Editor's Note

Dear Collegues,

This is my first editor's note written for the Journal of Western Martial Art and it is about time. As an editor, I've been rather silent in my responsibilities towards this online journal, even though work has been occuring throughout the life of this journal, not entirely visible to the reader.

Perhaps the first topic to touch upon is the fact that both the JWMA and JManly have recently received a face-lift. The purpose behind this was to breath some new life into the journal, and I felt that listing the articles along with the author's name and the article's first line or two presents a more professional presentation. It also provides the reader a small window into the article given that the listing has more information now than simply the title. Thanks to the tireless effort of Kim Taylor in providing me with access to the JWMA and JManly website in order to incorporate the changes. I trust that the changes are a positive change to the journal.

Another important development is our permission to re-publish many, if not most of the articles that were published in the once active "Hammerterz Forum" periodical. If the reader's memory serves, J. Christoph Amberger was the publisher and editor of this fine periodical. The contents of this periodical is invaluable, and much of it still timely with today's research and developments in the area of historical Western martial arts. Check the JWMA periodically for articles published monthly from this fine resource. Our thanks to Christoph for allowing this to materialize.

Here is my "plug" for Christoph's past works. The Hammerterz Forum Collected is available for purchase. It is a 8x10 inches, and cerlox bound manuscript containing 364 pages covering the Summer of 1994 to the Fall of 1999, the complete print run. Click "here" for more details.

A small new feature has been added to both the JWMA and JManly pages. It is a link that provides the reader an email to "write to the editor". This feature, common to many paper-based publications provides the opportunity for the reader to write the editor to "air his/her views". These letters will be published online on its respective journal. The letters to the editor will be treated as articles, however, the listing of the letters will be in a separate area on the journal's page. The section will be labelled as none other than "Letters to the Editor". As you know, there is an "unwritten rule" about martial arts practitioners. Everyone hates to agree with one other, accordingly, the JWMA and JManly strives to please the reader, but also "strives to annoy, aggravate and provoke with the declared aim of starting a lively exchange of opinion"¹ about current and historical Western martial arts systems. These letters, provided they are not "derogatory", will be published and which will hopefully provide a forum for this exchange. I will of course, play the "house speaker" role (if you know something about the Canadian parliament system) in order to keep the letters relatively "civil". Don't forget, you can also comment quite freely on the EJMAS guestbook and elist group.

I hope that you find the journals enlightening, instructional and an invaluable resource. Although it is not in printed form, I am a big fan of online publications because, "save the trees" is a very strong belief that I hopefully share with most of our readers out there.

Footnotes