(The image is the remnant of a Good Idea of yore; we aim to be around for awhile as well)
In Citizen Kane the mythical Philadelphia Inquirer (founded by callow Charlie with his inheritance) published a high minded Declaration of Principles which were quite inspiring until Joseph Cotton mailed them to Kane’s fireplace. So it goes with the objects of thirty-plus word sentences, but, mostly, it is the thought that counts.
So in the spirit of aiming high and hitting, well, something, Saragun Springs will become an official publication in two months. Co-Editor Dr Dale Barrigar Williams and I have decided that even though there is much in the way of writing in the world, little of it is meant and most of it appears to be founded in avarice instead of honesty. Therefore terms such as “good” and “bad” are found only in the scorched souls of the failed angels and have zero meaning in the Human Spirit. Sincerity is the dream even if one struggles to spell it or any other word correctly.
I will continue to be an Editor with Literally Stories UK unless they fire me. I once founded a band named Saragun and was voted out of it seven years later, so one must remain philosophical. The Springs acceptance rates will not be very high, but one should take heart in such a thing. You see, we will run nothing unless it is up to the standard of art.
In days to come submission guidelines will be made available and I will be going from virtual door to pretend door to get us listed on duotrope and other such high places of information.
We will run various features Monday through Saturday. Short stories, poetry, photography, essays, plays, novel excerpts and such creative things that can possibly be published will fill those days while Sundays still belong to The Drifter.
How different we will be greatly depends on the contributors. Since there is no money to be made in this adventure, the effort and response will be the hire and salary. But these things do matter, the rest swings from a rope.
Leila Allison, Co-Editor of Saragun Springs
And now a few words from Co-Editor DWB
SARAGUN SPRINGS is totally unlike any other literary magazine or site being published in the world today. Whoever doesn’t believe me hasn’t read or looked at any of it yet.
At the same time, it exists within the long tradition of American independent literary publishing. From Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns, put out by Charles Bukowski and Neeli Cherkovski as part of the Mimeo Revolution in the 1960s, to The Stylus of Edgar Allan Poe, which Poe called, at the very end of his life, “my one great literary purpose,” independent magazines and independent publishing have been the backbone of American Literature from the beginning.
Now, in the very near future, SARAGUN SPRINGS is throwing open its doors to global submissions in English.
The goal is to create a new and lasting forum for the best literature and photography being created in the world today.
We invite, and ask, you to send us the best of your work (or things that are among the best) for our consideration.
Writers’ Guidelines available on December 3.
First Issue will be posted on January 3, 2025: the birthday of Founding Editor, Irene – Leila – Allison.
Don’t let them tell you that the fine arts are dead in America.
We are here to prove them wrong. And we want you to join us.
Saragun Springs 
Co-Editor and All
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!
In an “LOL” and yet serious kinda way, I just want to add that the Editors of Saragun Springs are quite ready, willing, and able to fill the pages of this online journal themselves, with their own material, and via the help of a few friends.
However, this is a throwdown and a challenge, as we would rather give the spotlight to other human writers and picture-makers (“human” means not those who resort to AI) and in the best-case scenario, we would like to give the spotlight to many other artists than ourselves.
The key criteria is, as you pointed out, quality.
This is and will be the criteria that makes us special. Our standards will be much higher than the average.
But that means heart and authenticity above all else, not craft and technical finesse (although those are important IF heart and authenticity are there first). Stephen King and Charles Bukowski are two of our models in this. They knew and know how to say it; but WHAT to say and why always came and comes first.
So we invite potential contributors to think of this site as both wide-open and harder to live up to than the average site or magazine.
In the end, this will help literary glory to rain down on the heads of the editors and any and all who are involved with the site. Literary glory always leads to other good things, lots of other good things: starting with a sense of completion and a feeling of truly being no one but yourself, which is the most valuable thing in the world, especially this world we are currently inhabiting.
A note about the pictures: WE ARE JUST AS INTERESTED IN SEEING PHOTOGRAPHY SUBMISSIONS AS WE ARE IN SEEING WRITTEN WORKS. NOT MORE, but equal.
DWB
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello Co-Editor
Ah yes, it is like the day the first telegraph message was sent. Still, a bit of welcomed stress is good for the heart.
Haha–I deserved to get kicked out, and was ready to quit anyway. Still, that was over forty years ago. But it does ring a bit strange and too corporate for my taste. Still, it didn’t ruin any friendships, which is the main thing.
An exclamation point. Happy Halloween from all of us at Saragun Springs (including the Mighty Drifter and Canine Pack) to all of you!
Leila
LikeLike
ILA
Super-glad no friendships were ruined; but I will still always think of it as a tale (and a title) of artistic justification (at least partly).
Rock on!!
DWB
LikeLiked by 1 person
PS
Using the Saragun name again is a great way to take revenge on all those former band members…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Duotrope? Glad I made it in before submission requirements.
mm
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Doug
There are endless lists. And there are lists of such listers and listers of such lists.
Leila
LikeLike
Leila –
Lists^Lists (lists to the lists power – it’s hard to write on my keyboard).
You started it.
mm
LikeLiked by 1 person
Feeling listless, time for sleep
LA
LikeLike
Hello Leila, and Dale
This sounds like a great adventure! It’s going to be neat to see what you will publish from the old-old world. Where lunatics and worshipers of the light are sometimes confused.
Truth in fiction, poetry, photography, and the arts in these false times would be a blessing!
Christopher
LikeLiked by 1 person
Christopher
You are, of course, already a vital part of this literary site through your fiction, photography, commentary, and dialogues with The Drifter, etc.
One of the artists we, of course, hope to showcase and bring to a wider audience as readership expands is none other than yourself.
Here’s to a continuing, ongoing journey of literary and artistic collaboration in the highest of senses. Our work is complementary in so many ways, it almost has the feel of direct collaboration. The near-collaboration, or indirect collaboration, that we already have going on is always the best kind (see Picasso and Braque or Hemingway and Fitzgerald as examples). When artists of similar heart, mind and spirit work “side by side” for a common goal like this which, in this case, is artistic truth in an age of lies-like-never-before, the result can only be fireworks, the best of fireworks. God bless this endeavor.
We will gain the attention of none other than Stephen King before we’re through! And we will only do it the hard, true, and right way: through the surpassing quality of the work.
Dale
LikeLike
Dale
Sounds like quite the adventure in writing lies ahead! Yes indeed we share this style that I see in your writing and I’m glad you see it in mine.
It would be pretty miraculous if King checked in and stayed for a while.
Thanks for including me.
Christopher
LikeLike