Second, this month is our first science fiction issue. We have prose from Daniel Hudon, Dawn Corrigan, Dan Perlman, Diane Andrews**, Michael A. Kechula, and Erin Fitzgerald, plus artwork by Steve Cartwright. We plan on doing another science fiction issue next month, so keep those submissions coming!

Third, we have an announcement to make. Defenestration is changing.

Since our first issue back in 2003, we’ve been a monthly magazine. The release schedule worked, but didn’t really take full advantage of our status as a website. Most of our traffice showed up on the 20th of the month when the latest issue went live, and then everything went quiet until the next release. But we’re a website. We’re here 24-7. We want you to visit us more than you visit your grandmother.

And so it comes to this. Defenestration, the website, will be updated weekly starting January 2010. These updates will include columns from editors Eileen Lavelle and Genevieve Valentine, as well as some from brand new columnists we’ll introduce you to later. Defenestration will also host Ben & Winslow, a weekly webcomic by editor-in-chief Andrew Kaye. If that wasn’t enough, our weekly updates will include non-fiction and fake non-fiction*** from contributors like you.

Defenestration, the magazine you’re familiar with, will now appear three times a year: April, August, and December. These will include all the great fiction, poetry, and artwork you’re used to. The year will be divided into three reading periods, with each period corresponding to a particular issue. Our submission process will be streamlined for quick responses: you’ll know whether your submissions has been rejected or held aside for consideration within a week!

What does this all mean? More content, a more selective submission process, and shorter waits for just about everything. It’ll be ten kinds of awesome. There will be plenty of cosmetic changes, too, starting in mid-December when the Submissions page is updated. But we’ll fill you in on those details next month. Remember, we’re closed to regular submissions until December 15th!

Until then!

—Bigfoot, Fiction Editor

*Your piece of cake is in the mail.

** What’s with all the D names?

***Fiction that reads like non-fiction. Like an interview with someone who doesn’t exist, or a review about a book that no one’s written.

Today is actually our birthday. (Which is why Andrew and Eileen and Genevieve asked me to write this. They’re all out partying with movie stars.) Five years ago, on a 20th of November very much like today, only in the past, our very first issue went live. Andrew, Eileen, and Genevieve intended for it to be a subtle path toward world domination, and are still waiting for that goal to be accomplished.

A few points I’d like to make this month:

1.) Newsletter: since adopting the new format, we’ve abandoned the Defenestration Newsletter. After unsuccessfully trying to convert our newsletter robot (Haratron) into a refrigerator, we decided to put him in charge of the newsletter’s replacement: the Defenestration Facebook group. If you’re on Facebook, please join us to receive the latest news that you ordinarily would have received via the newsletter, if it still existed. Which it doesn’t. Check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31366453957

2.) Archives: we get a lot of questions about our past issues. Like: “Why can’t I see them?” and “Where did they go?” and “You’re hiding them on purpose, aren’t you? You’re just like my ex! Get out of my apartment!” The answer to these questions are: “They went away when we changed formats” and “They’re on my hard drive, waiting to be uploaded” and “We’re not doing it on purpose. We love you, baby. Don’t make a scene, the neighbors can hear.”

We have some, but not all, of our archives up. Because it’s our birthday, we urge you to check out our very first issue in addition to the brand new one we have sparkling up front here. In the coming months, more issues will be reintroduced into the new format, until our archives are fully populated. And never fear, whenever significant portions of past issues are up and running, we’ll let you know. And by “we” I mean Haratron, because if he’s not going to chill my Kool-Aid to a pleasant 50 degrees, then he can write a little blurb on Facebook.

Anyway, enjoy the issue!

—Bigfoot, prose editor and mystery of the Pacific Northwest