Are You All Ready to Celebrate my Favorite Month? Yay its October!- Senior Editor, Melissa Libbey

Hi SLM family!

Is that ok, that I call you family?

Because over the past few months I have come to see all of you that way. I love that all over the world we can come together to spread our love of writing and work together as a community. I really do appreciate all of the submissions and friendly emails that we receive on a daily basis.

I think some of the work we post on this site is the best out there, no joke! I love the sense of community that SLM readers have. I get excited when you all comment on each other’s work. I wish it was done more because we should all be building each other up not tearing each other down. There is too much negativity in the world. I would love to see SLM be a safe haven of positivity for all writers!

I love October. Not only is it my birthday month but it is one of my favorite times of the year. The leaves change colors, it’s cool enough to wear a sweater and scarf. I love the colder nights when my boyfriend and I build a fire and have a beer in his backyard. It’s a nice feeling.

I have been very busy with teaching and I haven’t really taken the time to enjoy the weather change. I would love to go pumpkin or apple picking but it is so hard to find the time. That’s why Kelly and I have been taking some time to give each other a break. We all need that sometimes and I think it is super important to listen to your body when it tells you it needs some time off. Don’t let this crazy world around us effect your heart or mind.

With that being said I want to introduce our newest Intern, Hailey! She is my predecessor at Kean University. She is a grad assistant for the KUWP which is where I worked before I graduated. She is excited about joining the team and she has prior experience with literary magazines. I’m sure you will all start to hear from her soon.

I hope you enjoy our new way of doing things. We decided to switch things up a bit. I think the monthly volumes will be a better system for Kelly, Hailey, and I. We will post the entire Volume over the course of 1-2 weeks and volume 2 the final two weeks. If we don’t have enough submissions then we will take a week off from posting. If the volume has already been posted, we will no longer accept submissions for that theme. Most literary magazines close submissions once they have enough or they have a certain due date. We like having rolling submissions so you can send us your work whenever but we have to have a cut off at some point. I was scrambling to get the last of the What If submissions scheduled for September. It’s just too much stress for us. It also depends on how much work gets sent to us. We can’t continue to beg you to send us your work so we have decided to post what we have and go on to the next volume.

We love that you all enjoy what we publish on SLM but we can’t keep staying up late at night or working all weekend to post 3 times a day for the whole month. It is just too much. We hope you understand.

Have a great month everyone!

Melissa Libbey
Senior Editor