The goal of Word Catalyst is to present as many different forms of creative expression as possible for your enjoyment. The talent, beauty and heart of the magazine lies within its pages and stems from the talent of each and every contributor who strives to present you with their best work. The success of Word Catalyst is based solely on their abilities and a desire to share their creativity with you. My goal is simply to present to you what I believe to be extremely talented and dedicated individuals.

Probably Will:

Tales of a Tennessean Lost in Florida
by Will Dixon

I have been accused of having a fondness for history------the fact of the matter is that I love history. I can quote George Santayanna at the drop of a hat and frequently do; I can even nod my head and say, "See Hitler should have learned from Napoleon and never allowed himself (actually his armies) to get pulled deeper into Russia during winter." But just as I maintain that I am a bender of words instead of a writer-that idea seems to gain support the more I attempt such bending-I also declare that I am not a historian, but am instead a student of history. This is different, however, from my floundering with words.

Songs for the Soul

by Harry Furness

The Future of Reading

Introduction

Greetings - I want to deviate a little this month and talk about the future of publishing and reading. We have been accustomed to seeing something written and being able to read just about anywhere. While I was growing up it was newspapers and books. Now it seems as though most everything that has been written is available online and accessible using our computers or handheld devices. We are experiencing the same type of change that the world saw when Johannes Gutenberg introduced movable type. Hand-scribed manuscripts were replaced with printed texts.

From the Attic
Random Ramblings
by T. Owen Stark

I looked for her number once…maybe 10 or 12 years ago. There she was, but the number was unlisted. I thought about pursuing it further, but I didn't. It was somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 years ago when we had a little time together. She was gorgeous, funny and so, so young. Not illegal young, but young…just out of high school, I think. I was in a dilemma. I was crazy about her but did not want to rush this one. She was special. I was 25 and yes, unmarried. I was also extremely jealous, which was incredibly stupid of me as this same vice caused problems in a previous relationship and I should have known better.

Tales of Whisper Gap
Stories from the small town of Whisper Gap where one
life, one tale invariably reaches out to touch the next.
by Jo Janoski.

Loser Takes All

"I'll stay." Clyde shot Jasper a look, one of those looks that cuts through like a knife. Even softened by the shadow of his white fedora's brim, the eyes shot bullets.

Jasper looked away. He didn't want to show how his heart was thump-thumping like the vibration of a thousand horses galloping. He dropped one hand over his chips and pushed the entire stack into the pot. "I raise you, and I call," he murmured.

the Cheshire Cat Chronicles

by R. C. (RCat) Arquette

The wife wanted some breakfast, but didn't want to cook. I loaded her and my sixteen year old son into the truck and went off to eat. I had a place in mind, I wanted breakfast too, but I ended up in the wrong lane to make my turn, so I headed for another restaurant in my neighborhood. It's a benign place, called 'Friendlys' and new to the area. We'd eaten here twice before and I hadn't been impressed, but I figured what the heck.

My son had a juried piano event he had to be to as soon after 1:00 pm as we could get him there. We arrived at the restaurant about 12:02, but there was some moron with his frazzled looking wife and two ugly teens standing in front of us. I couldn't get the gist of the conversation, but they seemed to be asking questions, describing the difficulties they had getting there, and then when I thought they'd finally move the guy ends up on his freakin' cell phone!