Screen Shot 2015-09-14 at 10.35.41 PMSo many thanks are in order as I prepare to release the latest issue of the Panhandle Focus. The new issue is ready to go and already posted at PanhandleFocus.com… but … don’t get too comfortable there.

We now have an official Online Marketing Director, Kyra Starr, and in the next 24 hours there should be a shiny new website up with our name on it. While you wait, the newest issue of the Focus is up and ready to view on the old website.

The Panhandle Focus also welcomes a new staff writer, Rachel Reese, who will add wonderful detailed content to our publication. She has been contributing from the first issue and has been a tireless advocate. I welcome both our new staff members with relief and gratitude.

Another huge help to the Focus came as a gift. Robin Wiesneth donated a large, flatscreen television she no longer needed to help me out as a secondary monitor. It was a beautiful experience to lay out the paper large enough for me to easily see all the bits and pieces.

Using the laptop screen alone, I had a good three hours tops before my eyes would start tearing up too bad for me to continue. The new screen has worked wonders. I sat on it nearly all day with no eye strain at all. Robin also regularly contributes the unique and witty Outpost cartoons that have appeared since the first issue.

A thanks also needs to go out to my family for putting up with over done chops for dinner, among other horrors. If I didn’t have such a tolerant and loving family I couldn’t do what I do. They put up with a lot and love me in spite of my fits of neglect that coincide around deadlines.

Thank you to everyone who has been sending me photos, news, story ideas, stories, calendar events… this publication is built on community. Without you, it’s pointless. And speaking of community, Cafe Bienville, located at 314 Bayshore Dr., Niceville, is a great place to experience the Panhandle Focus community.

We have out meetings there and the owners, Matt and Melissa French, kindly allow us to have material for the Panhandle Focus dropped off there. They have been a huge support from the beginning, not only to this publication, but to the creative community at large.

I hope you enjoy the September 15 issue of the Panhandle Focus. I admit I was very nervous to see if I could pull off two publications a month, plus my regular blog and monthly short story releases. With all the support and help I had, it turned out to be (mostly) a piece of cake.

Thank you everyone, for everything. It’s only going to get better from here. Click on the image below to flip through this issue. You can also always find a link to the latest Panhandle Focus to the right in my sidebar, or at panhandlefocus.com.

Panhandle Focus
Click to read the Sept. 15 issue!

 

By Angela Yuriko Smith

Angela Yuriko Smith is a third-generation Ryukyuan-American, award-winning poet, author, and publisher with 20+ years in newspapers. Publisher of Space & Time magazine (est. 1966), two-time Bram Stoker Awards® Winner, and HWA Mentor of the Year, she shares Authortunities, a free weekly calendar of author opportunities at authortunities.substack.com.

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