DargonZine

Those whose only contact with DargonZine is having issues emailed to them might well interpret the interval between issues as evidence that there isn’t much going on in the Dargon Project. It ain’t so!

Over the course of the summer, eight new writers joined the group, and you’ll begin seeing their works very shortly. And our veterans haven’t been idle either; as if writing for DargonZine wasn’t enough, Rogers Cadenhead has co-authored the newly-released “Teach Yourself SunSoft Java WorkShop in 21 Days”. One of the examples used in the book is an interactive graphical map of Dargon, which displays callout descriptions of certain geographical and political features when your mouse hovers over them. You can try the example out and explore the map online at http://spiderbyte.com/java.

Meanwhile, we’ve continued to enhance the Web site. The Online Glossary now sports a new look, and includes hyperlinks to the stories where any given Glossary entry is mentioned. Another new feature is a street map of the city of Dargon, with credit going to Mark Murray for doing the legwork. Other enhancements include a handful of pictures from the 1996 Dargon Writers’ Summit in Denver, some new graphs depicting annual output of the project in the Author’s Master Database section, and updated results from the Web-based reader survey and questionnaire. The questionnaire responses have been very valuable in telling us what you want from the project, and I’d encourage everyone to send us your responses, so that we know how we’re doing and what we need to do better at.

All these enhancements to the Web site are available from the “What’s New” page. That’s where to go to find the most up-to-date information about the project, the magazine, and the Web site. It’s really worth a visit, because the Web site offers a lot of services and information beyond what is available by email.

In this issue, Mark Murray begins a new thread with Matty, a young boy growing up in Dargon. Mark is currently working on additional stories which feature Matty, so expect to see more of this character in coming issues.

In “Falsehoods”, Alan Lauderdale picks up the story of Mouse, his diminutive heroine who was the protagonist in “I am my Lord’s Possession”, which appearred in DargonZine 8-2. Alan, too, has already written a followup story, so more stories about Mouse on the way!

Finally, Jim Owens, one of the writers who helped found the Dargon Project back in 1985, returns to his Barel family and delivers a strong commentary in his “In the Garden”.

With the end of the war between Baranur and Beinison having taken place in our last issue, we hope to return to a more balanced mix of light and heavy stories, as your Reader Questionnaire responses told us you prefer. I think this issue is a first small step in that direction.

And, as always, let us know how we’re doing and keep spreading the word about DargonZine, because word of mouth is our biggest source of new readers! And look for our next issue, which should be out toward the end of December.