We've got the summer issue all primed and ready to go and are planning out fall even as I type, but the biggest news around here is our photo contest. Tori tours make us greedy. It's a fabulous time to get those candid pictures of our muse onstage and off, meeting with fans.

This is not the first photo contest I've helmed or co-helmed at LBW, and I've got to tell you that they're almost as scary as they are exciting. Tori's fans are avid and talented photographers, and we expect to be flooded with fabulous images, all of which will need to be organized before the blind panel judging in February so that we can be sure they get equal opportunity viewing... and that we can match them back up with their photographers when they're done. LBW staff could tell you that I'm a tad bit on the obsessive side. For me, this means a ton of charts and folders and files... and a lot of time on my image program of choice, Adobe Photoshop, making sure that the images are a good size and resolution to qualify.

For you, it means an opportunity to win some prizes and to see your photographs immortalized in print. Even if your photo does not win, we will do our best to publish it in some future issue. We keep your photos around forever, and if ever we do find a good spot to place it will do our best to get a complementary copy to you. We keep your address on file. Just be sure to notify us if your contact information changes! You can always reach Nadyne or me at editor@little-blue-world.org.

In honor of the photo contest, we're adding another article to our Article Excerpt section here in LBW Online. Concert Photography, by current editor-in-chief Nadyne Mielke, ran in Vol. 5, No. 2, Summer of 2005.

Have a good summer, guys, and happy photographing!

--Angela

April 19, 2007

Today we are adding our first round of excerpted reviews, as promised. We have a considerable backlog to go through and expect to trickle out more in the months to come. EWF are a diverse and discriminating group, but presumably we do all have _one_ thing in common. We think it's likely we have a few more.

I'd like to thank those readers who have sent in feedback about these new features. Your encouragement is appreciated. I'd love to hear more. Is there something you'd recommend we include in our online section? Is there something you'd like to see in our zine? You can contact me and our editor-in-chief at the same time through editor@little-blue-world.org or write to us individually: nadyne@little-blue-world.org or angela@little-blue-world.org. We value your responses.

--Angela

March 7, 2007

As promised in our earlier Chatter, we are working to expand the online portion of Little Blue World. We have our article index ready and hope to get the Collector's Guide back online soon. It needs updating. We present one sample article from LBW's archives for your perusal and will be making more available in the near future. We also will be excerpting some of our past reviews.

The observant among you may have noticed that this isn't the only thing we've been up to at Little Blue World: we're hiring a few new staff members. We were sad to see Jenn K. Lee go: she was pulled away from us by the demands of her day job. Jenn won our first writing contest, and we were so excited when she accepted our invitation to write for us full time. Jenn, we're here, if you ever have time to come back.

Meanwhile, we've been gathering many excellent samples. Tori's fans are nothing if not literate. Today was the deadline for applicants, and we have our work cut out for us. We look forward to being able to introduce you to a couple of new writers very soon.

--Angela

January 26, 2007

Welcome to our updated website. We've been working on this for a long time, and we hope that you will find it easy to navigate and use. We've reorganized several major components, including the "LBW Shop," which now has separate "departments" for single back issues and multipacks. We've offered expanded information on LBW's current staff, in case you're curious who exactly volunteers so much time and effort into our zine. But our biggest plans, which we hope to unveil over the next few weeks, are for this page right here.

LBW Online--it seems like a good place not only to offer you news about what's going on around LBW, but also to offer excerpts from issues past. We'll be releasing our revamped Collectibles Guide in this spot. Offering reviews. And more.

For now, we'll just say welcome, and we'll also take advantage of the blank space to thank everyone who chose to participate in Little Blue World's Holiday Contest, now closed. And, again, congratulations to our five winners:

Brian Arnold
Michael Fellows
Gillian Hanson
Michael Stokes
Joann Thebault

To everyone else, keep your eye out. We like contests around here, and I'm sure it won't be long before we're offering more!

--Angela