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Editorial

"Racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun..."

Christmas is, for many, a time for presents and an opportunity to look over the year just gone. At TiconderogaOnline we're taking this opportunity to give our readers a bumper issue, full of reviews, fiction, interviews and a welcome return to our occasional columnist Chris Lawson. Our long awaited forum is now available for our readers to discuss TiconderogaOnline and provide feedback to the editors.

And on top of all this, I'd like to welcome a new addition to our rather irregular site. TiconderogaOnline is pleased to announce that the incredibly talented yet "internationally unknown" writer Steven Utley has been blackmailed graciously agreed to provide the occasional humorous column to further brighten the lives of you, our readership. Please make him feel very welcome.

This month's incredibly shortsighted move by the folks at www.scifi.com to "discontinue" the net's flagship webzine SciFiction reinforces two core concepts about web publishing.

1. There is no money at present in web publishing.
2. That it doesn't matter how good your publication is, the bean-counters will never overlook point 1.

The discontinuing of Sci Fiction has sent shockwaves throughout the sf-publishing world. The idea that a publication can be so highly regarded, have such an incredible editor as Ellen Datlow at the helm, garner so many awards and nominations, and yet be so expendible demonstrates once and for all why balance sheets do not paint the full picture.

As a tribute to the work Ellen Datlow has done with SciFiction, David Schwartz, assisted by Niall Harrison and Chance Morrison, are compiling The Ellen Datlow/Sci Fiction Project. Check it out here: http://edsfproject.blogspot.com/.

It also shows how fragile the web-publishing industry is. You may notice throughout our pages large banner ads extolling the virtues of Conjure, the 45th Australian National Convention taking place in April 2006. This is because of a lucrative sponsorship arrangement where they have paid us a large sum of money for us to publicise their event. How good will this event be? Well, we'll be there. Furthermore, this arrangement enables us to continue to provide excellent fiction at less cost to us and, as always, no cost to you.

If you'd like to see your project or event similarly displayed throughout TiconderogaOnline, for less than you might imagine, please see our Advertising page.

While the balance sheet of TiconderogaOnline will never be a serious cause for concern, with its incomes and outgoings appearing in the manageable side of the red, the editors are subject to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. This year is the first in TiconderogaOnline's six-year history that we have produced every scheduled issue, and almost all within a month of when we said we would. We'd like to recognise the efforts of the editorial panel throughout the year: Lee Battersby, Lyn Battersby, Liz Grzyb and Russell B. Farr in making this achievement possible. Special thanks to Lee Battersby for his work in revitalising TiconderogaOnline and we wish him the very best in future endeavours. TiconderogaOnline is a team effort, and all of our editors work to make each issue what it is: there is no my/his/her issue, each installment of TiconderogaOnline is collectively, our issue.

Furthermore we'd like to take this opportunity to thank out contributors over the year. Our fiction contributors: Martin Livings, Ben Peek, Robert Hood, Ashley Arnold, Cat Sparks, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, David Carroll and Deborah Biancotti. TiconderogaOnline isn't just about fiction, a large part of our site is devoted to interviews, reviews and other non-fiction. We would like to thank the publishers which have supplied us with books during the year: Allen & Unwin, Angriest, Aqueduct Press, Aust Speculative Fiction, Biting Dog Press, Borderlands, Cherry Hill Publishing, Coffee House Press, CSFG, Dark Animus, EDGE, Elastic Press, Fables and Reflections, Golden Gryphon, Gynaezine, Kaleidoscope Film, HarperCollins/Voyager, Mathew Hudson, Mitch?, Pan Macmillan, Overlook Connection Press, Riptide Press, Shadowed Realms/Brimstone Press, Simon & Schuster, Time Warner UK, Tyrannosaurus Press and Wakefield Press. We'd especially like to thank Golden Gryphon for the support they have shown us over the last two years. A big thank you also to our dedicated reviewers who have provided this site with their insightful and honest reviews and critiques: Kate Armitage, Lee Battersby, Lee Kofman, Lev Lafayette, Timothy I. McDougall, P. Niski, Jacinta Rosielle.

Congratulations to all of this year's Aurealis Award (warning: website uses frames) nominees with special mention to Cat Sparks for her story "Macchiato Lane" published in the September issue of this very publication. Congratulations also to TiconderogaOnline editor Lyn Battersby and former editor Lee Battersby on their Aurealis Award nominations. Our commiserations to those who didn't get a guernsey: no one should be in this biz for the awards, just be damn impressive at what you do and that's all that matters.

We've also taken this opportunity to revamp our site, making it faster to load over normal connection speeds, easier to read and almost entirely W3C compliant. You may also notice that our longer pages, fiction and interviews has a high contrast option for those who have trouble reading on screen. If you have any other suggestions please feel free to leave them on our forum.

Finally, we'd like to take this opportunity to wish our readers a very happy and safe festive season, and we'll see you in March 2006!

The editors