Good morning, all. We have some good reading for you this week and I'm glad to be able to share it.

On Monday we published Diane Josefowicz' review of Softie, a story collection by Megan Howell from West Virginia University Press. As our reviews editor and a long time reviewer in her own right, we've shared her writing many times, but she's also the author of several books including a new story collection, Guardians & Saints forthcoming this year.

Tuesday delivered Roy Hoffman interviewing Elaine Neil Orr about her new novel, Dancing Woman from Blair Publishing. Roy and Elaine are both new to our pages and we're glad to have them.

Then on Wednesday our featured story for the week was "Over is Under is Everywhere" by Teal Ivy Hall. This is also Teal's first time in Necessary Fiction, and it was quite a thrill to see her name in the submissions queue because she was my student a few years ago. A coincidental but very welcome reconnection! You'll find more of Teal's work listed here.

Finally (and feel free to stop reading here before I get going!), I got myself a mandolin recently. It was a gift from my wife, or rather the gift was her saying, after hearing me talk for years about how much I'd like to learn the instrument, that I should shut up and spend the money on myself. So I did. Am I a good player? I'm not. Will I ever be, in whatever number of years I have left in which to practice? Perhaps, likely not; I won't be going on tour or becoming the first middle aged mandolin pop star, that's certain. But there's a lot to be worried about lately and a lot of news and problems eager to demand our attention and consume our time and energy. I hope I will do my part to help with those problems.

But I'm also glad to have found something new I can be gleefully amateur at, with no pressure, because along with being fun it has given me a way to hold back enough of myself to stay whole. My family and friends may already be tired of hearing me play and talk about playing (fiddle tunes demand repetition, what can I say?) but whether it's a mandolin or something else I hope you're keeping enough of yourself to yourself to stay whole as well. And if anyone wants to play clumsy, joyful music together, swing by. I've been working on "Big Sciota" for the past couple days, if you know that one, with "Squirrel Hunter" aka "The Squirrel Hunters" on this weekend's agenda. It won't sound much like you'll hear at those links but so what? It won't sound like complete despair either.

Until next time,

Steve Himmer