Editorial

Lear and Frothing in Los Lobos

Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest,
Lend less than thou owest.
 — King Lear, William Shakespeare

We'd like to start by thanking Lyn Battersby for the contribution she has made to TiconderogaOnline over the past 3 years, and wish her all the very best with her decision to devote more time to writing. Lyn and her husband Lee were a large part of the decision to relaunch TiconderogaOnline, and the place won't be the same without them. While Lyn may have left the building, stories she has been involved in editing will continue to appear on this site well into next year.

TiconderogaOnline has always been a team effort, with everyone having input pretty much every step of the way. And this will certainly continue in the future, as new people come onboard, bringing their own ideas, talents and abilities. In the new year we expect to be able to unveil new members of our team, so stay tuned.

*

TiconderogaOnline has never been content to sit on its laurels, and we'll be looking to try some new things in coming issues. The web is still a developing medium, the rules for what works and what doesn't appear to be pretty fluid, so don't expect the same from us month in, month out. We're also looking for suggestions and ideas from our readers, and on every page this issue you'll find a link to our feedback page. If there's anything you like, don't like, feel we could improve we ask you to click on the link and let us know.

We have also included a survey page to give our readers the opportunity to tell us exactly what they thought of this issue. Please consider taking the time during your visit to fill in this form, as this information lets us gauge what seems to work and what needs to be looked at.

Over the next year we're looking to get as much feedback as possible. We live in an age where we have more means of communication that we know what to do with: a multitude of varieties of blogs, messengers and other personalised web options, mobile phones and all the other portable communication devices. Even with all this, there are times when the editors at TiconderogaOnline feel that all we're doing is pissing into the void — publishing issue after issue with very little feedback. Even if it's negative, we want to hear how we're doing, and we're asking you to tell us.

While we'd love to get enough fan mail to crash a server, we'll settle for little notes on whether you felt the issue was good, bad or ugly. Good stuff we can leave alone or try to reproduce, bad stuff can be improved and the ugly can be reborn as a swan. And while you're telling us, consider telling your friends (especially if you've enjoyed reading this issue).

*

Our goals are still effectively the same as they were when we restarted this whole shebang: to provide the best possible fiction to the widest possible readership. On the writing side, we've increased our payments to writers, and have increased the number of stories we'll be publishing per year, starting with this issue. We're also publishing some classic stories that have never before been published online, starting this issue with Sean Williams' "White Christmas".

Next year we're also opening up our publication to non-Antipodean writers. During January 2007 we're accepting submissions from around the world for an international issue to appear later in the year. Australian writers are still invited to send us stories throughout the year, and we remain committed to developing local writing. We still intend for the vast majority of our content to be locally produced, though feel that by publishing international writers we can expect to raise the profile of our publication overseas. We're looking to get more readers for the excellent fiction we are publishing at TiconderogaOnline.

*

Regular readers may notice that we've added to the site two new ways for people to support us: donate and Sponsor-a-Story. We're not expecting people to throw wads of cash at us, tripping over trying to give us wheelbarrows of twenty-dollar bills, but can you blame us for providing the opportunity?

Behind the scenes we're still approaching potential advertisers, researching possible grant funding and looking at additional means to ensure the financial viability of TiconderogaOnline.

One of the new ideas trialled this year, the Donation Drive, was so successful, thanks to contributions from a number of very generous people, that it's here to stay. We're hoping to expand it significantly next year, bringing other webzines into the mix and with any luck receiving more donations from overseas. So put September 2007 into your diary now and get ready for what we hope will be a successful event.

You'll notice that we've made a few tweaks to our layout, in our quest for a simple yet elegant design for one and all. In the process some of our pages may not presently be W3C compliant, but we're working on this. If you're having any trouble reading any of our pages please let us know.

*

As this is our 10th issue since the relaunch, and also the final issue for 2006, we'd like to briefly look back at our achievements. This is the second year in a row we've produced every issue that we said we would, so we guess that now makes it a tradition. It feels great to throw off labels like "Sporadic", "Irregular" and "Infrequent". We are also, thanks to the generosity expressed in the donation drive, in a solid financial position. We've been able to increase our payment rate, and can for the first time look at a long term budget for expanding further, publishing more, promoting wider, and paying more.

*

We'd like to thank our contributors in 2006. Our fiction contributors: Lily Chrywenstrom, N. Joy Dodds, Peter McGregor, Lee Battersby, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Martin Livings, Susan Wardle, Brian G. Ross, Matthew Doyle and Sean Williams; who have provided some of our strongest fiction to date. To those writers and editors who have agreed to be interviewed: Ellen Datlow, Jeff Vandermeer (and to David Lynton for asking the questions), Martin Livings, Simon Brown, Ion Newcombe, Paul Haines and Simon Haines. Thanks also to the publishers who have provided review books this year: Agog!, Allen & Unwin, Altair Australia, EDGE, Golden Gryphon, HarperCollins, Lothian, Omnibucket, Orbit, Pan Macmillan, Penguin, Posthuman Enterprises, Simon & Schuster, Ticonderoga Publications, Wakefield Press, and White Mice.

And a big thank you to our dedicated reviewers for their work in 2006: Kate Armitage, Lev Lafayette, Trish Farr, Kyla Ward, Karen Miller, P. Niski, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Miranda Siemienowicz, Nicolee Baxter and Grant Watson.

Finally, a very big thank you to all of our readers throughout 2006. We do this for you.

We'd especially like to again congratulate Ion Newcombe on Antipodean SF publishing its 100th issue in 2006, a feat without equal in Australian SF.

*

This year has been an excellent year for TiconderogaOnline, and this issue rounds it off nicely with three excellent pieces of original fiction; stories which we feel are as good as any we've published here and as good as pretty much anything published by an Australian in 2006. Just to confuse, we've also interviewed both Paul Haines and Simon Haynes, and also bring a mixed bag of reviews for our readers.

And if you thought 2006 was grand, just wait for 2007. Have a happy and safe festive season and we'll see you again next year.

*