Volume 17 is now officially the biggest and best issue of Archipelago ever to hit the stands. It's so big, in fact, (and so late) that I have added an extra week onto the deadline. Even so, many of you will have to scramble to get those packets in BY MID-JANUARY if you please! 
The immense and exhaustive renovation that began last time is still very much underway and will continue for another issue or two. One of the reasons we have more cards than ever before is that we now have several new kinds of cards, including a "gift card." In fact, there are NO LESS THAN NINE (  ) GIFT CARDS UNDER OUR TREE this time.
If you'd like to skip ahead and read about some of the new features, See VC 17 John 6. [Hold down the COMMAND  Key and click on the underlined card tag].
Be sure to check out our latest installment in the Sound of the Month Club (now released as a separate stack). Thanks to Larry and Paul for contributing these EXCELLENT sounds.
 Also be sure to explore our first TREE CARD. Tree cards will become a way of preserving and re-discovering buried treasure from voice cards of long ago. Our first offering covers the Great Crab Epic!
Stuart was in such a rush this time that he didn't have time to include his usual Bestiary poem. Perhaps we'll get two next time. Hot off the Presses is my latest addition to my seemingly endless Fairy Tale. I'd like to mention, by the way, that this is a rough draft which you guys are the first to see even as is emerges. When the tale is finished I will polish it up and release an improved draft (in a single file!).
We also have an excellent Mr. Wizard stack this time.
I have some frustrating news to report on the Membership front. First, our newest member, Tom, is not yet ready to join us. He was stranded in Monterey for a month (poor fellow) and returned to find his hard disk misbehaving for the first time ever. In a recent letter, Tom apologized profusely and added "I want you to know that these irregularities are due to my transition and not due to flakiness."
The other and more disheartening news is that we seem to have lost Suzanne. She has been extremely busy lately and I only managed to pluck her last set of cards with great difficulty (and nagging). Although it has been my experience that when someone is ready to go it's better to let them get it over with, still I did my best to keep her in the group. I told her that she would be sorely missed. And so she will. But we will always have her wonderful cards.
As the year comes to a close I am ever more grateful that all of you are still with me. I see some exciting changes in the months ahead. Enjoy your presents! Happy Holidays!
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