From the Editor's Desk
Randy Streu

Dear Readers,

Sometimes, you just need to get away. Here we are in March of 2010: recession and unemployment in the United States. Earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. People suffering and dying, jobless, homeless. And it's really not getting better.

I'm a political junkie. It's true. As much as I love to write science fiction and fantasy, thrillers... as much as I love to read them, the truth is, politics are my heroin. But as much as I love politics, sometimes, it just gets depressing. The news starts to grate on my nerves and, worse, on my soul. In part, that's why I edit Digital Dragon.

True, sometimes, this is like my second job, but really, sometimes, I just need to slip away into a great story. DDM, a magazine I was blessed to be invited to join over a year ago now (yes, actual planning happened before the first issue rolled), makes me a better person -- in part, because the stories we get to read on a regular basis, including those we don't publish, do much to help heal my soul.

Escapism. There's a lot of stuff happening in the world, and we don't have much of a chance to ignore it. In fact, most of us are too busy rushing headlong INTO it to even consider turning aside for a few moments of peace. But as much as we need to recognize the world we live in, engage in it, help those who need help -- we need that much more to pray for strength and for each other, and then, sometimes, to just walk away.

And how do we do that? Walking into another world helps, even if only for a while. Indeed, sometimes, a while is all we have time for. And that's one of the things that's so great about DDM. Short fiction -- a brief respite from the world. A microjourney into unknown realms.

And thank God for it.

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