We’re on Summer Vacation! Um, sort of.

Actually, we’re busy working on ventures that will help bring in money. The only updates to this issue of Cherrymagic are this little bit here, and our poll. We’ll be back in two weeks with terrific, fresh new content. Until then, why not browse around and make sure you haven’t missed anything good.

We now return you to last issue’s news.

The fine, upstanding people who bring you Cherrymagic twice each month now can be had, for a price. We’ve launched a brand-new freelance venture, showcased at the website BananaDragon. Please have a visit, and tell your friends! (We’re hungry. Baby needs new shoes.)

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve noticed that, coincidentally, our featured artwork is named BananaDragon. We’d love to tell you our name was inspired by this beautiful work of art, but it just ain’t so. Fact is, we were “ego surfing” and found Cara Jane Mitten’s lovely drawing. We hope to bring you more of her work in the future.

Oh, yeah - the origin of the BananaDragon web site name? Well, Mishi’s year of the Monkey (go figure) and Venturi’s year of the Dragon. With the dearth of domain names available, we had to get a little creative. And we can do the same for you!

Enough of the shameless plugs. Enjoy the issue!

All this can be yours.

The fine, upstanding people who bring you Cherrymagic twice each month now can be had, for a price. We’ve launched a brand-new freelance venture, showcased at the website BananaDragon. Please have a visit, and tell your friends! (We’re hungry. Baby needs new shoes.)

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve noticed that, coincidentally, our featured artwork is named BananaDragon. We’d love to tell you our name was inspired by this beautiful work of art, but it just ain’t so. Fact is, we were “ego surfing” and found Cara Jane Mitten’s lovely drawing. We hope to bring you more of her work in the future.

Oh, yeah - the origin of the BananaDragon web site name? Well, Mishi’s year of the Monkey (go figure) and Venturi’s year of the Dragon. With the dearth of domain names available, we had to get a little creative. And we can do the same for you!

Enough of the shameless plugs. Enjoy the issue!

Now, you can help us change the world!

Since its inception, cherrymagic.com has been committed to eventually paying the artists and writers whose work we feature. Unfortunately, we’ve only managed to generate about $56.32 in revenue through advertising and affiliate programs, and that’s ended up as grocery money. (We’re starving artists too, ya know.) But now, thanks to Amazon.com, we have a whole new way of generating revenue, by depending upon the kindness of our readers.

Amazon’s “Honor System” makes it easy for you to make a donation to cherrymagic.com. You have our solemn promise that any funds collected in this manner will be used first and foremost to pay our contributors. Remaining funds will be used to defray the costs of running the site. We’d like to maintain a regular balance of $100 to $200, but our ultimate goal is one MILLION dollars. (Who was it that said, “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”)

Your donation can be as little as $1.00 - and don’t for a moment think that’s not enough to make a difference. If each of our readers donated a mere $1.00 to our contributor’s fund, we’d have enough in one day to pay some of the best and brightest out there. So what are you waiting for? Click in the PayBox at the bottom of the page and do your part to help support the generous artists who so freely share their work.

For the record, cherrymagic.com is not privy to any of the information you enter when making your donation - only Amazon.com knows for sure. However, if you’re uncomfortable with entering credit card information via the web, or if you’d simply prefer to use a check or money order, email us and we will provide you with an address where you can send your contribution.

At this time, contributions to cherrymagic.com are not tax deductible. We hope to remedy this in the near future. In the mean time, thank you very much for your generous support.

In other news, we’ve changed our update schedule slightly. Beginning with this issue, Cherrymagic will be updated around Midnight Central Standard Time on alternating Wednesdays of each month (about 6:00 a.m. GMT). We hope you’ll enjoy the new schedule.