I really enjoy fall. I love the colors and the way they change to whole landscape. I love going back to school, first as a student and then as a teacher, and now as a parent with school-aged children because of the sense of newness and possibility it brings. I love the way the sun starts to feel muted and the air becomes crisp, but not cold, because I truly do not like the cold.

I like the unexpected feelings of fall, which is exactly what Joanna Kudō presents in her short fiction, “The Quilt.” Even the word quilt evokes thoughts of fall for me. I like the curiosity that draws us out to explore and that Halloween is a time for us to display our current passions. “Mosaic” by Fred White displays such a passion. But when I really stop to think about what I enjoy about fall, I think about my boys and fostering their love of whimsy and adventure, which is what drew me to “Tamed” by Jeff Fleischer, and that I want nothing more than for them to find meaningful connections with other people, even if that happens in the most unlikely of places, as it does in “H” by Lee Anderson and “Buckets” by Patricia Q. Bidar.

All of these stories are very different from each other, but all exemplify the caliber of writing I am drawn to. I sincerely hope you enjoy them.

Elizabeth De Arcos
Senior Fiction Editor
The Citron Review