Bad Editor

The first thing to say is that there's stuff - terribly important stuff - going on over at Stand again, so stop wasting time reading this and go and read that instead. I'm way too up my own arse at the moment to even understand it, let alone explain it, so here's what Danny O'Brien has to say on the matter:

http://www.stand.org.uk/ has been updated with details of the proposed new EUCD (European Copyright Directive) regulations, which will become law in December. If you've heard of the DMCA, this is the European version. It's a law introduced to protect the entertainment industry from the Internet. Unfortunately, it neglects to protect Internet users from the entertainment industry.

As usual, the law as it stands is badly broken, but there are some fixes that can be made. More details at: long link

End of commercial break, and apologies to Mr O'Brien for bringing him into this dank, sad place.

Actually, that's not the end of the commercial break. Oh no. Swallow, you see, has finally sold out. That's right. While this magazine has been - for thirteen issues - entirely advertising free and not in any way beholden to the Man, we have, on this occasion, agreed to accept an advert, though it was on behalf of a guy acting for Leo Tolstoy.

This is the advert, here:

[ from Walk in the Light & Twenty-Three Tales, by Leo Tolstoy (Plough, 1998). Order online at: Tolstoy - Walk in the Light. Sign up to receive a timely quote from one of you favorite authors, waiting in your in-box every morning: Free Readings from Plough ]

According to the email we were sent (containing a short story by the great Russian master of letters), all we had to do was to reproduce the advert at the bottom of the text, and we could add Tolstoy to our growing list of contributors, past and present.

So we did.

You'll never talk to us again, will you. I know I won't. But I couldn't resist. It's the flattery, you know. When I first started Swallow, back in the early days of the internet, when you still needed a piece of string and a bucket to build websites, I never thought I'd end up getting something by Tolstoy in here.

O the power of the net.

But I digress. In addition, there's a poem by this guy called 'Wayne Myers' or something, who's been following me around so long I couldn't bear it any longer and finally included one of his miserable screeds. FWIW.

There's a bunch of other crap, too, including most of the text I wrote about a year ago when I first tried to do #14 but failed due to the sheer bloody awfulness of it all.

I wouldn't bother if I were you. Instead, click on the 'Great I Am' link to visit the site of Ted, who is Jesus Christ and the Messiah in the genes.

yeah, whatever, you know...