Written by Stephen Thompson | 01 February 2011

This issue is slightly smaller than usual. We can blame some of that on the flood, and Christmas of course. Christmas is always a difficult time as far as doing things is concerned, because it isn't just the day, is it? Christmas is a season. It takes up a couple of weeks beforehand and a couple of weeks afterwards. And if you go away for a holiday in that time it takes another week or so to come back to earth from the euphoria of not having to work – assuming you prefer to play rather than work.

This year, matters were further complicated by the Brisbane floods – at least for me it was – and family matters and the realities of home life: babies, moving, deceased relatives, etc, have all claimed more than just parts of the editorial team's lives this summer. It's a wonder we get things done at all.

The personal life of one of our editors has dealt The Specusphere a hard blow. Astrid Cooper, editor of our Up and Coming section has felt the need to call it a day. She says:

Dear Specusphere Reader

I must bid all of you a fond farewell. I have been part of the Spec. team for a few years and have enjoyed it, (most of the time!). Certainly, I have learned a lot and my interaction with writers and publishers and readers has been a highlight of this time. Due to my own publishing schedule, and other commitments, I find that I am unable to devote the time to the webzine that it deserves.

Thank you for your support of The Specusphere in general and my 'up and coming' section, in particular. Best wishes to you all.

Astrid Cooper.

It is a sad loss to The Specusphere. Astrid's knowledge and experience of, and within, the genre cannot be easily replaced. We wish her well for the future.

That leaves The Specusphere with three editors, one of whom has already scaled down her involvement due to the birth of her first child last year. So, we felt it was time to do some soul-searching.

We have been advertising for volunteers to join the editorial team for many months now, nay, years. Over that time we've had about 15 people offer to to take on various jobs. Sadly, when it has come to actually producing something, very few have come good. This has been an ongoing disappointment, something that has whittled at my own enthusiasm over the 5-6 years I've been publishing The Specusphere. Add to that, Satima, our reviews editor, has had to bear an increasing administrative burden due to the phenomenal success of the book reviews section. Liasing with publishers, coordinating book distribution and editing reviews is a time-consuming job, and, again, all pleas for assistance have fallen on deaf ears.

The reality is that no matter how much you love doing something, when a pleasure starts to become a chore it is time to step back and take stock.

So what have we decided to do? Where do we go from here?

Firstly, the anthology will continue to run. That will now become our priority.

Secondly, the website will continue to function. There are far too many valuable bits of information there for it to be lost to the world, not least being the huge variety of opinions, the speculative fiction directory and the definitive list of published writers..

The most obvious change will be that we will no longer offer a bi-monthly magazine. Instead, we will move to a continuous update style, that is to say, whenever we have something to say or we receive a blog, an article, a review, fiction, poem, whatever, we will post it to the site. Make sure you check back from time to time to read the latest articles, or become a subscriber to the newsletter. We will still send out a newsletter to keep our loyal readers updated about our projects.

Needless to say, if you want to volunteer your services we'd be more than happy to accommodate you. And if you felt the need to come in and offer a whole new direction/management plan, then we'd be happy to listen.

Good luck to you all for the new year, too.

Cheers.

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