Issue One, Itemized

1. Both the variety and the influx of submissions that fit Scout & Engineer's theme were encouraging. Those stories featured in No. 1 demonstrate creative variances, subtle to substantial, on a core focus: excellent individualistic storytelling. This issue's by turns boldly investigative and gently revealing fiction comes courtesy of T.D. Edge, Nemone Thornes, Zeke Jarvis, Erika Holzer, and Christopher Blonde. Beautiful cover art brought to S&E by John Cox.

2. Elena Gorokhova. Fiercely intelligent, powerful woman; apt memoir writer with an eye for the kind of detail that makes all the difference. What an honor to feature an interview with her.

3. A few occurences throughout  No. 1's ripening phases:

"Empire State of Mind." Twenty, thirty times a day.

An Amazing Spiderman t-shirt ascended through the shirt-ranks to become my common-law-official editorial uniform.

Groupa guys called Lehigh advanced to even intenser levels of madness in March. The watching world understandably went wide-eyed, windily stuttering "Wh-wh-whuh?"

Interesting take on the western.
Convenient bookmark.

Writers who appreciated Scout & Engineer's premise voluntarily submitted their work for consideration. When I judged a work both appropriate to S&E's guidelines and appealing to my own editorial sense, I offered a payment for the right to include that work in the congealing premier issue. Authors, having determined the payment/publication package worthwhile in the context of their own personal goals, accepted; and the editing marched on. It sounds so simple. (It is.)

The aftermath of wild nights of editing looks
somewhat different than that of other
wild nights.

The food item most consumed in-office was, rather anticlimactically: apples.

En route to the finals.

Held the physical proof in my hands. Thought: from a "wouldn't it be nice" kind of thought. Nice, indeed.