Image © Warren Muzak
Letter from the Editors Dear Reader, Life is always throwing us curve balls. Does this make us helpless victims of circumstance in an unpredictable universe? Or does our agency reveal itself by the choices we make when faced with the unexpected? This issue brings you five talented authors sharing their own visions of the interplay between fate and free will. In this issue, you'll encounter an imprisoned artist whose unappreciated gifts might set her free, an introverted vampire whose latest victim gives him more than a simple drink, a spacefaring diplomat who finds the last thing he expects on a distant planet, a justice-seeking activist who stumbles into a world where his moral values are all but unknown, and a poetry lover who is unexpectedly drawn into the truth hiding within verse. We present for your reading enjoyment: "Girl on the Edge" by Kathryn Riley--A prisoner sentenced to create leisure games for the idle rich searches for a way to turn her forced labor into freedom. "The Color of Waiting" by Asok Kumar--Countless light-years from Earth, a young traveler learns if love can bloom between people with almost nothing in common. "Poetry Planet" by Don Raymond--Can there be such a thing as too much beauty? One man finds out when he inadvertently releases the power of poetry. "Blood, Moonlight, and Poppy Seeds" by Julia Raye--When you're a vampire, drinking the wrong blood might do more than satisfy your thirst. "Occupy Underhill" by Edd Vick & Manny Frishberg--The fae folk have long spirited away mortals by appealing to their desires. But what if your desire is justice? In our Editor's corner, we present "...Came into a Bar" by Mary Jo Rabe. Finally, we thank Warren Muzak, who provided our cover image for this issue: "Curiosity." Thanks for reading, Lesley, Grayson, Candi, and the Electric Spec Team