Robin Williams said, Spring is nature’s way of saying, "Let’s party!" and who can argue with that? The robins presented their song with the dignity only available to robins. Water danced from mystical places where winter’s bounty melted and plants everywhere exploded with startling greens that never seem to look as fresh after the summer sun has punished them for numerous weeks.

What all this really means is that summer has arrived in all its splendour whether we are prepared or not. If spring was a party, what is summer? Summer is that contented knowing that we have experienced something wonderful and, while the party has ended, the sensations and emotions are still with us. Like those memories, this season is much too short, so it is best to grab every day and make the most of it before the vestiges of that fading festival of spring leave us while we prepare for nature’s next event.

That is exactly what the editorial team here at Mused has done for this supreme summer issue. What makes us happy is a bonanza of quality words and art and, make no mistake, we are happy!

You can expect to be moved by Jennifer Mills Kerr’s insightful and emotional look into the life of a mother and daughter with Magic to it All. B. Denise Roosendaal’s vignette, Fish on Fridays, is an exciting glimpse into one family’s life letting us see how ritual unfolds differently for everyone.

Non-fiction was not going to be outdone. In The Prettiest Pirate Christine A. Brooks shows us that just a few kind and honest words can have a very deep impact while Al-Abyaad [The White One] by Nancy Dietrich shows us the power of determination and pride.

Strong works of poetry grace this issue, headed by such poems as Depression by Angelika Teuber, which is powerful and full of accurate imagery and emotion, the sensations of Joanna M. Weston’s Lost at Sunrise, the flow experienced within A Week on Squam Lake by Torre A. DeVito, and a solid, evoking Haiku by Lisa Hodges.

Exceptional submissions made the artwork team smile as we pored over and digested such pieces as Leslie Tribolet’s Fish Arrival, Albert Rollins’ Great Egret, Lisa Shea’s Orange, Donna Sciandra’s Pelican with Stretched Neck, Leah Broyde Abrahams’ Our Schizophrenic Spring, and the creepy-crawly macro world of Mark Berkery.

Turn the page and keep the party going, dear reader!

Kevin Thorburn
Mused Artwork Team Member
Mused Fiction Team Member