Stars. Icing. What's the connection?

Way back, a whole six issues ago, Lalo was coding the fiction for the massive "Sticks and Stones" and was struck upside the head by a phrase in Christine Stark's "Mad Dad". In the final scene, the abusive father is watching an ice hockey game on television; random sounds from it intrude into the narration. One of the teams is Dallas' NHL franchise, who commit a foul defined by the puck being cleared out of their zone, all the way to the opposite wall behind their opponent's goal without being touched by another player -- "icing the puck", in the parlance. The TV in Ms Stark's story repeats the referee's call: "Icing on the Stars."

Taken out of prosaic context, those words can suggest all sorts of things. Which stars -- in the sky, on stage and screen, on a flag? Literal ice, or something else nicknamed "ice", or a confectionery some people call "frosting" -- if so, what flavor? Is it another way to say gilding the lily, or coals to Newcastle? Or does it simply suggest a mood, a frame of mind in and from which to write? Those words turned out to inspire a lot of thought (and a comment or two from contributors). Many submissions we received this quarter were written specifically around the phrase, and some of those are here, now.

That's what we call a successful Theme -- and Lalo's particularly pleased, 'cause it's his. Thanks to all who submitted!

The Sun Is Going To Explode

Hell just froze over and we all must go to Venus, we hear the weather is going to be pretty decent there in about a million years. For those of you searching for our featured poet this quarter, you're out of luck. Paradoxically, your luck is going to change when you realize that we're presenting you with a marvelous (and unusual) treat with the prose of David Gaffney.

You could say that our Featured Wordsmith is the icing to the cake of our four additional wordsmiths in the Front View -- but that would leave our Rear View addicts out in the cold, and no one can hear you scream in space. Cyber space. (Please, direct all complaints regarding wit in this editorial towards Sydney Nash. SHE's the Janitor on Duty for this center column.)

When all that other nonsense has overwhelmed you -- we recommend, as always; a dose of accidentally on purpose Deliberate Nonsense. ^TM

This quarters most coveted and sought after THQ Award goes to the worthy crew at The Science Fiction Poetry Association and their quarterly (print) journal, Star*Line, and their annual Rhysling Award.

FEATURED WORDSMITH David Gaffney

Huge Props to Studio AKA for the permission to use "JoJo in the Stars" as our cover image this quarter. Do go to our "Featured Artist(s) page for more information about this intriguing piece. It's amazing. We're not kidding.

As always, we perused the aisles at Stock.Xchng, among other freebie photo sites and utilized the great world of starving artists with gleeful abandon. Of course we give credit where credit is due, and we hope you enjoy.

We are STILL especially pleased with All Posters (dot) Com and their marvelous "blog this picture" utility. Kudo's to Companies who understand the world of art on the internet, and offer such advertising capabilities.
This doesn't negate the fact that we certainly understand how important © or Trademark Laws are. Which is why we play by the rules!