Well, here we are again. I almost thought this issue wasn’t going to happen, but we got our act together, and managed to put a great collection of stories and poems together.

It’s odd, lately, I’ve noticed that my preference for stories with Basement Stories runs towards the secluded, the character-driven. There are many exceptions, of course, but no more is that taste evident than in this issue. The stories all happen, for the most part, as conversations between two people. In “Stranded,” two girls play the “what would you want if you were stranded on a desert island” game, in “Matriculation,” a student and teacher try to put their lives together at the end of the world. In “The Goodnight Room,” a medic has to clean up what’s left of a failed resurrection, and in “Like Rain from Silver Skies,” a boy tries to understand his sister.  It’s a much more sedate issue than #1 or #2, but beautiful, I think.

We’ve also got an amazing collection of poetry. “Fusion Drive” is the first haiku that I remember liking in years, and it’s quite clever. “Breathing Bones” is a lovely free verse poem, and “5 Pieces from The Bride Enters the Chamber” is a stunning prose poem – it only gets better the more you read it.

We’ve written a few articles which we hope you’ll enjoy – one from James Dent about the state of poetry, one from me about Tron, Black Swan, and the destructive urge of artists in these films to create something perfect, as well as an overview of the books, TV shows, movies, and science that we’re looking forward to most in the upcoming year.

With this issue, we’re also introducing our new website, which, hopefully, will be more functional and attractive for all of you. Let us know if there are any issues.

As always, it’s been a joy to edit this issue. I’m even getting the hang of getting back to people on time! I hope you all enjoy reading it.

Best regards,

Carol Kirkman

Editor in Chief