This edition marks the end of my second year as Editor of The Wisconsin Regional Writer. It also marks the real beginning of your Wisconsin Regional Writer as both newsletter and literary journal of the Association. In effect, TWRW has become the Association's magazine. Although we have published some members' creative writing for several issues now, it has always been on a “space available” basis. Starting with this issue, four to six pages per issue will be set aside for that purpose. If advertising supports the additional pages, I hope to increase that. We are, in effect, bringing back some aspects of an earlier WRWA publication-Creative Wisconsin, which used to be published as a companion to the Association's regular newsletter.

I was disappointed by receiving so few creative submissions for this edition. Thanks to members of the Online Discussion Group, submissions picked up near the deadline. I hope that WRWA members will begin to realize that their work can get published here and will submit it for consideration. Your writing not only gets disseminated to members via the hard copy Wisconsin Regional Writer, it appears in the online version and is accessible to millions of readers. I Googled some of the authors published in the summer and fall editions (which are now online) and got links to their stories and poems. All submissions go into a folder. Those not selected for one edition remain eligible for future editions.

Just as you got used to seeing e-mail addresses in a strange new format, our webmaster, Ralph Davis, discovered a way to present them online in the standard format without risking that they will be harvested by Web bots and sold to spam mongers. Accordingly, e-mail addresses will again be listed in the standard format. I'm also going back to listing addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses for Board members and Club Reporters. These data are all presented on the WRWA Web site's page for Local Groups. It seems silly for me to keep them out of the newsletter when the same information is elsewhere on our Web site.

Readers will see more coverage of how the Internet affects writing. More than 75 percent of American households now have computers with Internet connections. Many publishers accept queries and submissions by e-mail, quite a few only by e-mail. Some even allow you to go to their Web sites and submit articles and photographs directly to the Web site. Many writers don't use correct Internet terminology, or spell the terms incorrectly. So I've included an item in this edition to help writers get it right (page 27). Finally, the Internet is an incredibly rich resource for writers. Thus, I'm inaugurating a new regular feature, “Useful URLs,” to identify especially useful Web sites for writers (page 26). I welcome reader contributions.

Finally, because this is such a long edition, I have used 10 point type throughout. That allows me to get in two extra pages with no increase in cost. If readers find that too small, please e-mail or call me to let me know and I'll return to the font size I had been using.

I hope that all of you have a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, or whatever you celebrate at this time of year.

WRWA members whose writing is published in The Wisconsin Regional Writer retain the copyright to their work. Submission of your work grants one-time rights for publication by TWRW. Items printed here should be regarded as “published” and authors should make this known when declaring “prior publication” when submitting the work elsewhere. Because of our limited distribution, most editors probably will not regard that as an issue. Finally, the editor will do his best to uphold high standards of quality in the selection of what is printed here so authors may be proud of having their writing presented to the full WRWA membership.