Publisher's Comments
Volume 2: 2000

February 7, 2000
by Robert Whitsitt I was pretty sure that Amarillo Bay was a good idea and that it would be well received, but it is quite gratifying to be starting our second year with a solid issue and with continued enthusiasm. We now have people requesting notification of new issues from eight countries and 20 states within the U.S. I have set up a program that allows me to send personalized messages to each of these subscribers and expect that to make us feel more personal. Thanks to everyone for their continuing support!

May 1, 2000
by Robert Whitsitt Thought you might like to hear how this process works. The editors get submissions and consider them, sometimes working with the authors. About a month before the issue is to be published the editors send the works to me. I put them up on the Web for review. Over the next few weeks, the authors look at them and send me corrections. Sometimes the changes are because of the limitations of e-mail: they tell me where to make words or phrases italic or where to put in an accent. Other times, they actually make changes to their works, doing last minute tweaks to make it just right.

Every few days, I get a request from someone to be added to the list of people I notify about new issues. I put those in a spreadsheet and add them to a list of the people I notify using a program for mass mailings.

The weekend before publication, I go through everything to make sure it is right. I globally replace the Volume and Number. I create the links listed by Author and Title. I write this. Then I put it all up on the Web, check that all the links work, send out the notifications, and wait. So far, the reviews have all been quite good. We are all very pleased and understand that our readers and authors are, too.

August 7, 2000
by Robert Whitsitt For reasons not at all clear to me, we didn't get any poetry submissions this time that we believed were appropriate for submission. Strange how these things seem to happen in runs. In one earlier issue we didn't include any nonfiction. But this time we have good works for you in that area as well as in fiction.

Please send in your work as described on our Submissions page! We treat each submission with the care and consideration and look forward to hearing from you.

November 6, 2000
by Robert Whitsitt We end our second year with an issue containing stories and poetry, but no creative nonfiction. We've got one almost ready, but we don't want to publish it until it's up to our standards. Waiting three months to get it right is reasonable to us. Picky, huh?

My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in August, shortly after the last issue was published. It was caught early and she expects to make a complete recovery, but the diagnosis, surgeries, and radiation treatment are draining to both of us. We take this opportunity to suggest that everyone have mammograms as recommended. When caught early, breast cancer is almost always very treatable.

The reviews continue to be excellent. I look forward to writing this blurb next year and reporting that we continue to be noticed for our commitment to excellence.

Go to Publisher's Comments Volume 3: 2001.

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Individual works are copyrighted by their authors.