Pearl River Community College's award winning literary magazine

Special Edition—Spring-Summer 1998

Editor's Section

Editorial

In the South, we have a tradition called Vacation Bible School, a tradition which all protestant, some Catholics, and not a few unchurched children undergo each summer. Vacation Bible School is welcomed with open arms as the God-send of many a mother who has "had it up to here" with the kids and longs for the peace and quiet that school affords. The kids usually get all excited about it too, because in spite of having to put up with someone else's mama they usually get cookies and Kool-Aid at mid-morning, get to play with their friends, and best of all, get to do crafts, which usually means anything from building a birdhouse to spelling out their favorite Bible verse with macaroni letters on a wooden plaque. But then, kids can usually get excited about most anything.

I remember one particular Vacation Bible School, several of the older kids were asked to give the character study during assembly. I was chosen. I prepared all week. I don't remember what the story was. In fact, I don't remember anything about it. I've tried to forget it. I really have. My character study was wrought with so many "uh's" and "and's" that very little of the story got told. Most of the kids were asleep at the end of my story and the other half were crawling under the benches or passing notes or doing things one doesn't normally do in church.

I'm simply not a story teller. I never have been, and I guess I never will be, but that doesn't stop me from being a writer. Fortunately, I only write the words that pertain to the story, leaving out the "uh's" and the "and's."

When a story begins to form itself in my mind, I let it sit there and simmer awhile. Like a good soup, a story has to have time to mix together so that all its parts get used to each other. As the idea for the plot, person, characters, and setting simmers, the story takes on a new dimension. It becomes like a child ready to be birthed. I call this phase the "being pregnant with a story" phase. Stories are a lot like babies in one respect. When the time comes to "have it," one has no say so in the matter. It's got to get out and there's no getting around it. Writers become quite frustrated if they've got a story that's ready to come out, but they aren't able to sit down and put it on paper.

Once the story is birthed, or put on paper, then comes the most important part, the development of the story and the refining of the story's character. This is a lot like raising kids. If you do a poor job, the end result is a bad story, but if you do a good job, you get a good story. Writers usually work with the story for what seems like decades, refining, revising, researching, and rewriting (I call it the four "R's"). As this process takes place, Writer begin to love their story. Sometimes they love the bad parts almost as much as the good parts, and this love is the downfall of many potential writers. Some writers don't want to change the bad parts because they feel that they are an important part of the story. When you're raising kids, the bad parts have got to go no matter how cute they may seem to be at the time. No matter how you look at it, cute doesn't equal success, and everyone wants their children to be successful.

By the time I've rewritten the story about ten or eleven times and I feel it can't possibly get any better, I have learned to love my story with an intense and protective feeling. At this point, I may feel that it is ready for the rest of the world. As a writer who is seeking publication, I begin to submit it to publishers or agents. It is at this time that I discover that not everyone feels the same way about my children as I do. Sure, my story received acceptance among relatives and friends, but the rest of the world is a different matter. The rest of the world doesn't love me the way my relatives and friends love me, so they don't automatically love my "children" just because they are mine. At this point, I come to the awful realization that my story just might not be ready for the world, so I bring it home and do a little more work.

Now that I have done everything that I can possibly do to my story, I send it out again. This time I find people who love it for what it is. They take my story from there. They may find some flaws and suggest correction, and usually I agree wholeheartedly. In the end, my story is published and the process has been completed. Now, the acceptance or rejection of my story by the world at large is all that remains.

Some people's stories may become world famous and others may just barely make it through publication, but if you're like me, some people still have a whole bunch of stories still living at home, lying around the house doing absolutely nothing, so get busy. Whip those stories into shape and get them out into the world. After all, everyone wants to be proud of all their children.

In this issue

At the recent Mississippi Community College Creative Writing Association awards banquet, Pearl River Community College students walked away with three first place prizes, three seconds, one third and two honorable mentions. (The Magic River literary magazine was among the first place prize winners.) This issue not only contains terrific writing, but it also contains award winning writing...the best in the state among community college students. We are devoting an entire section to the special efforts these students made to ready their material for the state competition.

In the regular section of the magazine, we will introduce you to some incredible new writers. Jerimiah Gerald, Michael McAndrew, and Joshua Cameron Cothen have been added to our contributing poets. Carrie Badon contributed "Blue" to our last issue, and this issue will feature three of her new poems. Of course our poetry editor, Becky Spiers, our assistant editor, Anna Claire Morgan, and our essay editor, Becky Coco have several poems each. Add to this an interesting look at love by Vincent Molinario, a poem about confusion by Thomas Treadaway, and a poem giving advice to a young incarcerated friend by Ronn Hague.

The short story section is no less spectacular with contributing authors: Lowell G. Erwin, Carrie Badon, Reyna Odom, and Anna Claire Morgan. The essays include contributions written by Lowell G. Erwin, Anna Claire Morgan, and David B. Glasenapp.

This issue we introduce a new department: Reviews. We are doing a different twist on our reviews, however. Instead of reviewing new books and short stories, we are reviewing older books and short stories that are often overlooked.

All together, this makes up the second issue of the award winning The Magic River literary magazine.

The Editor's Choice

This edition of The Magic River is filled with incredible writing, making it quite difficult to make a choice. Several authors do make a lasting impression. In the short stories, Assistant Editor, Anna Claire Morgan's story Prom Night gives you a lot to think about. In the poetry section, it is a toss up between Carrie Badon's Bleed for You and newcomer Jeremiah Gerald's Chaos Escape. In the essay division, I was especially intrigued by David Glasenapp's Evolution of the Modern Day Toilet.

When it comes right down to it, every story, poem and essay is worth reading. And, of course, don't forget the special section, the submissions to the MCCCWA competition. Out of that group, nine submissions of the eleven entries won awards ranging from first place to honorable mention.

So where should you start reading? I suggest that you start with the very first page and read straight through. Chances are, you won't be able to stop.

Editorial Staff
 

Ronn Hague, Editor

Anna Clarie Morgan, Assistant Editor

Carrie Badon, Short Story Editor

Becky Coco, Essay Editor

Becky Spiers, Poetry Editor
 

Julia Ferguson, B.S.Ed., M.Ed,, S.Eng., English Faculty Advisor

Erlene M. Smith, B.S.Ed., M.Ed., English Faculty Advisor

William Nix, B.M.E., M.A., Chair of Department of English

Wellington E. Estey, B.A., M.A., Ed.D., Dean of Academic Affairs

Ted J. Alexander, B.A., M.Ed., Ed.D., President

Pearl River Community College, located in Poplarville, Mississippi with a second campus in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is Mississippi's first community college. Founded as Pearl River County Agricultural High School in 1908, the institution began classes in 1909 as Mississippi's first agricultural high school. In 1921, PRCAHS began offering college courses at the college level, the first institution in the state to do so. Pearl River Community College has maintained its position of educational leadership for the past eighty-nine years and will set the stage for educational excellence in the new millennium.