Welcome to The VERB!

When the weather gets warm, I lose interest in cooking. Fresh green salads, with lots of fixings, become my main fare. And now that my hubby has started the Nutra-System diet plan (prepared meals are shipped to him in a big heavy box) and my college student son is in and out so much that sharing a meal with him is pretty much a crapshoot ... well, our kitchen has become a sad and lonely place. This, as was revealed to me just the other day, isn't such a wise thing. 

We were all in the house, but in different rooms, busy with our little pursuits. I glanced at the clock, realized it was supper time and cringed at the idea of eating a salad. Hey, what if I cooked a meal? A real meal with meat, potatoes and gravy, vegetables, hot bread—the works. I headed for the kitchen, humming and banging pots, and what to my wandering eye did appear? Family. "Oh, thank you, thank you," said my grateful son. "Chops?" said my buoyant hubby. "Guess I can ignore the diet for one night." Conversation and laughter ensued. Before I knew what hit me, I had also whipped up a batch of chocolate-chip cookies. Excitement shot through the roof. My son got on the phone and called his friends with the news, and by the time the second cookie sheet came out of the oven, the kitchen had filled to capacity. I'm sure psychologists have a deep explanation for this phenomenon. Something along the lines of, The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. All I know is that a busy kitchen makes a home happy.

Congrats to Sherryl Gardner, our Flash Fiction contest winner! Her eloquent and perfectly constructed short story is displayed on the Chalkboard of this very issue. Give it a read.

Also congrats to Sue Fagalde Lick. Her new book Freelancing for Newspapers will be released this month. Based on her freelance classes, the book takes the reader through the process of finding newspaper markets, developing ideas, sending out queries, researching and writing the articles and managing the business aspects of freelance writing. After many years as a staff reporter and editor, Sue has been freelancing for the past 17 years. In addition, she has brought out a new edition of a previous book, Stories Grandma Never Told: Portuguese Women in California through her own Blue Hydrangea Productions. For more information, visit her website. 

And now, without further ado ... turn the page.

Elizabeth Guy
Editor
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This issue 
was published 
under the musical influence of
 AL STEWART
Year of the Cat