Autumn Issue
Welcome back to the fourth issue of our quarterly publication. We've invited submissions to compliment this issue's theme of Stories for Peace, but we haven't made that a strict criteria for inclusion. We've also allowed the interpretation to be broad, including images of war and of false security. We've desired to live up to the life described by poet Grey Walker, "making peace every day like bread", with the firm belief that telling stories and making myth is a way of peacemaking. We'll let you, the reader, decide if, after reading the work of these fine authors, you agree.
Could it be that our safety and rest was achieved at the expense of our only voice -- and that looking back at us, if we don't pull the covers over our heads, is another self, in whom the serenity is hollow and can only devour?
Brian Ames' bedtime story asks us to risk looking into the dark. Perhaps there is something to fear, after all...
Sometimes what one needs is just a little... inspiration.
Elizabeth Barrette's sexy poem goes looking in the library after hours. You'll find it... educational.
What happens when the woods grow up around our memories? Perhaps every road that takes us back into that growth, like the one in
Charles Lipsig's story, leaves us either lost, comforted, or wondering where the time went. This tale looks for the right road by coming from a different direction.
Maria Cecile's poem suggests that if you don't believe in monsters, at least they believe in you.
Ryan Nutick considers whether the only thing that can bring us together is our own ending.
Stories for Peace Contest
We did have a designated winner, and a runner up. Unfortunately, both stories had previously appeared in an open online group, and so neither meet the terms of the contest and cannot be declared winners. Still, both pieces were the most excellent in keeping with our contest theme Stories for Peace, so we're providing links to
Only Sky and
A Slit in the Wall, parts
1,
2,
3,
4, &
5.
If you enjoyed our work
Consider placing an ad with us, large or small, or making a donation to our
Pay the Writers Fund -- again, large or small. I know the writers would appreciate it, and you'll feel good about it, too.
Staff Openings
If you'd like to join our staff, especially if you're an excellent illustrator, please see our
staff needs. The best thing about being a staffer at MYTHOLOG is getting to read the submissions, seeing the finished work, and having a lot of fun producing it.
Perhaps the greatest contribution to peace is the gift of sight through enemy eyes.
Tim Hoke gives us one such look.
Plunge deep with
Nancy Ellis Taylor's saline poem, and come out shaking off the drops of it.
We walk heavy on the earth, but there are things that walk heavier.
William Lengeman's story sees other feet stalking our footsteps, and leaves us wondering whether to look up at the too long shadow.
Mari Miller-Lamb's vivid dream suggests that life is not something to lay down as easily as we lie down to sleep.
Did you ever think that no matter how much the strain, however much we falter beneath the weight of our burdens, we could keep from sinking if someone, anyone, said that we're not alone and they'll never leave us?
Asher Black's soliloquy suggests that the world often rests on something as simple -- that perhaps we can bear even the banal individuality of living, and become suffering Titans, if even one voice can reach past the bone.
A look at blood and fire,
Thomas Zimmerman's visual poem speaks, or shows, for itself.
Congratulations
We'd like to take this opportunity to welcome our newest staffer,
Anthony Miller, as a Contributing Editor.
Mari Miller-Lamb became our Fiction Editor for last issue and we'd like to mention our appreciation for her continued work on the present lot of stories. Once again, we'd like to thank visual artists
Amanda Burkinshaw and
Mike "Warble" Finucane for their contributions to this issue. Likewise, special thanks to
Craig Clarke our Copy Editor for his diligence and speed, and
Tim Hoke and
Naomi deBruyn our Proofreaders for constant and timely vigilance. Lastly, we're making it official:
Tim Hoke is being promoted to Senior Proofer effective with this issue. Congrats, Tim. And thanks, Team, for pulling together. You're a monument to collaborative publication.
Next Issue
On
December 1st, we'll be publishing our
First Anniversary Issue, marking our publishing rite of passage, if you will. Submissions are already coming in, and we're interested in hearing your voice too. If you're interested, read our required
guidelines. We hope you've enjoyed our selection for this time. Drop us a line, and let us know. In the meantime, if you're a newer reader of MYTHOLOG, why not browse our
archived issues. We've been priviledged to publish some amazing work. --
Asher Black, Editor-in-Chief