Written by
Susan W. Smith posted on December 13, 2010 14:11
Love them or hate them, family Christmas letters are here to stay. Here is our family letter:
We published a dozen issues with 134 articles from 31 authors. We averaged 60 photographs/issue. We now have over 4,000+ subscribers and we have 597 fans on our Facebook page.
The most rewarding times of the year are when we receive your emails thanking us for our efforts. By now, most of you have decided just how much time you will devote to reading TI Life. We greatly appreciate the comments, pro and con, that we receive from our readers. Whether you read every page or only one, we are glad that you have joined us.
Every month I get a query letter from someone who is as passionate about Thousand Islands history as I am. We correspond and soon I am learning more and appreciating just how important it is to gather and share our material.
The late Paul Malo would be pleased to see how many “hits” we get and how often I am thanked for TI Life, which was his creation. My favorite was a recent fall day when I was sitting in an Ottawa book store. A lady stopped to ask if I was XXXXX. I replied, “No my name is Susan Smith”. “Oh yes” she said, “You do that magazine about the islands”. I rushed home to call my children to tell them that I am famous. Well, not really as the lady was “just” an islander who lives in Ottawa and who loves to share in our stories written by her friends.
So, as we head into a new year, my sincere thanks to our readers, our TI Life Team, and our amazing authors, photographers, and artists, who join together to “put a thousand islands in your life”.
This month’s issue
Dean Pagani brings a Christmas Story to our youngest readers: Higgins at Christmas.
Chris Brock, features writer of the Watertown Daily Times, gives us Light Envy, a Christmas Story, with photographs by Christopher Murray. We took the liberty of converting the photos to illustrations thanks to fotosketch. Lacking a “Rudolph with Sleigh”, we found one by Anna Dzyak of Encino, CA. Anna, now 12, drew it four years ago and her father kindly gave us permission to use it.
Rex Ennis gives us Santa Claus of the Thousand Islands, and Dick Withington presents Dick Withington in December. Dick suggested we ask Louise Currin for her beautiful painting of a Christmas Ship.
Robert Matthews returns with “Camp Grindstone”. Rebecca Hopfinger proudly presents the history the Thousand Islands Art Centre with Preserving & Promoting Heritage Arts. John Peach tells us about another of his renovation projects, “Que’ Sara”: Basket Case to Beauty. Michael Folsom introduces photographers Paul and Lillian Cooledge in Thousand of Island Images and presents Part II of his October article, Not Easy Being On A Ship.
Kim Lunman writes Fancy That! And a Book Review… , Lynn McElfresh presents Walks on Wellesley and I present additional information to accompany Ian’s Wallpaper Puzzle.
Michael Cox, a TI Life Team volunteer, maintains our webpage. His company, Creative Information Solutions, provides countless hours each year in helping getting each issue “up and running”. We would not exist without his expertise! This month he helped solve a problem we have had with printing. Be sure to check this out: How to print a Thousand Islands Life Article. This new feature should work with “most” computers and printers.
Important Notice:
We discovered that our “subscribe” option for Thousand Island Life Magazine was not working for a few weeks. So if you subscribed and you do not receive my email notice on December 15 please subscribe again. With more than 4,000 subscribers, we have changed to a more efficient contact program.
You can find the “subscribe” information at http://www.thousandislandslife.com/CurrentIssue/SubscribetoMagazine.aspx
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I close with our very best wishes for the holiday season and Happy New Year!
Susan W. Smith, Editor, susansmith@thousandislandslife.com