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Comments from Editor Kenneth James Crist
Are you
confused? Upset about the demise of Black Petals, the print mag? I'm not. Not really. I dumped
money into that particular enterprise for eight years and never saw it take off, as I had envisioned. At some point ya just
gotta say, "Enough is enough."
My co-editor, Anne Stickel, brought
out one issue in print and did a fine job...and at that point said, "Okay, I'm not doin' this anymore..."
Funny she
learned in one issue what it took me thirty-two issues to learn: That unless you can line up some serious advertisers
and a lot of subscribers, the costs of printing and mailing a small-press magazine will keep you running in the red continuously,
no matter how long you do it.
So we took a look at putting it
online and the first thing we noticed was the hit counter on the main page of the Black Petals
domain. In a month it was generating six times as many hits as we were selling in copies of the print mag. And there really
wasn't anything up there to read!
What would happen, we wondered,
if we put the whole mag up on the web? Answer: We'd save a lot of bucks and get a lot more readers. And that means, if you
have a story posted here, a lot more people are gonna see it.
At this point
we're still lining up help in the artwork department and getting the format nailed down, so some of the stories don't have
illustrations, and not all of the artwork is the same size, but then most readers don't care about illustrations as much as
they do a good story. We feel like we've got some dandies in this issue.
We have a featured writer this
time. Cindy Rosmus has three stories in this issue and we go back a long ways with Cindy. If you
haven't discovered our sister mag, Yellow Mama, you need to check it out. Cindy's the editor and
the stories posted there tend to be grittier, gutsier and more no-holds-barred than BP fare. You'll
find a link on the Black Petals homepage.
In addition, we have two featured
poets, Gary Every and Kendall Evans, both long-time BP
contributors and friends. We're glad they decided to stick with us as we enter the 21st Century with Black
Petals Online. Kenny ;o)
“Bodies!” screamed the besieged idea, emerging from the tumult
of my winter mulling. It had begun with my middle brother’s funeral on 12.21.07. He died with a smile on his face that
belied death’s claim on his body. Later, at a post-Christmas gathering with another brother’s extended family,
I was privileged to learn about a book his son is editing, which features striking black and white nude photos. New Year’s
Day hit me with a double ‘body’ slam. Joining a small group from our motorcycle club in perfect weather, I rode
‘shotgun’ as we circled two bodies of water decimated by our California drought—Lexington and Uvas reservoirs.
On the mid-ride departure from our lunch stop, I’d noticed two bodies crossing the parking lot together. The first strode
along sporting a shiny green ‘Happy New Year’ hat; his companion, in a motorized wheelchair, rolled along smoothly
by his side without any problem…or limbs!
But, we are more than bodies, and this is evident in the body of
every work Black Petals publishes. It is one thing to tell a story about bodies acting, reacting,
interacting, or inert. It is quite another to tell it in a memorable way, with attention to detail, with polish (excellent
copy) and finesse. Readers don’t like a mere superficial look; they want to go deeper. Could a dying man smile when
stepping from his dreams into a Better Place? What prompts a person to document their own far-from-perfect body’s perfect
integration? What makes earth’s precious water so fragile, yet such a force? And what puts a New Year’s celebrant
in his physically altered state, but capable of exceeding it?
BP’s authors and artists can’t
completely answer life’s questions any more than I can fully explain my take on circumstances leading me to write this.
For the most part, short story writers of the speculative sort approach their subjects obliquely, uniquely. Symbols—tentacled
monstrosities, sea gods, ghosts, sprites, and surreal states—can stand for the mysteries lurking within and beyond bodies;
they abet the atmosphere of confusion, or frustration, or rage, or revenge, or even satisfaction. Fiction grounded in mundane
reality can soar to unexpected heights when its creators ignore what they can’t do by realizing what they can…and
maybe even what they only dream is possible.
Thanks go to our friends, some of whom—like Mr. J. Danoski,
Mr. K. Evans and Mr. W. Trizna—have purchased contributor copies of our final print edition or donated to the cause
of continuing Black Petals. Kenny and I donate our time, and now both of us have put our money
out there too. If you have received a pre-stamped postcard, this is your chance to give us written feedback; we love to hear
from you warm bodies and probing minds. AMS, 1.8.08
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