LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Hello Enchanted Friends:

Welcome to the accidental “Song of the Sea Issue.” That’s right, we never intended this to be a watery issue, but after I’d chosen the authors for the March and June issues, I discovered that I’d bought a lot of mermaid/water-focused works. So Amanda and I got together and created this dreamy issue that you have before you. We’re very proud of it, and it’s timed just right for the live-action version of The Little Mermaid,andthattooisaccidental!

We don’t just have brand new stories, poems and nonfiction in this issue—fantastic though they are. We also have items for the Best of Enchanted Conversation series. Plus,Amanda has gathered some antique fairytalesyoumaynever fairy tales you may never have read before from old books.We truly are offering an ocean of delights in thisissue.

In other news, if you are a writer, don’t forget that we have a writing contest fundraiser going on right now. After June 2, the contest will be the last chance to submit anything for publication in 2023. Herearethedetails.

Have you been reading the fabulous serialized novel Glass and Feathers, by Lissa Sloan? Only full-year subscribers can, and we’re almost finished serializing it. We are so proud of it that we’re publishing it in print next February. Because of that, we are pulling it as a bonus for new subscribers after the last section is sent. But subscribers who’ve joined so far will still get to keep it in the serialized form.

There’s lots of art and beauty and stories and poetry here to enjoy, and I hope you will. As the days grow ever hotter in the Northern Hemisphere, our stories, nonfiction and poems will offer a delightfulwaytovisitthewaterwithoutleavingyoureasychair.AndforourmoreSouthernHemisphere fans,thisissuewillmakeyoulongforwarmerdaysthatbring you tothewater’sedgetoo.Enjoy!

KateWolford Editor/Publisher

P.S.Oneofourcontributors,BrittaniJenee'Cal, hasaveryspecialmessagetogowithherpoemonpage 72.Wethoughtwe’dshareithere:

“As a child, it was easy to see the women around me as other-worldly. They were magical beings with all the right answers and the power to keep me safe from the dangers of the world. When my grandmother passed away, my mother chose a photo of her as a young woman for her headstone. She said it was important that the woman she had been before she became a mother be honored, too. It was that moment I realized my mother had also lived a life beyond being just my mother, and I wondered who that woman had been. Her dreams. Her fears. Her loves. Who was she before me? And what sort of magic a love between a mother and daughter must be to drown oneself for.”