New Canon Member and more

For those of you who missed this weekend's big announcement:

An exciting announcement / update!

While this isn't the first time it has happened, it is still a rare enough event that its worth a front page announcement and lots of kudos from the community. Over the past year or so, one of the community members has written several fan fics that have really resonated with both canon authors and the readership at large. These stories, with only a little advice and support from the canon team have been of high quality and merit recognition as being insightful into the sort of people the canon characters are meant to be... beyond their power sets, and the trappings of the setting. In addition to being the sort of author WE want to read and work with, this community member has stepped in and helped in a significant way with the site move; spending dozens (if not hundreds) of hours assisting with the process of moving stories to the new site.

For these reasons, among others, we happily extend official canon status to Phoenix Spiritus. We are also offering official status as "Hank's author" to Phoenix for all the great work on the stories created as fan fic but which now all sit on the shelves as canon (as they should). But this is a full canon position, so Phoenix is not limited to just writing about Hank... we hope to help P-S to develop a new Fall 2007 freshman to work in with the rest of the ongoing core storyline. There's also a possibility for G2 timeline stories (if the G2 crew is willing)... or external (G0) stories. 

I hope to be able to make more announcements like this in the near future and I know there are a number of authors who we have our eyes on, as we evaluate them for not only their writing talent and skill but also with how well they will work with our team, how committed they are and so forth...  especially once we post our 'formal road' to canon authorship and the various ways for authors to get published here. It's always exciting to see what new authors bring to the table. Be sure to congratualate Phoenix Spiritus in the forums when you have a chance!

And hey... today is tax day! I hope everyone got their taxes done and submitted so the government won't get pissy about it. And they will. There might be billionaires skipping out on paying taxes on hundreds of millions of dollars in offshore tax haven accounts... but by all the gods, if someone living at the poverty line is late filing their taxes for the sixty dollars they owe... they'll send out the flipping black ops teams to hold your life hostage until you comply with all the appropriate tax codes. So before you give in and read this week's story content, make sure you aren't blowing off the IRS to do it. Last thing I need is the tax man coming after me because I distracted you from filing by offering good reading material.

And it IS good. We have the start of a new Kayda piece, kicking off some summer trips. That's from Elrod, of course - "Kayda 8: The Best Days of Our Lives" (Part 1). And over in the Gen 2 arena, let's take a second look at Nagrij's character with Part 2 of "Down the Rabbit Hole."  Enjoy!