beyond magazine

How nice

Things can get a little tough here in the Beyond office. Posting has been light as we try to put together the Body issue and a few of us are struggling with life, stress, and body things. Ah timing. But today one of our sister's sent these birthday wishes and it cheered us right up. This is from Apoplectic Press and is listed under Weird Birthday Cards.

Alberta Magazines Conference: March 6 & 7

I'll be attending and helping with the Alberta Magazines Conference at the end of this week. If you're in the neighborhood and needing to know about all things magazine, this is the place for you. I have threatened all year to pop up in tap shoes and belt Wind Beneath My Wings during my intros so if you are attending and see someone being wrestled off the stage, that's me.

More Beyond.

We've started a brand new email update list that anyone can join. From time to time, we'll be sending out emails about Beyond goings-on. You'll find out about what we're reading, who we're talking and listening to, the highs and highers of magazine publishing, and what we're rolling around in our collective brain. Some super-secret inside tips might even be made available. We'll also be asking for your ideas and suggestions so we can make "the little magazine about a lot of things" even better. Sign up now and join the fun! And help keep independent media alive and thriving.

(In line with our privacy policy, we won't trade or sell your information. Because it's yours. So we don't do that.)

That's a minus before that 48.

Just back from a few days in Victoria, BC - the place with green grass and budding trees. And this is what greets a return to the tiny Beyond offices.

Ah hah! Beyond shop is open!

If you click that Get Beyond Now! button you will be instantly transferred to our new Beyond shop where we exchange Beyond for a few goats and then we sell the goats and get dollars.

Update: I talked to my people and they suggested skipping the goat portion as we have a small office. Thus the new Beyond shop is online and now taking currency in trade for "the little magazine about a lot of things".

You can send gift subscriptions, subscribe, buy single issues, and you can Give Beyond to Libraries - an exciting new thing we are doing that we will tell you more about this week.

So one whoo and also a hoo as we cut the ribbon on our new blog and online shop.

How about over there?

Don't mind us. Just moving the furniture around.

Back.

Okay, we're back. And a new issue is out and we're mailing and answering email and processing subscriptions at the old prices until our new shop is finished. And our domain name has been released, finally released, from the big black dungeon of the giant internet company. Hooray. Dozens of emails and long phone calls later. The internet makes life easier. Remember that. Chant it. Beleeeeeeeve it.

On Monday: The big reveal

Bookmark this page for Monday and we will show you a sneak peek of Issue 16: Small in all of its multi-paged glory.

Utne Independent Press Awards and Beyond.

Beyond magazine has been nominated for Best Design at the Utne Independent Press Awards:

"We began by upending the orderly shelves of our library, corralling some 1,300 magazines, newsletters, journals, alt weeklies, and zines into wobbly stacks. Then we dug in to read articles that we might have missed during the year and to reread our favorites—everything from gritty newsprint publications to polished perfect-bound journals. After much deliberation, debate, and a bit of teeth-gnashing, we whittled it all down to 111 standouts."

These are the things we tell our mothers about. Oh and you of course. But our mothers will cut this out and put it on the fridge.

The Return.

I'm back from an unexpected side trip to Dubai which took place after attending Magnet in Toronto. A very small family crisis brought me to one air-conditioned villa with one strange but happy little dog in the Al Barsha development of the ever-expanding city of Dubai. There I stayed for nearly six weeks, hammering out the next issue while men hammered out more villas by hand in 45 degree heat outside of my window.

I've just spent the entire weekend outside helping with the AMPA booth at the Calgary Folk Festival and adjusting to the shock of being able to spend more than two minutes at a time in outdoor  air.

And so this morning, I sit at my desk with a six week pile of mail that includes subscriptions (hurray!), donations (c'mon print bill for Beyond Issue 16: Small), writing submissions (yes, some people do still send 'em by mail), and other sundry bits of correspondence.

Stories to follow. Shakes fist at sky and says in Scarlett O'Hara voice, "As God is my witness, Beyond shall blog again!"