I’ve been into the Weird and Unknown my whole life. I grew up Catholic, and all of the strangeness and magic really stuck with me.

There is nothing better as an editor than to get a chance to do this, to find something wonderful and brilliant and weird and surprising written by a person you had never heard of before, to be in a position to get that story poem essay out there in the world.

“I used to be the Goatman of PG county. It’s been eight years since I was unmasked,” Earl said. The others nodded. Joan made a warbling sound with her throat that was maybe supposed to sound like a farm animal. Carol punched her in her shoulder.

My daughter has a sound machine for when she sleeps.  It offers many bells and whistles — tinkling lullaby options, pulsing color change through a pediatrician-approved scroll of soft reds and blues — but we don’t use those.