It's not sad news...

[ellenmillion]

I keep trying to title this (and the original announcment) as 'Sad News' or say 'It is with a heavy heart...' or 'I am reluctant to announce...' but the truth is, my heart is really light about this, and I'm not reluctant at all: EMG-Zine is closing at the end of the year.

Here's the verbage from this issue:

All good things come to an end, and EMG-Zine is no exception. It is, surprisingly, not with a heavy heart or with reluctance that I am announcing that we will be folding up our publication at the end of the year, but with a certain amount of joy, and a whole lot of pride.

The Tower card in the tarot deck is an uncomfortable card, dealing with failure, ruin, upheaval and sudden, brutal realization of falsehoods. It would be easy to take the theme of this month and the timing of this announcement as an admittance of failure and look at the closure of EMG-Zine as a disaster. I choose to do otherwise - I am deeply proud of what we've accomplished, and I am even more pleased that we were able to prove the 'zine financially solvent in its last year. By the end of this run, we will have produced 84 issues and run without breaks and only minimal delays (a day, I think, was the latest we ever released?), for seven years. We've published three amazing print anthologies, hundreds of articles and hundreds of pieces of fiction, poetry and artwork.

I look forward to ending on an unprecedented high note, and plan to deliver you the remaining six issues absolutely stuffed with the great advice, stories, poetry, artwork and reviews you've come to expect from us. Those of you with subscriptions that extend past the end of the year will receive offers of pro-rated refunds. Funds that have come in this year towards programming improvements will still be earmarked for that coding - with a focus on making our archives more search-friendly and accessible. The site will remain available for the foreseeable future, so that you can always come back and catch up on the issues you missed, or use it for research when you've got a business or technique question. There is the possibility, given enough interest, of running a Kickstarter campaign to fund a fourth volume of the Art of the Business of Fantasy Art, which would encompass the best of our last four years.

I can't say that having Elsa doesn't play some role in this - there is nothing she doesn't influence, really - but this is much less about 'being mom' and much more about looking at the balance of workloads, rewards, nagging I have to do, and the inspiration and joy it brings. It's not even about hackers, though don't underestimate their role in adding to my workload, or the grief they brought me. I will also admit that I never got the project up to the level I really wanted to... the work that it would have taken to really polish the site the way I really wanted it to be was pretty intimidating. I took it far... just not quite as far as I dreamed it could go, and guilt for not investing the time it would have taken to get it there contributes some to this decision, too.

I don't like having dangling commitments, or pushing things past their natural lives, and I HATE watching projects fizzle without direction... I think this is a wonderful, strong place to leave things, and I'm really hoping these last 6 months send us out with a bang.

On THAT note, I'd like to ask you guys to help me make it a really strong last surge - send me your tutorials and articles! Review an art product or service! Submit artwork, fiction and poetry to our upcoming themes! (The games theme has a deadline of today, then there are reflections, Greek mythology, magic, wolves and stars.) If you need ideas for something to write about, or if you want to know if something you've already written would be appropriate, let me know! Also, I need questions for Ursula's Ask an Artist - http://emg-zine.com/askanartist.php - this is a terribly underutilized opportunity!

To soften the blow a little, I'll post some cute baby photos from earlier this week in the next entry...

(PS: Anthologies are available for purchase again!)

Comments

[ariestess]

Clearly you've thought this through and made the best decision for you and EMG-Zine. That is what's important. And I like your idea of ending it on a high note.

{{hugs}}

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[jenny heidewald (from livejournal.com)]

I forgot it was a tarot card...

I wonder if I can get Katerina to do a walk-through on one of her art pieces for Greek Mythology....hmmm, working with colored pencil on colored paper?

*trying to think of who else she can harass*

[edward cammarota (from livejournal.com)]

This will leave you more time for sketchfest???

[marrael.livejournal.com]

Haha, I like this comment. I've been suffering Sketchfest withdrawal.

[pixiewildflower.livejournal.com]

(hugs)

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Remind us of upcoming themes again, please!