h, hello there! You caught me on my way out the door. I was about to go bungee-jumping, but I'm pleased as punch that you stopped by: my daredevil lifestyle will have to wait a few minutes! I can never get enough of you (picture me pinching your cheeks now and making goo goo sounds).

So -- you're here and you're curious to know what's going on with your favorite literary webzine. Well, I don't want to keep you too long because there are over forty-five new works in this issue and they're all tremendous. You'll enjoy our usual cavalcade of essays, fiction, humor, poetry and art, plus our most diverse Stage yet. I urge everyone to click over there and listen to Hearsay's spoken stories: it's the Ducts' concept - telling personal stories - come to life! There are also two hilarious animated shorts -- Tongues and Taxis and Strindberg and Helium -- that'll have you laughing in that wild way I love so much.

Oh, I see you're noticing some of the new furniture. Well, we're in the process of opening up our own little office in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It's about time: Ducts has been bringing you exciting new personal stories for nearly five years now! Well, that's not all that's new with this latest version of Ducts. Take a seat - here, have some tea - and let me tell you what's been going on. First, as you can see, we're sponsoring our first ever essay writing contest, I Found it at the Movies, to honor one of our inspirations, the late Fred Hudson. If you love movies (and I know you do) then you should jump right in and enter. Click on this link and read the details! First prize is $500 and second is $250. What else is going on? Well, we're publishing our very first Best of Ducts book. It'll be available right here in a few months. Also, Ducts received its first ever grant and we hope it can lead to bigger and better things: we plan to begin paying our writers a $5 honorarium beginning with our next issue and hope to increase that amount as we grow. We're busy as bees, as you can see.

Well, I've kept you long enough and you have stories to visit. Watch your step, but make yourself right at home while you're here and don't bother to clean up when you're done.

Thanks for stopping by and we hope you and your friends will drop by again and again to explore all the amazing ducts!

Now I hear my inner-daredevil calling again.

--Jonathan Kravetz, Editor, Ducts.org

This issue of Ducts is made possible with a regrant from the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, supported by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.