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| Off the Bus by Jeff Abshear |
"Words that turn the page to flame."
If ever there has been a test of my love for
The Smoking Poet,
these past few months have been that test. The intended fall
issue of 2012 has become a
two-season issue of fall and winter. In August, as we neared the fall
issue deadline, I started
my own business, a writing and
editing service called Z Word, LLC, also the "mother ship" of The Smoking Poet. After nearly seven years of publication,
I was making this thing legit.
Good,
right? Smoking hot, even! Only the work
started to pour in faster than I
would have ever expected. To add to the fun, I also became a news
reporter for a local paper.
That, along with writing for various
magazines, ad agencies and non-profit and profit organizations, editing
manuscripts,
I soon found myself working seven
days a week, often 10, even 12, sometimes even more hours in a day.
Good, right?
You bet. It's a wonderful problem to have.
I am having the time of my life! Only guess what got bumped to the back burner? You got it: The Smoking Poet.
Relying on myself and only myself to get the bills paid, I had to put
deadlines first. After
all, this magazine is in my expense
column, not income. Every month, I pay fees to keep it online, for web
hosting, and you'd
be surprised how many hours go into
reading submissions and creating a website and all the work that goes
between.
Should
I let this sweet thing die? I've asked
myself that question before. Yet I
keep coming back to it. Why? You. You, the readers, you, the writers,
you, the supporters
of the arts.
If
any of you find it in your heart—and
wallet—to spare even a few dollars
to donate to this ongoing effort to showcase the finest in literature
and visual
arts, we at The Smoking Poet would greatly, oh greatly appreciate it. My new business accountant would also stop
looking at me like I've lost my mind, too.
But
even if you are just one of our silent
fans, know that you are appreciated,
too. As we publish a new issue, we watch those hits to our site soar,
and that tells
us that you appreciate our efforts,
too. It's not easy being a creative artist. But it is necessary to many
of us.
I
hope you enjoy the fiction, nonfiction,
poetry, novel excerpt and book
reviews in this issue. Our poetry editor, Joannie Stangeland, has even
added a piece about making wine—because we all know poetry goes well with a glass of wine.
Spend some time getting to know our feature
authors: Jeanne Hess, Hedy Habra, Deborah Henry, and our feature artist, Jeff Abshear, whose work graces our pages. Stop by A Good Cause and find out why it is. You'll find surprising and thoughtful insights there about atheism and Christianity, and a pharmacist
creating cosmetics.
Let's keep writing, shall we? Let's keep the
arts flowing. We add so much color to this otherwise gray world.
With a good word,
Zinta Aistars
Editor-in-Chief
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