The Note

T h e  N o t e

With this issue, Issue #47, we celebrate our 50th issue. That's because, for reasons that have never been fully explained to me, I put out 3 issues over the years that weren't numbered.

I only ciphered up the number of issues five minutes ago.  Had I thought about it before, I would have had a party and baked a cake and everything.  So, all the nice folks who have work in this issue have ended up participating in a bigger deal than they knew when they submitted.  I mean, a big deal as Right Hand Pointing deals go.

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The carrot cake which I neglected to bake.

I have really enjoyed working on these 50 issues (along with the digital chapbooks and, more recently, our first print projects, Corey Mesler's chapbook and Howie Good's full-length collection, Dreaming in Red.) 

Want to throw us a bone in honor of our 50th issue?  Buy Howie's book.  Every cent of proceeds goes to charity.

What a way to start the last year of the planet's existence:  Issue 50 on the first day of the year.  In 2012, we will party like it's, uh, 2012, and we promise a fresh issue on the last day of the world.  

This is the costume worn by all of us

on the RHP staff when we're working.

We'll make sure we send out that end-of-the-world issue because so many of you have written to say that, if you knew you had only 30 minutes to live, the last thing you'd want to do is read an issue of Right Hand Pointing. (Ok, some of you said you'd want to have illicit relations with a movie star, while reading an issue or RHP. But this is splitting hairs.)  

Could somebody get the Mayans back together

to reconsider this prediction?  They can totally meet

at the Ramada Inn near my house.

Also, in response to the flow of submissions to RHP, and the overall quality of the submissions, we are attempting a monthly publication schedule, more or less.  Starting now.  

I've enjoyed the creative process, the collaborative aspect and, most of all, being connected to a large number of very nice writers and artists.  I'm very grateful to all the support we've received here in the editorial offices of Right Hand Pointing.  And by "editorial offices" I mean that we have no editorial offices. 

Thanks to our board of volunteer readers, Howie Good, Erik Burke, Doug Draime, Vivian Faith Prescott, and Scot Siegel. They're all getting their salaries doubled in 2012. Thanks to FJ Bergmann, who has recently joined us as a special editor whose keen eye for copy has been a huge help.  And, of course, my thanks to my long-time colleague and fiction editor F. John Sharp.  

F. John Sharp (simulation)

Have a great 2012! Happy New Year!

Dale