Tracy Taylor's page

oh yea, one more thing:

I wanna see some Larry Elmore art. (Is he still alive? Was that horrible of me to ask?)

I found a website of his, and yes, it looks like he is still alive. As for more of his art in the magazines, I agree with you. I would also like to see the occasional female warrior or adventurer with something less than Barbie porportions and clad in something other than a fur bikini - just once and awhile.

A quick question for published Dragon writers (like Tracy and Medesha):

Is there a general guideline for response time to query letters? I sent a query letter via e-mail about a week ago. It contained two Class Acts proposals and two Silicon Sorcery pitches. (The latter two would be most timely if published sometime in the next few months.)

While I certainly wouldn't expect a response right away (especially with the move happening right now), I'm wondering if this is something that generally takes a few weeks or if the wait might last several months.

Any advice/information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

My experience has been that Queries tend to get a quick response, but the actual article can take several months to appear or be responded to. Although, with Gencon, then the move, then Matt's wedding, expect a pretty major backlog - rightfully so. My advice, be patient and try not to worry about it.

(And this coming from someone who is obsessively waiting to hear back on several submitted articles) :)

Actually, it was the first ecology I wrote and was a tad difficult, but I really liked the end result. I thought the whole spawning stone and reproduction thing was kind of neat. I did include a short introductory fiction that I felt set the tone and mood, as well as giving an idea how/where the players/DM would use the monster.

Tracy

That said. Here is what I would like to see as topics of an Ecology article.

--Aquatic Elves
--Canomorph (FF)
--Chronotyryn (FF)
--Guardian Naga
--Kou-toa
--Maug (FF)
--Phoenix (MM II)
--Ravids
--Sahuagin
--Slaad

Just to name a few.

Actually, that's kind of good to know as I have a Slaad ecology into Dragon that will hopefully see the light of day. As for some of the others, I think they would be kind of neat, but maybe a little difficult to do in the 2,500 word alotment, particularly the aquatic elves. But who knows, maybe someone has written it and it will appear soon.

Like Amber, I have also submitted some Ecology articles and hope to continue to write them. I am not sure what the protocol is on saying what some of the topics are, so I figure, I'll wait until Matthew or someone from Dragon says its okay.

To date, though, working with the editors has been a good experience, and I have found they are very supportive.

Tracy

Personally, I would like to chime in to say I like the focus of the magazine and the inclusion of some new and old articles (class acts, ecology, etc.), but am not a fan of the white space. Will it stop me from buying the magazine? Not a chance. Similarly, would it get me to buy the magazine? Probably not. I think for the most part, its content and a catchy cover that sells.

Having said that, I will make one comment on the Ecology of the Choker. I found it kinda bland. Informative? Yes. But more like an encyclopedic entry for some central african country - accurate, but about as rivetting as paste. For me, the main failure was lack of mood and tone for the article. Right from the beginning it failed to inspire or grab anything more than a passing interest. In any event, I might be completely off base on this and alone in my opinion.

Aside from this, I like the new look and feel, and give a hearty congrats to the Matt and the staff at Dragon.