Editor’s Page for Yellow Mama Issue #92 – June 15, 2022

Hi, all!

Finally, the warm weather is here. But it’s tough to enjoy, with so much tragedy out there.  Besides the Covid pandemic, and war in Ukraine, there were mass shootings in a supermarket, church, and school. All those people dead, including 19 schoolkids. What’s up with this world?

Like we state on the Yellow Mama home page, we publish fiction, just for entertainment. Real-life killings make us sick. Our prayers go out to the victims of these senseless crimes, and their families.

This issue of YM features something for everyone. Zach Wilhide’s “The Waitress” recalls what we loved most about Pulp Fiction. In Kenneth James Crist’s “An Incident in Dodge,” an old Western stranger will open your eyes . . . or shut them for good. A sadistic cop has “Some Week” during Arab Spring in Don Stoll’s chilling tale. In Bruce Costello’s “Weird World,” the canine narrator saves a dying romance. And Merrilee Robson’s quirky “Why I Left the House That Smelled of Death” gives us the most obnoxious Thanksgiving guest ever.

Other fine stories include Pamela Ebel’s flash, “Dead Men Don’t Text,” in which one woman’s V-day appears to be ruined. In Jacob Graysol’s “Hate and Love,” a coddling mother reacts to her son’s “bullying.” And in Amy Grech’s apocalyptic “Midnight Munchies,” two pals stay in touch via text, as their world collapses around them.

Our poetry lineup features three gritty noir works by John C. Mannone, more “asylum-inspired” poems from Dr. Mel Waldman, and YM newcomer Peter Mladinic’s tragic “Topsy.” Also check out powerful poems from Michael Keshigian, and others.

Full-length and flash fiction stories (and some poems) are individually illustrated by our gifted artists: Kevin Duncan, Hillary Lyon, Noelle Richardson, KJ Hannah Greenberg, Steve Cartwright, Ann Marie Rhiel, Michael D. Davis, Keith Coates Walker, Sean O’Keefe, Cynthia Fawcett, Bernice Holtzman, Sophia Wiseman-Rose, Nancy Soriano, and our two newest: Wayne F. Burke, and John Sowder.

And special thanks to KJ Hannah Greenberg for her “haunted resort” cover!

If you want to submit full-length fiction, flash fiction, or poetry, check out our guidelines page.

Also, please sign our guestbook! If you have comments about Yellow Mama or any stories, poems, or artwork that we run, you may leave comments there.

And check out our revised Archives and Archives II, to catch recent stories or poems by your favorite writers that you might’ve missed.

Most of all, thanks for reading!