Smiling faces don't always take the place of a thousand words. Bernadette Quailey's "The Photos" shows the reader a poignant look at treasured pictures of a loved one.

Living through tumultuous teenage years can seem to last forever and sometimes hastily shouted words do make a difference. Q. Kelly gives us a glimpse of a silver-lining with her quirky tale, "The Lesbian Curse."

Tyree Campbell once again draws you into a captivating tale about an archeologist finding arguably her greatest discovery and its repercussions with his tender story, "Sentimental."

Kirsten Elliott's "The Prayer" gives us the hope of those spring flowers. No matter who you ask, you never know what will happen until you try it.

As we look at the submissions to Khimairal Ink, we've notice the dearth of upbeat, entertaining and stories that make you smile. I asked Carrie about that and she said writing those kinds of short stories is actually harder than the soul wrenching, angsty ones. We all know how to empathize with a couple breaking up, someone close to you dying or living in an unhappy situation. It takes a bit more crafting and skill to tap into a writer's "fun" side.

With this in mind, along with trying to develop good writers, Carrie put together a free, online writer's class. We were pleasantly surprised to see nearly 90 people sign up and decided that we would leave the lessons up so other folks could benefit. You can access the class at http://bedazzledink.wordpress.com/fiction-writing-basics/. In addition, she also has updated and enhanced her blog with information about successfully published works of our contributors. The blog is at http://khimairalink.wordpress.com/.

See you next issue!

Claudia

We'd love to hear from you. Send comments, suggestions, and questions to publisher@bedazzledink.com and don't forget to check out our blog at http://khimairalink.wordpress.com/