A Scout & Engineer Title

Anyone with a keen eye for dates may have noticed that, on the 5th of this month, Scout & Engineer No. 2 did not make its debut. I'm happy to confirm, first, foremost, that the publication is alive & healthy.

This month, in lieu of regularly scheduled programming, S&E offers a single-author short story collection. Its snazzy pic lies below, and you can read all about it here. It is available for purchase as a PDF download here.

The skinny: 9 regular-sized shorts, 1 flash. One reprinted from S&E No. 1; 2 making reappearances, having been first published in other magazines. The others--previously unpublished, in print or electronically.

What I would like to briefly emphasize is that the stories in Wendy Never Married (primarily) abide by the theme of individualism. Issue No. 1 contained stories similarly themed while distinct in subject, style, etc.

At this juncture, I can confidently say there will be a Scout & Engineer 2--slated for release early in October--and that it will provide an assortment of precision-crafted stories, from a variety of talents, that weave in S&E's core focus. I'm gratified to have read the work of these authors, and I encourage all who enjoyed the first issue to stay tuned for our second.

I would also mention, though, for a second time, a point I originally belabored here. Namely, that Scout & Engineer will only go to print when a solid issue's worth of theme-appropriate and stylistically excellent material has been gathered. For this reason (a change from the planned design), Scout & Engineer does not offer subscriptions; readers are encouraged to sign up for our newsletter &/o connect with us on Facebook and Twitter for announcements concerning new issues.

A brief word also on submissions. Since the gates officially opened, S&E has received a bounty of stories that reveal their authors' polished sense of story, discipline, and familiarity with the best of words. I'm delighted to say--as I was to see--that the stylistic quality of submitted stories has been, on average, very high. In the minority, unfortunately, are those submissions that integrate our theme. And as for the detailed theme--well, that point can be found belabored in more or less any editorial piece sitewide. As long as submissions that--creatively, skillfully--match in some sense with our focus keep rolling in, I will gladly continue orchestrating new issues.

On a closing note, if you like what you've read in our first issue, and if you enjoy the stories in Wendy Never Married, please consider spreading the word about S&E; putting us on the radar of authors whose work would be at home here; posting reviews to Amazon, Nook, and Kindle pages; liking S&E on Facebook; following on Twitter, etc.

And there's always the helpful-to-all option of bulk-buying copies and with them replacing Gideon hotel bibles. Whatever strikes you as appropriate.

Thank you for reading both the Scout & Engineer blog and literary offerings, and thank you for your time.

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.