So he enlisted me and Charlie Price to get the thing started. Pieces in early issues were playful, and we had no cover. We had no idea whether this thing would have an audience and we were all putting in our time and money without compensation. Charlie left the staff after the first year to focus on his career as a novelist for young adults (and, I’m guessing, to spend more time fishing, hmmm?). His position has been filled by local teacher Jim Dowling.

 

After the first year, it appeared that there was a viable niche for the litmag, and we were told that copies disappeared as soon as they were set out. We decided to start printing full-color covers showcasing the work of photographers, which attracted more readers. We’ve published only a few issues in this format, but so far, we’ve featured the talent of the founding physician for Hill Country Community Clinic, Joe Stenger, and Bay Area art photographer Rachel Heath. Our fall cover will feature the work of award-winning underwater photographer Julie Coburn, formerly the photography editor for The San Francisco Chronicle. The layout is designed by a national award-winning graphic designer (okay, that’s me :).

 

 

We’ve now started to branch out into more serious literary work, but we still hope to avoid angst-ridden work. That kind of literary material gets ample play elsewhere. We are looking for short pieces of fiction, memoir, and narrative non-fiction, as well as line art and photography. But since this continues to be a fully volunteer activity and we all have other work to pursue, I’m sorry that we can’t promise to reply to submissions or return submitted work. And of course, like every other litmag on the planet, our criteria for acceptance are completely arbitrary and eccentric.

 

The best way to submit is to send a URL where we could view your work online or to submit work in the body of an e-mail. We will consider re-printing blog posts. Of course, if we select your work for publication you will hear from us. And all rights are retained by the author/artist. We are also offering electronic subscriptions, where we send pdf files to your e-mail address.

 

 

 

The above photo, our first color cover for issue 5, was taken by Joe Stenger, of a hot air balloon that we rode high above the southern California coast around Del Mar. It was an absolutely heavenly experience—fortunately, since the brave and game Joe suffers from acrophobia and took a little persuading to accompany us.