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The Note

Dale, Editor, Right Hand Pointing
 

Couple of stories about bats:  As a kid, I lived in a neighborhood in the southern USA and in the summers, there were lots of bats flying around eating  mosquitoes and other flying bugs at dusk and in the early evening.  We had this huge street light in front of our house and bugs dug it and so they were swarming around the light getting picked off by bats, equipped with sonar by God.  The bats, not the bugs. My boyhood friend Garry Calger Begoon was endlessly resourceful and he had these little marble-sized balls made out of cork.  He had discovered that if we threw these into the air, roughly in the path of a bat, something about the size and density of the cork balls would fool bat sonar into thinking, hey, bug. So the bat would swoop and grab the cork ball and head off with it for a few yards, until the bat would say, hey, not bug--ball! and would drop it back down for us to retrieve.  So, a bunch of us were going nuts one night playing with these bats who, finally, seemed to go kind of crazy.  And one of the bats swooped down and got in Tina Hollinger's hair.  It didn't stay long but it freaked poor Tina fully out.  I wonder if she still has dreams about it.  I know I do.

 

Our first contest is now concluded.  The best piece in the first four issues of Right Hand Pointing was judged to be Allan Peterson's Hospice. 

Allan wins the first-ever RHP contest and the first-ever RHP T-shirt, which is going to look something like this after I configure cafepress.com to make it.


 

Thanks to everyone who nominated poems.  I originally intended to have a vote but, hey, democracy is overrated, as the good people of Iraq are about to discover, although, admittedly, there's a really good chance it will be an improvement for them.  Let's hope. Their previous Great Leader seemed to have some control issues.

Anyway, we weren't exactly covered up with nominations, so I went with the poem that was nominated twice out of about five nominations. 

Several authors have submitted for the print edition and have asked me if I've accepted their work.  The print edition is still being planned, but I'm going to select the best writing from all the web issues at a later date.  Months from now. So, no need to make separate submissions--just submit to the web version and you'll stand a chance of getting in the print version.

I'm thinking of doing a theme issue.  I've ruled out "American Idol" but I'm still thinking about "Desperate Housewives." Admit it, we could have some fun with the latter.

We (that would be I, actually, I'm using the editorial we) continue to tweak the design with each issue.  We're adding a Contributors page.  You'll see some other tweaks.  The Table of Contents page has those little marks ( ) which now, when clicked upon, will transport you to the corresponding piece o'work.

But, fear not, with all the tweaking, we will never abandon The Orange.  Not one but TWO authors have told me they submitted because they thought the orange was groovy.  There are only two truly hip colors on the planet.  Black and orange.  Black is kinda out.  Some say that brown is the new black but we all know that orange is the new black. 

I hope you enjoy this issue.  I've taken as the title of the issue the title of a poem that's appearing in the issue, John Grey's "Where Bats Fit Into the Relationship."  I like that title.

Special thanks to Kat Lemmons for contributing the lovely cover painting, as well as some fine poems.  We'll be featuring another of Kat's images on the cover of Issue 6.

This issue includes four poems by John Grey.  I recently read his book, What Else Is There (Main Street Rag) and I'm happy to recommend it.

Speaking of Main Street Rag, thanks also to M. Scott Douglass at Main Street Rag.  His emailed newsletter offers free ads to other literary magazines.  Our listing in Scott's newsletter really helped jumpstart RHP. 

Darrell Grayson, whose poem "Glory Wings" was also nominated for our prize, will have a chapbook coming out from Mercy Seat Press.  I know this to be true, because I am one of the two owners of Mercy Seat Press.

I'm delighted to report that I already have a nice clump of writings submitted for Issue 6.  See you then.

 

Dale

Your Editor

 

 Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, so, then, later I got married and my wife (still my wife--going on 26 years) and I went to the zoo in Cincinnati.  She was pregnant with our oldest daughter.  So, listen, we went through this building at the zoo that had all of these small, creepy, animals.  Lemurs, spiders, snakes.  You know.  So there were bats  on display.  We walked up to one of the glass cages and HEY! it says these are vampire bats.  And we look down and one of the vampire bats is down on the floor of the cage lapping liquid out of a little dish. It's little tongue flicking out.  Cute.  "Til I realize it's blood.  A dish of blood.  I look back and my wife is pale and swaying.  Heading for a cold faint.  I don't think she fainted and I'm pretty sure I'd remember even though it was 23 years ago. 

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

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