It’s hard to believe that it’s July 2010. A year ago, with out 7^th issue, NT went print and the response has been outstanding. Now, John Wilson took the reigns for issue #11 and I am very impressed with the result. As editor for the issue, John was responsible for all of the non-fiction as well as making final decisions on stories and deciding on the TOC order and he did a great job.

Issue #11 has a few extra surprises too, including the unveiling of Vince, Stygian Publications necrotic poster boy, posing on the cover with our new motto “Winning Hearts and Minds, One Story at a Time.”

Doug Murano (who as we recently announced, is one of our new Associate Editors) won Editor’s pick for “Chums”, and our Special Guest Author is Andersen Prunty. I was fortunate to meet and speak with Andersen and Context last year and MoCon this year. Andersen is a great guy and a fantastic writer, and despite having met me, he was still eager to write a story for NT, or at the very least, get paid.

Before I sign off, I would like to say a word about favoritism. There are many names for it, most unflattering, but I have no doubt that some people will see Doug winning Editor’s pick and then see his name pop up as a new Associate Editor and assume that we are playing favorites. These people will either believe me or not, but I want to make it clear that the way I met John Wilson, Daniel I Russell and now Doug Murano, was after I had accepted a story from them. In all cases, either I reached out to them or saw them on one of the boards and started up a conversation. With Doug, he applied for the open position a few months after he was notified about being the Editor’s Pick and I had never spoken with him before. I realize that in this business, deals are sometimes made and favors done and I am not judging people that do, but the fact is that at NT, the friendships followed the acceptances and not the other way around.

I’m now doing bigger projects with both John and Daniel because I really like their writing and I have worked with them enough to trust them to deliver. I hope to make more friends in the business, whether or not they ever submit a story to NT, because I’ve found I have more in common with other writers that anybody else. So whether we are already friends or not, please know that if your story is accepted it will be on its own merits, and as I expand the scope of Stygian to take on other projects, it will be because I like the projects and think they will sell. Don’t worry, becoming my friend isn’t a requirement.