We’ve got nine days of deadline left for the May/June 2008 issue (Issue No. 111), which will be our most important issue in nearly a decade. For only the second time in our 18 1/2 year history, it will be 16 pages longer than our standard 100 pages. A collector’s issue! 

Today I worked on Claire Wolfe’s article, which meant it was a relatively easy day because her article needs only layout and art. (She emailed me a change this morning.) A couple of “pull quotes,” also known as “set-asides,” will help break up the grey space, and I had Don Childers do two pencil renderings for it.

Don is doing a lot of drawings for this issue. Today we zeroed in on the cover, and I think we’ll have it down in a few more days. It’s harder working with Don now that he lives in Colorado. In the old days, we could go back and forth and hammer out a drawing in a half hour. He’s very quick with his conceptualizations and trying to figure out what is in my head, but distance, even with the internet, slows things down.

This is a busy time on the editorial side here. Lot of work to do yet.