Greetings, Readers, Writers and Friends:

I hope you are enjoying the warm weather.  I saw a cartoon on Facebook the other day, it was a baby screaming, “Hello, Mother Nature.  I don’t know what you are baking, but I’m pretty sure IT’S DONE!!”  And boy, is he right.

We have more interesting stories this month.  My husband and I went to Cleveland, Ohio  in June to see some of our grandchildren.   There was road construction from North Carolina to Ohio, and unfortunately,  we ended up with a flat tire.  But, as my ever positive husband said, “No Problem, We’ll Just Call AAA and we’ll be on our way shortly.”   Please read my story by that name and see what unfolded.

We seem to have more than a few stories and poems about getting rid of things.  Janet Stiegler’s story will appeal to many of our readers.  It’s about “stuff,” and we all have it.  Read her story, “The Stuff In Our Lives,” and see if you can relate.   Lisa Mote shared an interesting conversation with a friend about saving some things and getting rid of others in her story, “Turnabout.”  Dan Neizmik gives us two poems this month, one about a lonely soldier and the other about people and problems.  Read his poems, “A Lonely Soldier’s Prayer,” and  “Some Problems Have People.”

Maryann Nunnally proves the point that if you have been married to your spouse for more than 25 years,  you learn to just smile and shake your head during some conversations.   Read, Laughing in the Golden Years, Go Figure.”

On the flipside, teen writers, Gabe, Jaxon, Josie and Sophie provide some inspiring, entertaining  and thought provoking stories.  School is out, but we will do our best to bring you stories from our talented teens every month.

We are a little light on  Cape Fear Voices stories this month as well.  I attribute that to vacations and the heat.  But, the stories we have are good ones and I hope  you enjoy them.

If you haven’t written for us in a while, get to that keyboard and create!  We love hearing from you.

Jan Morgan-Swegle