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***** January ***** Final Edition - Unfortunate Announcement It is with great sadness that I write what is for now the final edition of the Publisher's Word for The Written Word. Effective with the Holiday Edition, The Written Word is ceasing publication. Along with its sister company, Masterpiece Comics, The Written Word has had a checkered history and has had to go into a hiatus twice before. Unfortunately, I do not know at this time whether this is another of those, or if this is the end of the line. Over the last four years attempts to create advertising or generate revenue from The Written Word have not borne fruit. All costs, expenses and payments made have been out of my own pocket. Right now I can not afford to continue publishing the Written Word. Due to finances and my current situation, I can not continue The Written Word. The Holiday Edition is not yet up because I was unable to work it on or get the materials to the webmaster until recently, but it will be up soon. Any and all material that would have been used for the next planned Edition - March 2009 - has been released, with all rights returned to their Authors. All submissions that were under consideration are free to be submitted elsewhere. I have tried to keep all contributors updated as to my situation, which has led to the suspension of submissions and ultimately this, the final edition of the Written Word. But perhaps a brief review is in order. In August, my bank accounts and credit line were hacked, to the tune of $30,000.00 (thirty thousand dollars). My bank account was wiped out and my business line of credit was maxed out with a cash advance. All this was done through use of a PayPal account (beware of PayPal!). This caused numerous issues, including delayed payments to Written Word contributors, an inability to pay bills, etc. The bank (Wells Fargo) handled the issue immediately. PayPal, however, took over two months to do an investigation; eventually they returned the stolen funds, but have still not taken any action against the person who did this. Now my situation has taken a downturn again. As of Thanksgiving, I was laid off. Since I was a resident manager and lived on site where I worked, I lost my job and my place to live in the same day - and was given only five days to move. For the last month, I have spent every day looking for a place to live and for work, of which I have found neither - instead staying with family for now. At this point, I have to move on and look toward a future. I hope one day to be able to bring back The Written Word in a less erratic way. As of now, it has ended, for the moment. I will be concentrating on gets my finances and life back in order and on my own career. "There are, in life, no endings, only new beginnings." It has been my pleasure to publish many people, stories and poetry over the course of time, giving some their first published credit. And I very much wish I could continue. However, all I can do now is wish everyone the best of luck. And, as I have said in the past, I apologize for any and all issues and I am sorry for those few who think ill of me. Sincerely, Ace
Masters ............................................................................................... ***** October ***** Ideally, this should have been the Publisher's Word for August 2008, but that didn't happen. I was hoping to write something more positive than this note, but for now I've decided to simply explain the issues that have happened over the last two months and where the Written Word magazine will go from here. In addition, on a personal level, I wish to mention at least two good things that have occurred. You've heard of Murphy's Law? Well, August 2008 was Murphy's Month! Seemingly everything went wrong over August and September, but I will only focus on the one that affected The Written Word: MY BANK ACCOUNTS. Ever have someone hack into your bank accounts and wipe you out? This is what I have been dealing with for the past two months. Using a Paypal account, and the name Jennifer Taylor, someone hacked into my bank accounts and wiped me out. They withdrew my savings and tapped into my business credit line to the tune of $30,000. The person doing this tried to transfer all the money to a Paypal account! (Beware of Paypal!) As of Monday, October 6th, 2008, this has finally been straightened out,but Paypal was very slow in doing things and took over two months to investigate and return the funds. Still, they seem to have taken NO action against the account that was used under the name Jennifer Taylor. As of this point, I will no longer be using Paypal. Dealing with this took precedence, and took me away from the Written Word, which is why everything got backed up, leading to the reboot of the Written Word beginning this month. THE REBOOT Because of my unforeseen financial distress, and the delay it has caused, we have decided to reboot the Written Word as of this month - pushing things back slightly, which means what should have been the August Edition, is now the October Edition. To that end, this is what we are doing: Reboot in October, beginning with what should have been the August Issue. Then move the planned September issue to November, and put October and November's issues together as the holiday issue with TWO COVER STORIES. We will then skip January and start with February 2009, which would have been December 2008, potentially making this a giant-sized issue with 1 1/2 times the normal content. SUBMISSIONS SUSPENSION Due to this issue and the delays they caused, we have decided to suspend submissions again, effectively immediately until January 1, 2009. At that point, we will again start accepting submissions. We will evaluate all current submissions received between August 1 and September 31, 2008. Now for some GOOD NEWS -- on the personal front, I have good news to share about my play, Fallen By The Numbers, and my short story, He Waited. Details follow: My original play, Fallen By the Numbers, had its opening performance on Friday, September 12, 2008, by Cloverleaf Productions! According to all parties the opening night, and second performance Sunday (September 14, 2008) were hits, very well received by the crowd and well reviewed! The play shall continue its run through December 2008. Now, onto He Waited. My newest short story, the 217 word flash fiction piece He Waited, has been published by the Long Story Short online journal! The Long Story Short website is: http://alongstoryshort.net The Direct Link to the story is: http://alongstoryshort.net/HeWaited.html That's it for now. Glad to be back with you, and I hope you'll enjoy our October (planned for August) 2008 issue. Ace
Masters
***************************************** ***** January ***** Dear Readers, Hello All. Welcome to the New Year and hopefully new Written Word. Not new in terms of the website or what we publish – a little bit of everything – but new in our focus to the magazine. With the past year gone, gone are the problems that came with it. We are now focused on The Written Word more than ever. To that end, unlike what was announced in my last rant, The Written Word will return to a full monthly schedule and will be online the first of every month, rather than the fifteenth. The fact that we have had a great amount of quality submissions, and close to enough fiction to fill out the entire years’ schedule, will help us maintain the schedule. Currently, the schedule is planned through the June edition. Also, we are hoping to get some new features add to the site in the next few months, including the ability to vote on your favorite stories and poems in each edition! In one last note, I would like to mention that the first issue of Masterpiece Comics horror mini-series, Full Moon Craze, is the biggest selling issue from Masterpiece yet! With a full page ad for The Written Word included, hopefully that will drive some readers of the title to this site. Until next time, Ace
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