Dusk - Issue #10

After an unscheduled break of almost a year, Journal of the Dark is back... but only for a short while. Issue #10 will be our last.

Our loyal subscribers and readers deserve to hear the whole story, so here goes...

Why Issue #10 is so late

Lateness is a chronic problem with amateur magazines. When I started Journal of the Dark, I vowed that it would be on time every time. And for the first nine issues, we reached our goal. So, as you can imagine, it took more than some minor problems to make this issue eleven months late.

The sad story begins with a hard drive crash on my PC, just as I was about to start layout work on #10. As crashes go, I was pretty lucky – I didn't lose any data. But I struggled to repair the drive, and I had to re-load every program I have. That took time – time I didn't have.

Just after that happened, I finally found a new job, and began the process of moving from South Bend, Indiana to Atlanta, Georgia. I came to Atlanta in May, and Cathy stayed behind to wait for the house to sell. I had a little free time, but I was 700 miles away from my computer equipment, so I couldn't do anything with the Journal.

Without going into too many personal details, the relocation dragged on and on, and there wasn't much I could do about it. I first thought I'd be able to get this issue out by July, then by Halloween, then by the end of 1997. All of those plans fell through, primarily for financial reasons (including my sworn plans to attend Dracula '97 in August). We're still not finished with the relocation, but we were able to put together some "alternative financing" in the Spring, and we took Issue #10 to the printer shortly afterward.

As I told several Journal subscribers last summer, the real world sucks, but the real world pays the bills, including the Journal bills. Overall, this move was a very good thing for us, but it created a tremendous amount of upheaval. All we could do was just deal with it, and unfortunately that meant putting Journal of the Dark on hold until our lives and our finances were at least partially settled.

Why this is our last issue

This was not an easy decision. Journal of the Dark has been my primary recreation for the past three-plus years, and Vlad, Librarian of the Dark has been my primary alter ego for the past six years. It's been a lot of fun, and to be perfectly honest, it's been quite a thrill to see my magazine (OK contributors, our magazine) go all over the world. We set out to create an intelligently written, literate, high-quality vampire magazine, and we succeeded. I feel as strong a sense of accomplishment with the Journal as I do with anything from my academic or professional careers. That's not something you just walk away from.

But almost from the beginning, there have been problems. First came financial problems, a common occurrence with amateur publications. Without rehashing the same old stuff again, the primary problem is circulation – selling enough copies to pay for printing. To make things worse, I never could leave well enough alone – I always wanted to make improvements. And I did: more pages, slick covers, better quality photographs. All that cost more money, but it didn't increase circulation, at least not enough to pay for itself.

Not one single issue of Journal of the Dark has made money, and most of them are several hundred dollars in the red. The difference has always come out of my pocket. I justified that by calling the Journal my "hobby," and telling myself that if I wasn't spending money on it, I'd be spending it on something else. And that's at least partially true. But the financial problems caused by the move forced me to re-evaluate my position.

But this isn't just a dollars and cents issue. Over the past few issues, I've been struggling to be more creative, more "cutting edge," and less repetitious. And that's proven to be even more difficult than managing the Journal finances. When we asked Poppy Brite why she had stopped writing about vampires (in Issue #6), she said "I just feel that I said all I had to say about them." I'm afraid I've reached that point myself. And if I've said all I have to say on the subject (at least for now), then I'm doing my readers and myself a great disservice by continuing to go on and on.

The third reason is time. An amateur publisher has to be a writer, an editor, a salesman, a shipping clerk, and much much more. I said that Journal of the Dark has been my primary recreation for the past three-plus years; in many months, it was my only recreation. That's one of the reasons I'm out of touch with what's new in the vampire community – I've been so busy with the Journal I haven't had time to read many new vampire books, or keep up with what's going on (much less participate in it).

The bottom line is that it's time for me to move on to some other things; some of them vampire-oriented, some of them not.

What this means for subscribers

If you're subscribed past #10, we included a statement of your account with your copy. You can use your credit to order back issues, order Journal of the Dark vampire t-shirts, or request a refund. Just tell us which you'd prefer on the form (or let us know via e-mail).

This web site will remain active, at least for the foreseeable future. And I plan to keep the Journal PO box and my current e-mail account open indefinitely, so I'll be around if you have anything to ask or to say.

What's next from the Library of the Dark

I'm not exactly sure what's next – I still have a lot of "settling" to do in the real world. But vampires have been a part of my life ever since I saw the original Dark Shadows, and I don't think that's ever going to change. I have some catching up to do; and I want to enjoy doing for a while, instead of writing about what other people do. And despite all the problems, I've enjoyed amateur publishing. I may very well try it again some day, although probably not on as large a scale as Journal of the Dark.

So, that's what we're doing and why. Check out Issue #10, our final journey into darkness.