Views from Medina Road

Lots of reports from subscribers that the December issue is late. I'm 400 miles from Locus HQ in Oakland, but I see some of the email. And I haven't gotten *my* copy yet. Holiday mail delays, apparently.

Google News is cool. I posted the brief obit of Stefan Wul on the website yesterday morning (in this case, an abbreviated form of a piece submitted by a correspondent; the full obit will be in the magazine), and within the hour, a search of Google News for 'Stefan Wul' turned up the Locus Online link. Still the only result this morning.

The David Herter opera essay just posted is one of a couple articles that have taken more than the usual time to edit and finalize. Aside from those (one still in work), I already have John Shirley's review of LOTR: The Return of the King, and am debating when to post it. Not *too* early, but at least a few days in advance of the opening, perhaps.

Posting such material has a noticeable effect on traffic to the site. With the new books listings posted last weekend, and then the Herter article, there've been over 8000 unique visitors to the site each day this week so far. But success has a price: I'm getting surcharged by the website hosting service for exceeding the standard allowable monthly bandwidth.