Crystal Wizard, forum moderator at SF Reader:  “Interesting cover art.” Michael  at S.F. Fandom:  “Interesting site.  I only had time to skim through one story, ‘Relic', which had an interesting ending.  Worth a read, folks.” David, from the F&SF Forum:  “I read ‘The Lesson' in this magazine—really unpleasant story best avoided.”  Simon, F&SF Forum: “Agreed.  The whole thing reads like a slushpile: ‘Quickly!' he hissed. 'There's no time to explain! Enter mind-link. We must return to the dome!'  I must be a Philistine." David: "There again the June edition of Analog contains the following: ‘You are ignorant and violent with no lifewealth.  I will talk and you will do.  Follow me, but don't get in my way as I rescue my kin. Thus spake Gurk.'  From The Cold Star Sky—Craig Delancy.  Maybe it's me!”  Scarcely have seen you at that forum before or since you posted these comments, guys.  Here's some comments from people who have appeared in Surprising:

Rose Gordy, Silver Spring, Maryland:  Thank you for publishing twenty of my science fiction stories to date in Pablo Lennis as well as several online at Surprising Stories.

     May I have your permission to include these with a number of additional stories in a collection I am considering submitting to a yet undetermined publisher?  Of course, I would credit your publications in the list with titles and dates.

     Of course she has my permission to do that, and I hope she gets the collection in print.  She's a good writer, as those who've seen her in Surprising might verify.

Lawrence Dagstine, Brooklyn, New York:  Looks Good (Surprising Stories)!  I love that Superman cover.

     I recently got a KINDLE for a birthday gift and I must say, my e-Book “to-be-read” pile has been growing rapidly.  Fifty titles strong.  Memory-wise, it supposedly holds one thousand five hundred books and e-magazines.  I've been very excited to read again. eBooks really is the wave of the future, if you ask me (plus you're saving the trees, helping the environment).  I found a place where I can download some of my favorite out-of-print titles for free.

     This is a bold view of the progressive computer future the net offers.  It relates to the Computer Corner but that has no letter column so I put it here.

Mike Lynch:  The new edition of Surprising Stories looks great, and I plan on reading through the stories listed there.  I also saw the blurbs you did for me.  I appreciate your doing that.  It's promotions like this that helps to get the word out, which could not please me more.

     I'm trying to get the word in at the present; I'd sure be delighted if you were to comment on some of the stories.  But we're keeping up the promos whenever we get the chance.

Flint Mitchell, Missouri:  Are you still active in fandom? I noticed that Surprising Stories is no longer on the web. Archive.org has some back issues, but only until October of 2006.

  I didn't know they had them at all. But Surprising is still on the web; what you noticed is not so. Readers, you can tune in to Flint's article in this issue.

Joe Napolitano, Covina, California: Well, the government is at it again; just today I got two new attacks. It raised my water bill and confiscated one of my bank accounts.  The local government owns the water company where I live so I must either pay or go thirsty.  I fixed this problem by applying for a discount.  As for the bank account, it is supposedly inactive even though I move money in and out of it.  I think the state government grabs accounts so it can show a smaller deficit.  That way its books look better.  It's the government that controls the banks, you know.  I fixed the problem by just spending the money in the account.  So now the government has control over an account with nothing in it.

How'd the people behind the desk react to that?  Readers will find others of Joe's adventures of this kind in last issue's Printout.

Jeffery Marzi, Pennsylvania:  I saw my story of the UFO in Millcreek Park in Willingboro, New Jersey.  I used my printer to print the photos and text of it.

In the past I told you I have an emergency generator for power failures. I have a 1200 watt power inverter and what is it? It's like a step up transformer and changes DC power to AC power. First you have twelve volt power from any 12 volt DC battery. That steps it up to 120 volt AC power. Inverters are mostly used in cars, trucks, RV campers and emergency trucks and cars.  There's other uses for it like power failures. If there's a power failure late at night it's a lot of work to set up the generator, so I'll set up the inverter and battery and cables. Then I'll plug the TV and cable TV or if the cable is out I'll plug the VCR with the TV. If the power failure lasts for days, as my generator is running I'll recharge the big battery. When I sleep my generator should sleep too.

If I get rich from my stories I'm going to move to Las Vegas and my home is going to be 100% solar power. Going solar the equipment is lots more than the solar cells. First of all power will come from all of the solar cells. But there's a whole solar system, first starting with the solar cells, then a computer to control it all. And YES all solar power solar systems do have POWER INVERTERS!!!!!

Wall-E is 100% solar power. The front of Wall-E's body has a solar power meter.  It lights up as Wall-E is alive and working.  And on the solar power meter there is a symbol of the sun. And there's three words on the meter, It says SOLAR CHARGE LEVEL.

I wish a FINANCIAL INVERTER existed!! Today with most jobs they do not pay good. Prices are giant and high. So with a financial inverter, put the small paycheck in the inverter and it will make it a lot bigger. So you only get a hundred dollars a week working at a fast food place. First put your paycheck in the financial inverter. Then it turns your check from a hundred dollars a week up to $1153 dollars a week.  And other uses of financial inverters, put a one dollar bill in and it turns it to a twenty. Or put the twenty in and get a hundred.  But these do not exist.

Just like the generator needs exercise to keep its health, so do power inverters. But mostly the battery sits. So it needs to be refreshed, first by draining its power, then recharging it.

That could help me starting my van.

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