I just finished reading a fellow rip-off about Lucid Magazine based out of L.A./San Diego and had the EXACT same experience. They sent me two sample issues which looked fine enough plus a writer's contract which I faxed back. After completing two stories for the publication, I never heard back from Shane Padamada again. Even more embarrassing, I had the publicist's follow up with both me and Shane regarding the stories and had no answers. It's completely shady. I don't live in the area so don't even know if the stories ran or not but now that I've read the other poster's complaints am quite sure that the entire operation was so shady. I wasted time on the stories, and the opportunity to pitch them to another publication as I waited to hear back from them. STAY AWAY from this magazine.