Lately I’ve had difficulty quieting my mind. Maybe it’s this presidential election, maybe it’s the excitement (mingled with fear) over the enormous changes I am making (this summer I will move from San Diego to Washington, D.C.), maybe it’s working full time while balancing my duties as Fiction Editor for an awesome indie press, and trying to dig deep and write the memoir about the two darkest times of my life. Maybe it’s not having enough time in my life right now to sit down and lose myself in some superb fiction.In any event, I wanted you to know that reading the work of this month’s contributors calmed me. Their art took me out of the prison of my own mind. Reading their work gave me much needed respite. Robert Vaughan says in his conversation with Kathy Fish and me that “Fiction offers us departures.” Indeed it does.
In addition to striking prose from this months’ featured writers, the co-authors of Rift, Kathy Fish and Robert Vaughan (who, by the way, give a stunning joint interview), John S. Lewis proves that “man is a free agent” in his exquisite story “Unfit For Society.” Shaun Turner takes us to the Heartland with his exceptional “Heartland Sermon” and “A Fixed Idea.” David Atkinson rounds out the issue with three rollicking pieces of flash.
Enjoy. I hope that the act of reading these fabulous works of fiction gives you the reprieve that you need.
Photo by Robert P. Kaye