This issue opens with me explaining both to myself and others why we're doing two all prose and art issues in a row. It's supposed to be a once-a-year thing, yet here we are—no interview, no article.

One reason for this, albeit the lesser one, is that we've had many good submissions—I mean, really good—that I've gone a bit off my head and accepted so many I'm in danger of going over the one and a half year maximum between acceptance and publication (honestly I'd prefer we were closer to a max one year, but I'm definitely not going over that one and a half years), so being able to publish a few extra pieces in an issue helps. (Don't even ask why this is the maximum number of pieces per issue ... there are in fact reasons, kind of having to do with time and space but not in any esoteric way, just having to do with the total total number of constraints.)

The larger reason has been a host of ... difficulties ... that have ramped up even as the pandemic has become more ... er ... manageable (from an anxiety perspective ... from an actual "it's still there" perspective, well, it's still there), or at least we're managing to deal with society's expectations of us a bit better. I realize saying "difficulties" or "other issues" sounds vague and ominous, but I don't want to go into details on these other issues (some are family/other people related, and privacy is important). Suffice to say, each has become its own anxiety and time sink, and what with everything I've been unable to find the energy to do interviews or write/research articles. I think there must be an equation somewhere for this ... work done equals time x energy, or equals timeenergy, or some such. Plus there has also been actual paid work that had to be done. Regardless, things are looking/feeling more manageable now (not that I want to tempt fate by saying that), and you can expect a return to my self-created "normal" with the April issue.

Well, that meandered ...

In this issue we seem to have a dual theme—one of hospitals and one of water, of medicine and la mer. I won't try to tie these together, except in many cases there is blood regardless. And of course there are some works that don't fit readily into either theme—they just all seem to fit together nicely in the issue.

Finally, I'd like to congratulate a couple of award nominee's/winners from the pages of Penumbric. Jamal Hodge, who we interviewed in our December 2k21 issue and whose amazing work has been published in many issues in the past, won second place in the 2022 Dwarf Stars awards for his poem "Colony" (from that same Dec 2k21 issue). And Douglas Gwilym's "Poppy's Poppy," published in the April 2k22 Penumbric, is on the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker Award in short fiction. So cool!

By the way, please do let me know of any awards y'all might have been winning, whether or not it's for work in Penumbric. I am always happy to help promote the authors and artists we've published. Whatever I can do to help ...

Have a lovely winter into spring, and I'll see you in April!

Jeff Georgeson
Managing Editor
Penumbric