Tomorrow, after I’ve had a few hours of sleep, I will have much, much more to say (don’t I always?), but for now, I will say this: it would not surprise me to find, upon looking in the mirror, that I had grown green fur and was sporting a Santa suit. The way that the Grinch’s heart swelled upon hearing the voices of Whoville raised is precisely the way my heart has felt over the past several hours spent working on this issue. My rib cage aches with the swelling of my heart for the beauty that Myfanwy Collins has helped us to bring to the pages of SmokeLong.
Tomorrow, I will speak, with feeling, about some of the work that appears herein. For now, I shall away to bed, thoughts of Cindy Lou Who dancing through my head.
Fah who for-aze!
Dave Clapper
Founding Editor, SmokeLong Quarterly
December 15, 2005
— Cover Art “Detail of The Death of Susan” by Marty D. Ison