Editor's Note

Sorry about that. The hiatus. I guess you thought we were hibernating a little early. Unfortunately, getting out the print anthology used up all of our person power in the summer and fall months, and we decided to skip the Fall 2006 issue because we didn't want to put out an inferior product. We hope the Winter 2006 issue more than makes up for it. We know you've had time to buy the anthology, right? At five bucks, it's a real steal. And if you haven't, all is forgiven: You can go to Lulu.com and pick up a copy; surely you saw the link on your way here. We hope to do one every year. Since we can't pay contributors to the online site just yet, we think it's a nice incentive, the possibly of appearing in the annual print anthology and receiving a free copy. So send us your best stuff. You know, the stuff you were saving for Ploughshares. We want it. We want it bad.

For those of you in or around Baltimore, we're going to be like a bad penny in the next few months. We'll be everywhere, staging readings/band nights, happy hours, sitting on your stoop. So if you're a local band or a local writer and wanna read or perform, send us an e-mail. We'd love to have you come join us. You'll also see us at the CityLit festival again in March. Stop by and say hi. Bring us a coffee. It's hard to leave the booths, you know.

Thanks so much to Joe Young for supplying this issue's High Five. Beginning with the Spring issue, we'll be accepting flash fiction submissions, so it's even moreso a pleasure to have Joe Young, an established flash writer in his own right, sort of kicking things off for us. General submissions for the Spring 2007 issue, BTW, are through February 20th.

Anyway, thanks so much for not giving up on us. My statcounter tells me you're still coming, although, at this point, you were probably wondering why. Another small journal cracked, folded, you thought. No way. We're back better than ever. And, as always, the best is here and simultaneously yet to come.

Jen Michalski, Editor

P.S., if you submitted material for the fall/winter issue and haven't heard from us, please accept my humble apologies. We got really far behind this issue, on everything, and we weren't able to get back to everybody regarding their submissions. But we promise, now that we're back on track, that the next issue will be different. Please continue submitting. We love to open the inbox, see new work, and have the pleasure and excitement of reading it. That's why we're here.