the past week, I ran into three people who's work I immediately wanted to feature in our magazine - people with unique talents, unique work, unique stories to tell. I had to stop myself from running after them, pen in hand, because there is nowhere to publish their stories or their work, now. Idealism is over; Reality has moved in. As grown-ups, we must ultimately put our toys aside and behave in a Mature and Responsible Manner.
Several people have been bugging us to reschedule our Farewell Party, but in all honesty, our hearts just aren't in it. Although we accept that it's over, we aren't really much into celebrating it. Perhaps, come Summer, we will have a big picnic - just for old time's sake - where everyone can get together and celebrate what was, and what could have been - if our lottery numbers had come up.
Some part of me can't help hoping that someday, we'll have another opportunity to do this - or something like it. The best we can do right now is to encourage someone with as much vision and desire as we have - and more business sense - to turn out a magazine of her own. Yes, we do know of such a person. Stay tuned. |
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Written by Jane Blackmore
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Hello!
I'm sure you're all wondering what's going on - just a rather abrupt email to the effect that we're folding the magazine, with no explanation of any kind. I apologize for that; I just didn't have time for anything but a brief, terse announcement. And therein lies the problem: no time. Life can change pretty suddenly, and you can find yourself coming to the realization that what you've been doing up till now is just not viable any more. Robynn and I talked about it, and agreed: neither one of us has the 250 or so hours that it takes to put an issue together; we just aren't able to commit to the issue-every-six-weeks thing any more. For the past year, I did have that time. But things have changed rather suddenly and unexpectedly for me, and the time is no longer there. We could have struggled on, but we knew the quality would suffer and we didn't want to overhear people saying, "Well, it used to be good, but the past few issues have been total crap." Better to fold it now, and be remembered as a Good Magazine.
Not that we're giving up completely, you understand! That would be out of the question. We love what we do far too much. We have a number of other, more manageable project in the works. We have anthologies in progress; we have various collections and specialized booklets planned, and there might even be an Eclectica annual coming up in the future . . . So don't give up. The website will still be here; tune in once in a while and see what we're up to. Who knows? Life could change again (I could win the lottery!), and Eclectica could be back on the shelves some day. |
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Written by Jane Blackmore
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Hello, there!
And how are you all surviving the Olympic Mayhem?! I imagine many of you are very excited, totally caught up in an unprecedented rush of Patriotism bordering on Religious Fervour. I have nothing against the Olympics, personally. I enjoy watching the various games, and I admire the dedication and athletic prowess of the participants. But it makes me a little sad that this is - seemingly - the only way we can pull people together to celebrate Life and Community. If only people could get this excited about something other than sports! Imagine if writers, poets, and artists of every genre - visual and performing alike - could inspire a nation the way a sporting event has! Imagine if we lived in a society that celebrated vision, imagination, and artistic prowess the way we celebrate physical conditioning! I'm not trying to undermine the importance of the physical; just thinking how nice it would be if we placed as much importance on the mental and spiritual. Perhaps, if we did, we would have a much healthier society - a much more balanced, centred society, made up of people who valued something other than the physical and material aspects of Life. I'm not saying we should dumps sports and athletic events - they have their place - I'm saying that we should expand our personal worlds to the point where we can celebrate, with equal fervour, the accomplishments of our great thinkers, writers, musicians, artists . . . (Woodstock, back in the '60's, is as close as we ever came to that. And that wasn't ours; it was the U.S.A.'s.)
Once upon a time, writers, artists, musicians and performing artists held a high place in society. They were much revered for their visions, much honoured for their talents. Great ideas, great visions - and the ability to transmit them in inspired form - were every bit as valued as the physical prowess of the warriors and athletes. We need to get back to those days. Anyone into starting a movement? A 21st Century Renaissance? Give me a call. I'm pretty good at stirring the pot, especially if I have some like-minded people behind me . . .
Jane |
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Written by Jane Blackmore
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January 28th, 2010
I spent yesterday in a classsic Blue Funk. It's that 'blah' state of mind that accompanies the sudden drop in adrenaline following a whirlwind of activity (or a great high of any kind). For the past two months, everything's been running in high gear; I've constantly been scrambling to catch up (having Christmas in the middle of it all didn't help!). Now that it's all over, I find myself at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. Not that I don't have a 72-page list of Things That Need Doing . . . It's just that suddenly, none of them need doing immediately. I have the time to pick and choose my tasks - and I don't know where to start. Frankly, what I really want to do is just veg out in front of a couple of bad movies, or sink into a trashy novel. Unfortunately, there is still that 72-page list of Things That Need Doing. Logic says that I should finish up the books, first. It's one of the jobs I like the least, and one I tend to put off the most. If I get it done, it will be done - and I won't have to worry about it again until tomorrow. Logic also says that I should take this opportunity to clean up my office, sort out that HUGE pile of papers, and tidy up my files (a messy desk being the sign of a Creative Mind, and all). Or, I could simply work on those articles that need writing, or the layouts of those already finished . . .
And I should definitely start thinking about how we're going to go about getting more advertisers. Advertising dollars, for us, is the difference between 'breaking even' and 'going under'. And right now, with the increased circulation putting our printing costs ever higher, we're facing 'going under' unless we can find some new advertisers. It's one of those Catch-22 things; we want to minimize the advertising (because we both hate magazines that are nothing but ads), but without them, there will be no magazine to minimize the ads in. If anyone out there knows anyone who might be interested in advertising with us - God knows, we have the lowest rates going! - please let us know. We'll also make special deals for any of our contributors and subscribers, so if you have a product or service you'd like to sell - contact us!
You might notice that we have started a new section: "The Story So Far . . . ". If you are a fairly new reader and you don't know what the heck's going on in those serialized stories, this is where you can catch up. Of course, this will only give you a synopsis of the story so far; if you actually want to read the story from the beginning, back issues are available!
We are still working on synopses of past issues - just so you have some idea of what you've missed. And I would like to put a section up there with answers to the crosswords and word puzzles at some point . . .
Okay, I guess I've stalled long enough! Off to finish the books up . . .
Jane
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Written by Jane Blackmore
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Issue #8 is now on sale - ahead of schedule, for a change! As usual, nothing is perfect . . . I would like to apologize to Christine Durgo for the screw-up on her 'little gem' - "Wisdom". The program we use failed to translate the correct font to the printer's computer, and it substitued a completely unsuitable font, cutting off half of poor Christine's work. (It happens occasionally.) We are so sorry, Christine! The piece will be re-published in Issue #9. (Check out our new competition on the Home Page!)
You may (or may not) have noticed that we have a new section: NEWS & UPDATES. This is where all the up-coming events and writers'/artists' announcements will appear. Keep an eye on it; there's some interesting stuff going on out there!
Also, please take note that, due to ever-increasing costs, the price-per-issue is now $5.95, and postage is no longer included in subscription rates. No-one likes price increases (especially us!), but that's Life. On the bright side, we DO have more pages . . . !
On to Issue 9 . . .
Jane
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