Volume 11 Number 4
Publisher's Comments
Volume 11: 2009
2 February 2009
by Robert Whitsitt
Did you notice the new Amarillo Bay look? For the most part the words and locations are the same, but with a layout designed to be easier to read and more modern looking. Of course in the Internet world "modern" can mean very recent, and old can be just a few years ago!
The impetus to make this change was another project that I'm doing (more on that in coming months). In working on that project I learned some Web page techniques that I hadn't known existed, including ways to make it more efficient to maintain and expand Amarillo Bay.
For example, this "link"
Sample Informative box
This technique is used to show the authors' biographical information without going to another window.
Move your mouse away from the box to make it go away.
actually brings up an informative box.
I hope you like the new look, or at least don't mind it. Of course, the works are the important thing. I think you'll agree that the current issue is one of our best!
18 May 2009
by Robert Whitsitt
This is the first of our May issues that is published on the third Monday instead of the first Monday in May. That's because most of us who volunteer for Amarillo Bay are in academe, and coming out the first Monday interferes with grading finals. It took us about 9 years to figure that out! I guess that's because I'm not in academe, so it wasn't a hardship for me, and the others were too polite to mention it. Anyway, it's all sorted out now.
I hope and expect that you'll find this issue fascinating. In fact, I expect you'll find all of our issues fascinating! Fortunately, they are all available for you at the bottoms of the Contents page under the headings Works List, Google Search, and Works by Issue. If you are new to Amarillo Bay, or would like to reexamine favorite works, that's one way. As an alternative, you can look at all of the works sorted by Author Name, Title, and Type (fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry). The Type list shows each type from oldest issue to latest, which can be a lot of fun.
As I wrote with the last issue, I worked on a project unrelated to Amarillo Bay. My wife is volunteering for the California Native Garden Foundation. Their objective is to have people replace lawns with native plants. In California that results in substantial less water usage, which is critical. We no longer have a lawn, and people really like what the area looks like now. Anyway, in making their new Web site I got experience that I believe has made the Amarillo Bay Web site look better. You can see the Web site for the California Native Garden Foundation Web site at www.cngf.org.
But before you spend too much time there, enjoy the works in our new issue!
3 August 2009
by Robert Whitsitt
I once before mentioned the Oregon Shakespeare Festival held in Ashland, OR. It is a nine-month presentation of eleven works, usually five by Shakespeare and six by other artists. My wife and I continue to attend. Since we've retired we want to see all eleven plays, which means we go three times a year, in May, in July, and in September. Ashland is a beautiful small town, and driving up I-5 is always beautiful (in one way or another) ,so we are happy to make the 400-mile drive three times a year!
We also love the restaurants there.
But the biggest attraction, of course, it the plays.
This year there is one standout. It is Equivocation, by Bill Cain, and is on until 31 October. If there is any way to do so, I recommend getting to it. And while you're there, see some of the other plays, too!
But first, check out this issue of Amarillo Bay!
2 November 2009
by Robert Whitsitt
And yet another year approaches the end.
I turned 63 earlier this year. Since this is the 11th year of publication of Amarillo Bay, I've worked on Amarillo Bay about 1/6 — 17 per cent — of my life. That's an amazing amount of time to have spent on one thing. I wonder if we have any readers who have read all or most of the issues since our first.
Each issue starts about a month before the issue is to be published with a reminder to the editors and reviewers. Over the next month I receive works; put them into appropriate form for the web; upload them to a private place for review by the editors, the authors, and the reviewers; and make corrections. (It is amazing how many little things are only found when they show up on the authors' screens!) The night before we go live I upload the new and updated pages, including the lists of works and all other pages with new information. I then run a program to check that all links work. After fixing broken links, I take a quick look through the issue. Then I write a message to the editors and readers that the new issue is live. I've now done that process 42 times.
This year I have to renew amarillobay.org and amarillobay.com (which just switches to amarillobay.org). I plan to renew our web sites for another 10 years. That's another 40 times I'll go through the process of getting out a new issue. I do this, of course, for you, our readers. I am always considering how to make it as easy as possible for you to read and enjoy our works.
All of us at Amarillo Bay, including our hundreds of writers, thank you for taking the time to enjoy the fruits of our labor.