113 Crickets is a new literary periodical based in Silicon Valley and published quarterly by Dymaxicon-a genre-agnostic publishing company owned and operated by Agile Learning Labs. Dymaxicon strives to promote connections between the disciplines of technology and literature through the publication of both technology-orientated books and works of fiction. 113 Crickets rises to this challenge. Each issue of 113 Crickets will feature prose, poetry and short stories by up-and-coming writers, alongside extracts from Dymaxicon's own literary publications, coupled with author interviews. In addition to this content 113 Crickets will embrace its Silicon Valley roots by seeking established writers from the Bay Area to participate in the project, and will endeavor to find writers hiding in the tech world. In this issue of 113 Crickets we are happy to present eight very different writers. David Swinson, an ex-cop, ex-music promoter is featured in an interview, and an extract from his new novel A Detailed Man is offered to whet your appetite. Hillary Johnson, a partner in Agile Learning Labs, and an author in her own right has recently published her second novel Shooting Stars; we also include a chapter from this book. Our new writers include, Gill O'Halloran, a poet from London, who will soon be releasing the eBook version of her book, This 7-Year-Old Walks Into A Bar; Seth Pollins, a writer and recipe creator from Philadelphia-whose work in this issue includes a short story and two extracts from his upcoming recipe book, How to Eat Dinner; Michael Thompson, a game designer and writer from New York presenting his first published short story, The Escalator; Emma Cherry, a young Bay Area poet, currently studying creative writing at UCLA; and Siraj Sirajuddin, whose poems are inspired by his work around organizational and individual transformation change in the tech world. Lastly, we are very happy to have Ken Fields of the Stanford Creative Writing Program contribute as our established local writer. Ken has published a number of books of his work and is currently working on another. We are excited about creating a connection to the Stanford Creative Writing Program, and look forward to building this relationship over subsequent issues of 113 Crickets. I hope you enjoy our first issue. You can follow us on twitter and tumblr to find out what's happening next. And please contact us if you are interested in contributing. Tobias Mayer, editor