Welcome to the November 2009 issue of Defenestration! This month is special for several reasons. First, it’s our birthday*! Defenestration is officially six years old. We’re starting to feel it in our joints, but modern medicine and cybernetics will keep us going for a long time.

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.