Editor's Corner

By Mary E. Adair

Here we are in the month that will wind up with half the year of 2004 completed. The history books are filling rapidly, and TV documentaries are rampant. Reality shows drag on and on, much like the more mundane activities that the watchers face in their own lives... not the challenges, just the dragging on and on part. No wonder the make-over shows are attractive to viewers - one can become anything with professional help, even a "Swan" it seems.

Well, we here at Pencil Stubs Online have been doing new issues for over six years now and we still find it challenging and exciting. Each month we try to bring you interesting variety to tittilate your imagination along with some info that you might never otherwise run across.

Our columnists line up at the ready for June with LC Van Savage and her new Mom rules in "Consider This;" Mattie Lennon who clears up why a riot is sometimes called a Donnybrook in "Irish Eyes ;" our esteemed webmaster and co-founder Michael Craner put his tongue in his cheek and penned "Mike's Place." While Gerard Meister battles modern communication in "Thinking Out Loud," Leo C. Helmer helps the summertime cooks with his easily done recipe in "Cookin' With Leo."

Helmer also adds a bit of expertise via the article "Extreme Cooking - Cicadas."

A baker's dozen of poems finds John I. Blair in a self-analytical mode with the following compositions: "A Perfect Place," "Indomitable," "Poems In My Mind," "Poet Boy," "Shells," "Dream State," and "Slowly."

Judith Alexander returns after too long an absence with "The Night is Benign." Our newest poet Keleigh Girnas (first poem last issue) adds to our list with "Ever After" and "Conversation."

"Faulty Sunrise" and "Pandora's Box," both to make you think, come to us from Bruce Clifford, while Sheila Keith writes "My Heart Must Go On!"

Our big project this month is the beginning of a new serial by Australian author Alan Mosedale. Be sure to check his personal bio by clicking his name (in blue) which we in the business refer to as a byline. "The Hybird - The Green Cloud - Cast of Characters" might be where you will want to start, but don't miss the first two parts of the main story, "..Chapter 1" and "..Chapter 2." All will be found in the Stories section of the Table of Contents. It reads fast and will intrigue you. We plan to carry at least two chapters each issue.

While you are in the reading mood, if you've never done it before, peruse the on-going serial "The Good Book" by Leo C. Helmer. Interpreted for the inherent humor, but still sticking to the message intended, this is a very entertaining effort. Access by choosing Serialized Stories on the sidebar.

Other items on the sidebar are for the readers benefit as well, and we encourage you to submit your comments both on "The Wall" and in "Reader Recommends" and don't forget to add kudoes or constructive criticism to the pages of this issue. You can alert friends to come read something you particularly enjoy by sending a note to them right on the page you are reading. Make use of this ezine - it is prepared for you.

The summer heat, the severe weather in parts of the nation, the vacations, the end of school trauma - could all or each have been reasons many of us (yours truly included) neglected to write anything new. However, we surely hope to see many submissions online for the July ezine.

See you then!!