If a blank page terrifies and baffles most writers, imagine how an editor must feel when one issue of a magazine goes to bed and the next one awakes and demands that its 64, 72, 80 or more blank pages be fed – and soon. Small wonder that a lot of editors find cleaning up their offices after completing an issue much more important than welcoming that new number with open arms.

Of course, it’s not quite that bad (that is to say, it better not be). Editors assign stories several issues ahead; depending on the publication and story, it might be as much as a year ahead.

We at Hammock take a conservative approach to most assignments, preferring to work only a couple issues ahead so we can adapt to changing client needs and wants. So we’re constantly working the idea file – which may consist of a thicket of sticky notes as well as multiple file, bookmark and email folders.

Here in late April, I’m just finishing up some mid-course changes for the 2009 editorial calendar of Semper Fi, the Magazine of the Marine Corps League, and working on a draft of 2010’s calendar.

We at Hammock take a conservative approach to most assignments, preferring to work only a couple issues ahead so we can adapt to changing client needs and wants. So we’re constantly working the idea file – which may consist of a thicket of sticky notes as well as multiple file, bookmark and email folders.

Here in late April, I’m just finishing up some mid-course changes for the 2009 editorial calendar of Semper Fi, the Magazine of the Marine Corps League, and working on a draft of 2010’s calendar.

Next year has several important milestones for the Marine Corps, including the 65th anniversary of the Corps’ landmark battle on Iwo Jima, as well as the end of World War II. It’s the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, and also of the legendary battle of the Chosin Reservoir, with Marines and Soldiers desperately holding back a much larger North Korean force. It is also the 35th anniversary of the fall of Saigon; two US Marines were the last American Warriors killed in direct action there.

Decisions on these stories will be made well in advance, with the knowledge that opportunities may arise that we’ll have to jump to take advantage of.

Nevertheless, with all this looming in the near future, and the covers still settling around the chin of our May-June issue, the July-August issue is demanding full attention for now. So we start the process of checking with writers about their progress, sifting through what will add up to hundreds of photos, and reading constantly about the Corps and America’s military and history.

The July-August issue will get an “esprit de Corps” boost from my visiting the 2009 Marine South Expo at Camp Lejeune next week. It’s inspiring, and sobering, to get out behind the computer screen and talk to Marines who have been in harm’s way, and are likely going back fairly soon. It’s also uplifting to meet “Mature Marines,” who have served their hitch, or their career, and are on hand with the Marine Corps League to greet today’s Warriors.

Because Marines study deeply the Corps’ history, a few words can convey volumes – Peleliu, Tarawa, Chosin, Tet, Khe Sanh, Desert Storm, Fallujah. There’s a bond, a sense of continuum that permeates these events, and that we strive to convey every time we fill those blank pages.