History
It started at Midnight with a walk, a park, and the Vampire Basketball League.
Jason Jones, Regent Emeritus, could (and one day will) tell this anecdote much better...yet his memory is like a fine soup, and needs to sampled with the elegance of an extended pinky and horrific slurping noise between parsed and thoughtful lips. No less truthful, during a New Mexican Thanksgiving weekend, Jones walked with others (including Meg McGuire, unsuspecting Haughty Web Goddess) and unveiled the innerworkings of the Vampire Basketball League...followed by the early genetic filth that would one day become The Fun Journal.
On another day, one which many astronomers and astrologists can’t exactly pinpoint, Jones had a similar conversation with Daniel Cameron and Peter Brooks. Occupying a space of dusty, psychologically safe, industrial strength picnic tables, Jones fanned the flames of Brooks’ pontificating of current poetic politics (sick of moons raining over his soul) then inspired Cameron who put words into action by Photoshopping sad puppy dogs into birthday settings.
Soon after (or months later, whichever you prefer...because we’re all about the YOU...just like we’re all about the FUN...or a fun...or any fun), The FUN Journal was born; exiting the creative womb like a lazy, co-dependent child, Issue 2 hit the interwebs with a dearth of critical acclaim, a plethora of hype, and a [insert overused adjective] of [nouns related to items which have not occurred]. Meanwhile, the Vampire Basketball League is starting its 3rd season and considering expansion teams in Plano, Texas; Saugatuck, Michigan; and Elsmere, Delaware.
Manifesto
The world is free of bards and minstrels, thankfully. And while it has more than enough reality television shows about people who live in a reality that is inside of television, and talk shows about problematic people with people problems, and flying dust storms (as opposed to crawling dust storms which you find out west) we’re devoid of fun...at least we think so. Our major goal of making the whole world laugh in one ten second moment is a bit too purple and impractical, the least we can do is add our words to the mope surrounding us. Or, rather, YOUR words.
FUN isn’t just about laughter, but about enjoyment. Maybe a smirk, or a lingering thought which keeps the gears of your day moving like a well-oiled organ grinder, with the monkey on your back decides to vacation for a few more days. That’s the kind of writing we look for, and publish, be it prose, poetry, prose poetry, poetic prose, non-fiction, creative non-fiction, non-creative non-fiction, and/or some other invented inversion that our literary world will seek and embrace and discard like a spurned lover.
In addition, there is a featured writer for each issue, and we pummel them with questions not as ridiculous as smooth and smarmy interviewers, but FUN enough to have readers feel like writers are people too...just people who get paid to do things other than working at Starbucks...unless we have writers who work at Starbucks...then we scrap this whole masthead and refer to ourselves as The Fun[key] Journal.
Really, in the end, we have to like a piece of writing enough to take time out of our day to put it up; so, really, not too much different than every other literary journal across the world. Except our liking it enough is about as wide as...well...that’s too inappropriate for even us to print.
Autonomous Editorial Staff of Doom
Daniel Cameron, Co-Editor Fiction, Assistant to No One
Peter Brooks, Assistant Rasputin, Co-Editor Poetry/Features
Meg McGuire, Haughty Web Goddess, Assistant to No One But Us
Jason Jones, Regent Emeritus