Another Short Story

Here's one:

     That's running a bit late, but, well, better late than never, as the kids like to say.

     It's the Spring Equinox 2025 issue of Journ-E: The Journal of Imaginative Literature, y'see, even though the larger world around us, observing that I'm posting this on the Wednesday after Memorial Day, might be inclined to believe that we've entered the unofficial beginning of Summer.

     Still, I've got a story called "Cleanse" in the aforementioned issue, the third of the stories I've had published in Journ-E about the talking cats, dogs, and birds living in the magical Realm of Marigold. I'll add here my standard proviso when discussing these Marigold stories: any resemblance between the characters and settings here and the characters and settings of the cartoon series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is entirely purposeful.

     The first of the stories, in case anyone wants to collect the whole set so far, is "Queen of the Mushrooms" in the Autumnal Equinox 2023 issue. It focuses on the romance between Lacewing, the lovely young crow veterinarian in the little town of Shady Grove, and Bathetic, the Salamander Lord of Pandemonium. The second, "It Takes a Village," appears in the Autumnal Equinox 2024 issue. It's about Aquillo, an eagle who works as a weather warden in and around Shady Grove as well as flying with the stunt group known as the Barnstormers, and his efforts to bring a little romance into the life of Felina, a feline tailor who's not at all interested in any of the messy, physical aspects of a relationship. And because I'm always thinking ahead, I've got the fourth Marigold story already written. I'm just waiting on editor Frank Coffman to open submissions for Autumnal Equinox 2025.

     As near as I can tell, Coffman's mostly focused on printing these volumes on paper, but according to the notes at the bottom of this page on his website, you can also get copies of individual issues from him in what he calls "PDF wysiwyg format" for $5 apiece. He says "contact fcoffman@comcast.net for details," so if you'd prefer not cluttering up your meatspace—again, as the kids put it—this PDF thing might be an option for you.

                                                                      Mike

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