Well,
here we are
again, boys and girls, with another great issue of Black Petals. The Covid-19
still marches on and elections are just around the corner and one thing we will
not involve ourselves in here at BP is politics. We are in the business of entertainment
and we know that we compete with all the other forms that may entail. How in
the heck do you compete with radio, TV, the Internet, Social Media, etc., using
only the written word and some illustrations? We do it, ladies and gents, by
using only the best that comes our way. For every story that makes it here, I
must write many more rejection letters, some of them encouraging those who are
obviously talented, others blowing off the hacks, posers and wanna-be’s who are
just not willing to invest the time and hard work that it takes to succeed in
this type of competitive market.
Over the years, BP
has given a lot of writers their very first publication and we were always glad
to do that, whenever we saw a budding talent and a person who displayed the
patience and stick-to-it-iveness to hang in there in spite of piles of
rejection slips.
Along the way, I’m
sure we’ve made a few enemies. So be it. We won’t dwell on hurt feelings or
misunderstandings. We will look forward, always, to the next exciting issue and
the next gifted and unknown talent who reads our guidelines and says, “Shit
yeah…I can do that…”
Not everyone in this
issue is a newbie—there are a few folks you’re going to recognize from past
issues, but a lot of the folks you’ll read this time are new faces around here,
but that was not the reason they got picked. They got picked because of new
ideas, new ways of expressing themselves, or maybe a new take on an old idea.
This being the Halloween issue, we tried to keep it as creepy as we could and
we held a few pieces over that could have been published earlier, just so they
could appear in this one.
I hope you like what
we’ve put together and also, don’t forget to check out our sister mag, Yellow
Mama, which is also coming out today. I know my friend, Cindy Rosmus would love
to have you come visit. Thanks for reading and don’t be a stranger…
Wichita,
KS,
10/15/2020
