Some News and Some Pictures.

(Left to right) Chelsea, Robin and Farid. The girls
try their best not to feel awkward. Farid does
his best to make the camera feel awkward.

Beth (left) and Barbara (right) kind of wreck the candidness
of these photos, but they have pretty smiles so
we forgive them.

This part of the circle has an oblong/amoeba shape
to it. Our fault. (Left to right) Devin, me (Elfie),
Travis, Julia, Trung and Chelsea again.

Editors missing from these pictures: Chris, Justin, Jason, Richard.

Hello again, on this, another one of our random sunny days.

The editors have been meeting with a sense of determination over the past week - we are focused completely on soliciting submissions from YOU (yes you), in order to have an abundance of interesting and quality art, poetry and prose to publish in the coming issue. Each meeting we "circle the wagons" (see above) and discuss in true round table fashion more and improved ways of getting the word out about SVR. Every little plug counts, just like every submission counts.

The project that is top priority at the moment is getting our fliers and posters to each corner of the county and beyond. Our editors have all become pushers, distributing our fliers hopefully as far east as Sacramento and as far west as San Francisco. Soon you won't be able to go anywhere in the Bay Area or anywhere near the capitol without seeing SUISUN VALLEY REVIEW!

Also, I ask all of our online allies to help out in a few small ways: remember the deadlines (3/4 for visual art submissions, 4/1 for written) and remind your creative acquaintances; repost our bulletins, reminders and tweets when you see them; and, if you are sending us anything, do it sooner rather than later! We are very anxious to start considering your work.

There is another piece of news that I'd like to share. There is always a conversation that we need to have prior to the consideration of pieces that we have had, and has led to a decision. It is part of the course description (as stated in the catalogue at Solano College) that the editors may also, if they choose, submit their own work to be considered for the magazine. This leads to many questions: How do we go about doing this? Can we retain fairness during this process? Some of us even suggested to abandon this practice all together. But, as it is part of the course, all of us would need to agree to this in order for it to be legitimate.

We came to the conclusion that, since this is an entirely personal decision, each individual would make it themselves. Our process for this will be that each editor who submits will slip their submission in with the others, using a pseudonym. Then we go through and vote on it, no one else being aware that "Jane Doe" is actually Elfie Nelson, for example. Only after the piece or pieces are accepted and the book is arranged would I annouce that I am actually "Jane Doe". And in order to retain complete transparancy, a note will be placed in the beginning of the magazine explaining this process. All will be as fair as we can make it.

That is all I have for this week. Until we meet again, we will practice, plaster posters, and continue to spread the word.

Until next time (Remember that the art submission deadline is this coming Wednesday!),

- Elfie