As a youth, I considered and subsequently discarded a variety of potential occupations, as well as a heck of a lot of different jobs in adulthood. I’ve been a burger flipper, a rock core sample prepper, an administrative assistant, and an IT manager. I ever spent a summer drying seaweed in a processing facility.

Though I’m in my fifties, I’ve yet to decide what I want to be. Why settle? I like the thought of continually remaking myself, being renewed.

Beyond the bad jobs and good jobs, a degree in game design, and the countless training courses, there remained a buried desire to be a writer, something I’d dreamed of since childhood. To work in the publishing industry. I’ve been pretty lucky to have a handful of stories published in the past few years and hope to have more of those soon. There’s no better time to reach for your dreams than now.

But I’ve thought about other roads into publishing, too. Ways of becoming more connected with the work of writing. To, perhaps, shift my career in a new direction. One path I’ve considered is to become the editor of my own webzine. Before doing so, I wanted to understand what the work entails. When the opportunity came to learn what being an editor meant with prestigious a publication such as Apex Magazine, I leapt.

The past few months have given me insight into the roles that staff play in producing a great magazine. Whether it’s first readers wading through the slush pile to find those nuggets that readers will love, or selecting cover art for the issue (which was super fun), putting out a webzine takes a great deal of effort from a lot of folks. It takes many supporters, too. I’m honored to have had the opportunity to work with them on the current issue. I can only hope I’ve been helpful to them in return for what they taught me.

But by far the hardest job for me was the selection of final stories. While Lesley and Jason made the ultimate choices, they gave me a chance to read the stories that had reached the final level of consideration and weigh in on which ones I thought were best. There are limited numbers that can be purchased for each issue. I’ve been on the other side of this process. I know what it’s like to go through the submission process, to get past first readers, perhaps second and third, to get all the way to the final round, only to receive a rejection. Those are hard rejections, maybe the hardest. But I know your stories are going to turn up elsewhere. Keep writing and submitting.

Here are the results of all that work. There are amazing stories in here. I love the cover art by Marcela Bolívar. I’m proud to be listed as an honorary Apex Editorial Minion and am thankful to Lesley and Jason for the opportunity.