Editor's Corner

By Mary E. Adair

I had the rare opportunity to travel for my birthday present and the timing meant being away from a computer at the end of May. That is what precipitated the combining of June and July issues this 28th year of our eZine being online. When begun, thanks to the ingenuity and willingness of our co-partner and webmaster, he chose the name Pencilstubs, which I love. We have broken records for many unique facets of the eZine, like choosing not to do subscriptions or include commercial ads. The only prompting to get something is when our authors tell about their writing.

It was begun as a tribute to my late husband AG Adair, a life long newsman, recognized (while in High School when he and a friend leased and operated a commercial newspaper that was published twice weekly) as the youngest such publishers by the Associated Press.

Our authors also had time free of having a column to produce, as one mentioned once, "Not an easy task." John I. Blair has two new poems for us, "Masked Bandit" and "My Freckled Hands." We agreed to encore two more of his verses, "These Old Hands" and "Old Bear."

Bud Lemire's poems for this dual issue are "Hidden Truths," "Not AI Assisted," and "Hey Baby, I Need An Apple Gift Card." Bruce Clifford shares "Imperfectly Perfect" and "You And Me." Walt Perryman, who grew up in my county, sends "Another Rambling Thought-June," "Today," and "Didn't Write This To Make You Cry."

Marilyn Carnell gives us another brief peek into the Civil War era novel she's writing in her column "Sifoddling Along." Thomas F. O'Neill does a June and July greeting with some pertinent facts in "Introspective." Judith Kroll sent along a piece thoughtfully written a few years ago for this issue's "On Trek," titled "Create Your Reality."

Our Dublin Columnist Mattie Lennon managed to fairly well include news in his area for both months. Quite an agenda and well done as usual in his "Irish Eyes." Melinda Cohenour, widowed this year when Rod passed away, chose to continue the cooking column chores in "Cooking with Rod's Family" which features recipes and instructions from various kinfolk. This issue features M's New Orleans Pasta and includes a dab of history.

The "Armchair Genealogy" is a bit of a departure as it represents tales such as this shared by the author, as personal events that can be shown properly in one Family Tree. Melinda Cohenour recalls a childhood adventure in this column.

We must thank our dear friend and webmaster Mike Craner, who though retired or semi so, stays busy as a bee, and we know about bees don't we. Forever thanks, Mike for undergirding this revelation in what an art and literary magazine online (an eZine) can accomplish as we are midway through this 28th volume. Bless you and yours.

See you in August!