Prism - December Issue

I don't know what it is but since it was decided by the new BFS chairman, David Howe, that Dark Horizons/New Horizons and Prism would be put together in one publication, I have lost a lot of my former enthusiams for editing Prism. I think a lot of this is because now I won't be required to design the layout of Prism for the printer. All that will be done by someone else, possibly someone connected with PS Publishing, who seem to be taking over more and more of the production side of BFS publications under the new regime.

I must admit that designing the layout for Prism was always one of the aspects of editing it which I enjoyed the most and from which I gained most of my job satisfaction. To have all this handed over to some anonymous person who will decide all this above my head, leaves me completely underwhelmed.

I wonder if this is how the editors for Dark Horizons/New Horizons feel. Stephen Theaker, of course, who was editor for DH, has since stepped down and I have no idea who the new editor will be.

How well all this will work out I'm far from sure. The plan is, instead of having separate soft cover publications, to combine them all into one bumper hardback. To be honest, this all sounds very risky financially, and already there is talk of increasing the society's subs.

I'll give the new setup a try for the next few months, then consider my position. It will depend for a large part on how well it all works out - and just what the finished product looks like. Though there are other aspects too, which I don't want to go into yet.