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Imagination, Inspiration, and Delusion
by Raymond M. Coulombe

This issue marks the fifth anniversary of Quantum Muse. We’ve been doing this for a while; there must be a reason. People ask me if there is much money in being a Quantum Muse editor. Yeah…right! I had a dollar once, but it got lonely and went away. When I point out the hours involved and the monetary returns, they respond in one or two ways. Either they don't believe me or they think I'm crazy. Well of course I'm crazy, but it's a good kind of crazy.

I live well. With laptop and Palm, we run the zine from beaches and mountain retreats. Bar bands take their breaks at our table -to hang out with the cool people. The Rock and Roll lifestyle has nothing on the QM lifestyle. Women love me, men envy me and children want to grow up to be like me.

Sure, I read a lot of bad fiction, but I also read tomorrows great writers today. That's a cool feeling. I get warm fuzzies for doing my small bit to promote them. Our writers are special people. They aren't afraid to use their imagination. Many people don't. Once the Average Joe reaches a certain age his imagination fossilizes. They call it growing up. I call it giving in. They've abandoned their Technicolor dreams for a gray reality. Why would people willingly do such a thing? Peer pressure? Bad upbringing? Desire to acquire little green pieces of folding paper?

There is something different about our readers too, more than just different -radical, even. Someone who seeks out speculative fiction is not like other people. They are unafraid to use their brains and their imagination -a dangerous combination. The way to control people is to control their information. That's the way totalitarian governments control the media. No voices of dissent are allowed. A more devious tactic is to present the public with two choices, but with both choices acceptable to the established order. Kind of like the Republican and Democrat parties . . . but I digress. Our readers have active minds, capable of visualizing something new and never before seen. Now that's something special because all the new things in the world come from such people.

It's our pleasure to associate with them. It's our pleasure to assist them in a small way.

Thanks to the freedoms of the Internet, information and ideas are readily and easily exchanged. Pandora's box is wide open and all kinds of stuff, good and bad, is flying out. Governments have some sort of delusion that the process can be controlled. Not in the long run. Trust me. Take it from one of the guys tossing stuff out of the box.

Take our gifts of fancy and run free my children. Experiment with new ideas. Flex those mental muscles. Build something pretty for Uncle Ray to admire. Remember to play nice with others. Have fun, don't get hurt.

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