Creative submissions are picking up. Thank you. I guess that you don't want me filling up space with my own writing. Ha! Just joking. I'm glad that members are beginning to recognize this opportunity. Your work gets read by our members and, being online, it also gets seen by anyone who comes across The Wisconsin Regional Writer on our Web site.

Just for fun, I did a Web search on each of the authors whose work was printed in the Spring Edition and guess what? You were all there for the world to see. Marian Eberle Athens' "A Cry for Help," Star Davies' "A Box of Wine," Arden Thorsbakken's "I Am A Shoe," Sylvia Oberle's "Just Dessert," Cathy Conger's "The Old Maple Tree," and Marsha Jordan's two items, "Hunky Magoo" and "My Next Husband Will Be Normal." Even my "Last Candy Bar." We're all there for anyone to find from anywhere in the world. Just think, millions may have come across our well-crafted words.

Have your own fun. Do your own search and find your work. To hold down the number of hits, I suggest you use the following query: "Your Name" +WRWA. Put your own name in quotes, leave a space, then add a + followed by WRWA. That tells the search engine that you want an exact match to your name and that WRWA must also be in the document.

The point, folks, is that we're writers. Unless we write only for ourselves, we want to get our writing "out there." Well, getting it into The Wisconsin Regional Writer does that. But please make certain it's your best quality stuff. After all, it's "out there."

Speaking of quality, I'm pleased to announce that LaMoine MacLaughlin, First Poet Laureate of Amery, Director of the Northern Lakes Center for the Arts, and poetry judge for the 2006 Jade Ring Contest, has agreed to become Poetry Editor for The Wisconsin Regional Writer. Starting with the fall edition, LaMoine will review and select the poetry published in the Journal. Keep sending your submissions to me, though. I'll pass them on to him and I'll still have a role in selection.

Aside from the fact that LaMoine is a superb poet in his own right, the great thing about him is that he appreciates and respects all poetic forms. He's not one of those modernists who believe that only "free verse" or weird experimental stuff that no one but the author understands is really poetry. So those of you who write poetry that rhymes and has meter will not be automatically rejected, as seems to be the case with so many poetry outlets these days.

I note from reading Club News that many of you are publishing books. Please think of us to place an ad. Ads help sell books. And ad revenue pays for the larger Journal-you know, the one that now seems to have space for your writing. So it's a good thing you do when you place an ad here. Help! We need the revenue. The Association pays for the first 20 pages. Ads pay for everything over that.

Hope you all have a great summer and I hope to see many of you this fall in Reedsburg.

WRWA members whose writing is published in The Wisconsin Regional Writer retain the copyright to their work. Submission of your work grants one-time rights for publication by WRWA. Items printed here should be regarded as “published” and authors should make this known when declaring “prior publication” when submitting the work elsewhere. Because of our limited distribution, most editors probably will not regard that as an issue. Finally, the editor will do his best to uphold high standards of quality in the selection of what is printed here so authors may be proud of having their writing presented to the full WRWA membership.