Issue 9 - Gold Dust magazine

night oil after day-jobs or putting
the kids to bed, some skimp on
vacations and other luxuries to foot
the bills their publications run up.
Publishers of the few successful,
quality ezines weather the
sacrifices, the tears and the frustrations
and share talent, energy,
dedication and a refreshing and
empowering faith in the value of
today's writers and readers.
Four are gathered here to talk
over the ezine concept and how it
might compensate for – or even
improve upon – those lamented
paper publications wiped out in the
ruthless dollar derby mainstream
publishing has become.
RACHEL KENDALL. EDITOR.
SEIN UND WERDEN (BEING
AND BECOMING). Rachel shares
a pokey little flat in Manchester,
England, with her partner and their
cat, her books and his guitars,
Owen the stuffed armadillo, Dallas
the mannequin, and countless
other tasteless artifacts. As well as
editing Sein und Werden, she
works part time in an academic
library, writes surreal pieces of fiction,
starts and doesn't finish novels
and is addicted to noir and
expressionist films.
CLAIRE NIXON. EDITOR. TWIST-
ED TONGUE. Claire, from the
North-East of England, is the
mother of five children. She writes
in many different genres and is a
member of three crit groups on the
net. She has had several short stories
published in magazines,
ezines, audio and anthologies. In
December 2004, she published
her children's tale, Tabitha and
Pirate Jim, as a present for her
eldest child, Tabitha. Tabitha and
Pirate Jim is now published as an
audio tale with Audio Stories for
Kids. Inbetween writing, she currently
works as marketing coordinator/interviewer
for Gold Dust
magazine.
GARY GRAY. EDITOR. GLOBAL
INNER VISIONS. Gary is retired
from a twenty-five-year career with
The Wall Street Journal. During his
time at the newspaper, he contributed
in a small way to the winning
of five of the Journal's thirtyone
Pulitzer prizes. He is currently
living in Colorado and passing his
time as a writer and fine-art photographer.
OMMA VELADA. FOUNDER AND
FORMER EDITOR. GOLD DUST.
Omma Velada grew up in Wales
and read languages at Goldsmiths
College (London University). She
has an MA in translation from
Westminster University. She
speaks English, French and
German fluently and has a basic
knowledge of Welsh. Having precociously
completed a (very short!)
novel at age 11, she had two
poems selected for Poems on the
Underground and won a shortstory
competition with Off The Wall
Magazine while at school. She
then edited a student magazine at
university. Having worked as an air
hostess, freelance translator and
editor, she currently lives in
Scotland with her partner, Ed, and
writes full-time. Her short stories
and poems have been published in
numerous literary journals (including
JMWW, Blood & Thunder, The
Eildon Tree and The Beat) and
anthologies (including Voices from
the Web, Whispers of Inspirations
and The New Pleiades Anthology
of Poetry). Her first novel, The
Mackerby Scandal, is published by
UKA Press.
www.golddustmagazine.co.uk - Issue 9 - Winter 2007
Zines of the Times [cont’d]
Rachel, Claire, Gary and Omma
took time out of their hectic schedules
to answer a few basic questions
that give an insight into their
work, their goals … and what they
offer their readers and their
authors. (Not all questions are
answered by all interviewees).
Was your ezine launched with
the author or reader in mind?
SUW: Sein und Werden was definitely
launched with the author in
mind. I just kept coming across
these great pieces of prose and
artwork on blogs and forums and
felt this work needed to be showcased,
or at least given a lift in the
right direction towards further publication.
I chose the web for that
because of its accessibility and my
own financial limitations. Things
started, and then they kind of ran
away with me. There were more
and more unsolicited submissions
(though I do still often trawl the
web for work that I think will appeal
both to my sense of what this zine
is about, and to its readers), so the
thing just escalated.
TT: The ezine was launched with
the reader in mind, mainly for ease
and cheapness and quickness –
the reader is able to download a
copy on the day of release and
read the contents straight away,
whereas with the printed version
they would have to wait a week or
two. It's hard to put an exact percentage
on how many readers are
writers/contributors – I have no
way of checking exactly who has
bought the ezine copy and who
has not; however, from feedback, I
do know that potential contributors
do buy the ezine copy before submitting.
Also, all contributors
receive the ezine copy free.
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