Joy to the World!.....I'm in print!

They are other greater joys, but few I can think of right now that compare to this email I got in November:

Dear Greg, My name is Aimee Pokwatka, and I'm the Managing Editor of The Newtowner. We're just finishing up this issue, and I'd like to send you a contract for your cartoon...

I had heard about a new art and literature magazine that was springing from a creative writers group one town over from me. The Newtowner, as described in their website here proclaims in their mission to:

Celebrate, showcase and promote new and established

local writers and artists.

  Well, I am all for that. I quickly discovered that they were accepting submissions for their inaugural edition. Nearing 150 posts for this blog, I felt there must be something I could send for the non-fiction section, and decided to include one of my drawings as well.  Not really knowing who these nice folks were, who wanted my cartoon, I waiting with as much anticipation as a confused tic feeding off a red water-balloon.  When I finally got to hold a fresh copy, which I had  unpacked from a stack waiting to be sold, I was blown away. Not by my own self appreciation, but by the overall quality of the publication:

This is no floppy, pulpy, newsprint ink-bleeding periodical.  The image on the cover, a beautiful re-rendering of the Newtown Meeting House across from the famous flagpole leaps out from the page in way that defies the reader's ability to determine if it is an oil painting, or a photograph, or possibly both?  Though I know very little of how a magazine is physically published, I can tell that a high grade of heavy-wight card stock must have been used for the cover, and a similar weighted stock for the pages. This magazine, as a whole, deserves not to be recycled to the local doctor's office dog-eared out-of-date Time, People and Newsweek collection. NO. This is a fine masterwork that deserves its own corner of the coffee table, as would a book of fine living, or "Above Yosemite." Placed strategically by the smarter Real Estate agent who will know that when their back is turned during the open house walk-through that the astute home buyer would see it and say, "This town has its own literary magazine? When can we close?"

I had intended to place a scan of the page where my cartoon now resides in the pages of The Newtowner, but as I am under contract, I will send you to where I originally posted the image back in April. The Publishers at The Newtowner have lovingly separated the caption from the image and typeset it to the right and generously given me a poetry credit as well.  I recommend that if you plan on reading any literary magazine in the near future and you want to support  local artists and businesses, you would be doing a good thing to check out this quarterly publication and consider subscribing. You'll be glad you did.  

Finally, if you ever had even just the smallest idea to write, compose, or create, you should consider sharing it with the editors through the submission links on their website. You too, will find that this is another kind of joy that makes the season bright.