The ho!d was founded by yours truly (Dave Dembinski) in July of 1998, if my memory is working properly. It happened one coffee and OJ metanight. Maybe the stars and planets were perfectly aligned. Perhaps my humors were all balanced. Probably, I just had a weird idea and it stuck in my mind and sat there, like an old toad at the bottom of a pond. Whatever it was, I went nuts and decided that we (meaning "I") needed an internet zine where writers could do their thing and get some nice, constructive criticism on it. To be honest, that's all it was in the beginning. No great and noble precepts. No ambitious founding philosophy. Just the notion that people ought to be heard if they wanted to.
     And so you have before you, whirring and popping away with the pure creation juice, this monster of an e-zine. I want you all to stand up right now and give cait a gigantic round of applause, because without her this thing would've died many moons ago. Come on. DO IT. That's better. cait, my dear, I salute you and wish you many an orgasm, brain and otherwise.

Dave Dembinski

• the hold - issue #1 •