A press release from Publisher Raechel Henderson of Eggplant Literary Productions:
As part of the restart of Eggplant Literary Productions, we are looking to revive the children’s fantasy magazine we published between 1999 and 2003.
The magazine is called Spellbound. It was a quarterly magazine for kids 9-13. We published fifteen issues between 1999-2003. Each issue was filled with stories, poetry, artwork, riddles, puzzles, recipes, and nonfiction and centered around a featured creature. We encouraged our readers to get creative and interact with us by hosting writing contests, publishing winners in issues. We published stories and poetry from authors such as Marissa K. Lingen, Lawrence M. Schoen, Lawrence Schimel, Laura J. Underwood and others.
The featured creatures ranged from The Abominable Snowman to Dragons from Genies to Merfolk, Orcs and Tricksters. It was edited by myself and Marcie Tentchoff. Our guiding principle throughout the publication was to make something we would have wanted to read when we were kids.
The magazine was well-received, earning praise from readers, parents, librarians and reviewers. Donna Farley wrote in her review in Black Gate: “This chapbook-format quarterly distinguishes itself from a host of other small press f/sf magazines by aiming squarely at the juvenile audience. It scores a direct hit, too, with high-calibre stories, poetry, and articles focused on the ‘feature creature’ of the issue and on other folklore/fairy tale/mythology themes.”
About a year ago I came across a box of back issues in my garage. And after spending the afternoon reading through them, I got the itch to start publishing it again. It’s taken a while and some tweaking of our expectations and platform, but we feel we’re ready to relaunch. We’re going digital this time around, but everything else—our inspiration, the featured creatures, the poetry, stories, and artwork and quarterly publication schedule—will remain the same.
Our Kickstarter page is here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1367572146/spellbound-magazine. We’re trying to raise the money to fund the first year’s run. Already we’ve reached 53% funded (of a $4,000 goal). We’re just trying to spread the word to reach as many interested parties as possible.