Fiddlehuh?

If you picked up the latest issue of The Fiddlehead expecting to find a thrilling piece of literature rife with beautiful metaphors and obscure references to 1980s martial arts movies, and instead found only the usual assortment of stories and poems, you're probably wondering what's going on. Well, so am I.

I can only assume that my story was too emotionally powerful, too psychologically profound, and when they tried to print it the paper spontaneously burst into flames.

For those of you who don't know, the publishing world moves about as quickly as a sprinter with multiple sclerosis: Masters of Kung-Fu was accepted for publication about a year ago, and now, having been bumped, it likely won't see print until September. Consider the four months it takes for a magazine to respond to a manuscript, and the hundreds of painful hours it takes to write a story in the first place, it can sometimes be almost three years before the idea in your head is printed on fancy magazine paper.

Here are some other things that take three years:

* High school.
* The intitial design, testing, manufacturing, and selling of a new automobile.
* Preparing a condor to be released from captivity.
* Becoming a legal immigrant in Canada.
* Building a Boeing C-17.
* Building and launching a satellite into outer space.
* Navy SEAL training.
* A three year-old kid.

Seriously, though, multiple sclerosis is a devastating disease, and I urge everyone to support your local branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.