It’s that time again

As editor of Prometheus, the quarterly newsletter of the Libertarian Futurist Society, I try to stick to a reasonable production schedule. This means that the issues should appear each January, April, July, and October. In order to get the issues out to reader by the middle of those months, I have to get them to the printer sometime in the first week (currently the 5th of each month). I’m now able to play a little with the printer deadline, thanks to reducing my trips there from three to one by emailing the issue as PDF instead of hand delivering the CD and then returning to proof the printed copy and later to pick up the final product. However, this year I’ve slipped a little almost every month, in large part due to the addition of child number two. The day job is draining enough, but by the time the kids are in bed and the house somewhat restored, the night is late. Unfortunately, I currently don’t have as many submissions per issue as I’d like, so I find myself in the position of trying to find the time to read books to review, or conceive of articles to write, and then actually hammer out words that make sense on the keyboard. And believe me, little tends to make sense close to midnight after a long day.

After a couple of efforts at jacking up the page length of the issue to 20, time and lack of original material has brought me back to reality and 12 pages; the year 2007 may see Prometheus fall even further, to eight pages. It’s now December 26. My deadline for the January issue looms closer and closer, and only six pages of content are set at the moment. One of those pages I wrote today, but that still means I have six pages to write in one week, then rewrite the pages into somewhat coherent prose, proof and re-read all the pages again. Errors always creep in, sometimes small typos, and sometimes huge gaffes. You’d think, why not space it out over months, instead of fretting at the last minute. The answer is that I have been doing just that, as I needed two months to read the material that makes up my contribution for this issue. I worked under the assumption that I have to create 50-80% of the issue, although I would prefer 0-5%. In order to write one brief review, I’ve read a long work of fiction, a critical biography, and some other source material. In order to review three audioplays (actually seven, on three CDs), I’ve spent several hours listening to the works, looked for artwork to accompany the pieces, and jotted notes throughout the process. In order to review another book, I’ve read several interviews, the book itself and a related novella, and the author’s autobiography. Not everything that I read makes it into my reviews, but in the end I find the process necessary. Those digressions often end up quite rewarding as well, but send me down raods quite unrelated to the actually production of the newsletter.

I do find myself wondering if it’s all really worth it, though. I’ve now completed two years in my second stint as editor. I have less time in the past for this sort of stuff, but at least it forces me to write something. I often feel that I might not write anything without a literal gun to my head. Witness this rarely updated blog, where 90% of the time I post only brief, newsy snippets and links. usually, after each is issue is mailed out, there is only silence. I assume most of the issues find their addressees, though one or two come back return to sender. I can only hope for the possibility down the road of more contributors, as I know there are people out there with interesting things to say. But perhaps in the age of blogs and the internet, an old-school print newsletter is just heading down the same road as the dodo.