Before I get to our (somewhat) big announcement, I want to thank you, our new community of readers, for the tremendously positive feedback on our premier issue. Your reactions and responses have poured in through emails and through Facebook and Twitter posts—and trust us, we’ve read every one of them. We’ve also read every posting in the Civil War blogosphere we could find (and there were many). If there’s a theme to the commentary so far, it’s that our initial instinct was right: There is indeed a readership out there for a new kind of Civil War magazine.

Of course, among your many comments we do have a few favorites. One reader marveled that we weren’t “scared” to run footnotes in a popular magazine. (We aren’t.) Another commenter (at the blog All Not So Quiet Along the Potomac) thought the Monitor was “a Civil War magazine that rocks,” describing it as “a combination of smart, sophisticated, and hip.” My personal favorite tweet, courtesy of one of our social media friends, Ben Butina: “A good cigar, black coffee, and the first issue of The Civil War Monitor. This is what front porches are for.”

We are deeply grateful for all of your enthusiasm and support. And please, keep the comments coming. Let us know what you like and don’t like about the magazine, as well as what topics you want to see us cover in future issues. We don’t just welcome your feedback, we’re counting on it.

Now, for the announcement. Matt Hulbert, our book review editor, recently thought up an idea for an essay contest, inspired by an anthology of essays edited by Steve Berry, one of the Monitor‘s editorial advisors. The book, published earlier this year by the University of Georgia Press, is called Weirding the War—and, as its subtitle indicates, explores “stories from the Civil War’s ragged edges.”

So, here’s the idea: We want to know if you have a “weird” Civil War story. Perhaps you have a strange tale to tell about a Civil War ancestor. Or maybe your research into the war has taken a bizarre twist. In short, we want your weirdest Civil War-related anecdote. Submissions should be between 300 and 400 words and emailed to [email protected]. The entry deemed by our staff to be the weirdest of all will win a copy of Weirding the War, signed by Berry and several other contributors. All submissions are due by January 21. We’ll announce the winner in our next issue and post the winning essay on our website.

Happy writing!