WANTED - BTS Journal articles

[Richard Gallon]

Stocks of BTS journal articles are running very low, so if you have an article brewing in mind, please forward it to me ASAP.

The Committee would also like to hear what the members would like to see published. Please feel free to add you comments/suggestions/ideas to this thread; they may stimulate some budding writers to address them.

Cheers,
Richard

[Andrew Ferguson]

Richard, I've been thinking about an article on my first year of tarantula keeping. Now my comprehension isn't the best, and as a father to a 4 year old and a 7 month old baby, my time is pretty much taken up. If I were to commit to writing an article, when would the absolute deadline be?

[Eduard Johan Hijmensen]

i would love to see a travel report about Malaysia. is that possible?

[Chris Sainsbury]

lol Eddy not in your life time hehehehe.

I've been looking forward to the Atypus article by Colin for quite a while also.

BTW Richard, If you ever get in contact with Boris tell him to pull his finger out and sort out his part!

Other than that you have all I have submitted as of late.

All the best
chris

[Ray Hale]

Richard is quiite right. We need your input for the Journal. So get writing. You all have a story to tell. ( I know Ive seen the posts) so get you fingers on the keyboard and write something.

A few ideas:

1. General keeping articles, observations, feeding regimes, moulting data. Its all good stuff for the new keeper and I know we have many new guys on here.

2. Travel stories, the Worlds a big place and a lot of you have been there so wether its Malaysia, Mexico or simply the day you went to Bognor Im sure you will have found some spiders.

3. Breeding articles , it doesnt have to be a rare one. Any data is of interest to us.

4. Photographs of your travels and collections.

Anything really. never be afraid to write. It will be of interest to our members. So come on it your club and the more we publish themore we learn.

I know some of you may feel you have nothing to offer or that your articles are not up to scratch but trust me we all started somewhere. If you dont want to write then tell us what you would like to see us write and publish in the Journal. Its the AGM this weekend and if you cant make it then ask your questions now and we will raise them at the meeting.

Ray Hale
BTS Committee

[Riana Sinclair]

I am always interested in the Psychological issues surrounding phobias of snakes and spiders (or other prejusticed pets.)

The innitial thoughts were that we have a (as a human race) evolutionary predisposition fear of these unpopular creatures.

Think this will be something of interest perhaps?

(PS: It will also help me with my Journalism assignment! hehehe)

[Ray Hale]

A fine idea for an article. Get writing.......

[matthew spooner]

i have a couple of ideas. one thing we used to do in our club magazines was alphabetical lists of scientific names, like a letter or part of the alphabet per issue. the second thing is that i was doing an experiment, testing the reactions to various levels and types of sound from a terrestrial, arboreal and burrowing species, i staretd typing my notes up into a report but have not had the time to finish, when i have done that i will be submitting it

[Stuart Baker]

What sort of word count are you looking at? I carried out a tarantula related research project for my dissertation last year, and I'd be happy to submit a shorten version for consideration.

[Richard Gallon]

@ Eduard, you may be in lucky, we currently have such an article on file ready for publication

@Stuart. Excellent that sounds ideal for conversion in to an article/articles. We don't have a strict word limit as such, but will often serialise long articles. Once you've adapted it please feel free to send it to either Peter Kirk or myself for editing.

@Matthew. Great, sounds like a raft of useful journal material there!

@Andrew. There's no strict deadline as such because the journal always requires articles. If it doesn't make the forthcoming issue, you can be sure it'll be held on file for a future one.

Stocks are beginning to look a lot rosier now, but please don't let this put you all off writing – we always need articles

All the best,
Richard

[James Box]

i'll second that request for Colin's Atypus article.

personally, (this'll come as a shock! lol) i'm interested in Aphonopelma sp, they're identifying characteristics, regions, conditions, burrowing and hunting habits, etc...not to mention breeding!
as to my own contribution to that, Stuart Longhorn and i are working on getting some CB A chalcodes slings into the hobby over here...i have a male and two females, he has a female...any results we get i'm sure will get documented, though i may need kicking to remind me!
also, i intend to do the same with A sp "new river" as well, if possible.
this could all take many months though to come to fruition, so any people that know something and could put it in an article for us all to read would help!

i'm also interested in anything anyone wants to write about Psalmopoeus.

also, anything on the crazy Chilean spiders recently discovered!

more care and breeding reports on scorpions would be great too! (Lisa! )

in the meantime, i'll see if i've any ideas or thoughts to write about as well.

[Peter Kirk]

All,

Looks like we have plenty of potential for articles in the future! That's great news and we need to keep up the momentum. All of the articles suggested look interesting, so get typing! Personally, I like the sound of the "phobias" piece.

The main thing to remember is that all you need to do is produce something to the best of your ability. English/grammar are less important and it's essentially the job of the Editor to do just that - edit! Accompanying illustrations always go down well wherever possible, but make sure they are either your own, or you have the owners permission to use them.

Have been pushing a "get to know the Committee a bit better" series of articles, if people are interested and I thought Angela's one in the last Journal kicked that off quite well. What are your thoughts??

[Peter Lacey]

...Have been pushing a "get to know the Committee a bit better" series of articles, if people are interested and I thought Angela's one in the last Journal kicked that off quite well. What are your thoughts??

I think its always interesting to know what's "under the bonnet" as its something we quite often take for granted.

It would also be of interest to know of any work the BTS undertakes with third parties eg. British NHM

I'd like to read of any developments concerning P. hanumavilasumica and any conservations efforts that Richard hinted on within the recent thread concerning this species. Was this subject raised at the AGM and what can we do to help with any conservation efforts?

As James mentions, it would be nice to read about the recent additions to the hobby from Chili and perhaps Lee at TheSpiderShop could be asked to submit an article on the breeding programs he's involved in within Chili.

As many people have Avics and/or Pokies it would be nice to know about the taxonomy work concerning the former and updates on THE BOOK of the latter.

I'd also like to see articles about papers that have been produced eg. the venom of P. regalis as hinted by J M Clegg, the reclassifications mentioned by Richard and new genus that Ray recently brought to our attention.

An article on creating sustainable humidity would be worthwhile and how we can replicate the humidity of their natural habitats. Should we strive to do so based on the weather readings we can find on the internet.

Oh, and I guess I could knock something up myself.

[mary walters]

In answer to James' plea for Psalmopeous article I might put pen to paper when I got this flippin pc fixed and haven't so much homework with training course.

I keep 4 sp and breed 3. Thus far, cos 1 sp is only juves, and 2 mm Becky has.

[Phil Rea]

In answer to James' plea for Psalmopeous artice I might put pen to paper when I got this flippin pc fixed and haven't so much homework with training course.

I keep 4 sp and breed 3. Thus far, cos 1 sp is only juves, and 2 mm Becky has.

You don't need a PC to put pen to paper Mary. All you need is a pen and some paper