Author’s Notes

GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby

“THERE IS ALWAYS A LOCKED DOOR” was published in Weird Tales and is featured this month as an eerie entry for October. Margaret had a strong sense of curiosity which made her question why any door must be kept locked. Two of her favorite stories from childhood, the tale of Bluebeard and The Lady and the Tiger, featured this concept though in the latter case, the doors were not locked. A memory from childhood may have also contributed to the poem. At one time her bedroom had three doors, the entry, the closet, and the door to the attic. She would sometimes lie awake in the night wondering about those doors. What was on the other side, could someone or something be behind the door? She was quite young at the time and this was much like the common childhood fear of monsters under the bed. Finally, a third virtual door could have been in her mind as she wrote–that door which we all carry within which seals away the part of ourselves we do not want to share with others.

KALEIDOSCOPE—a series by Kathleen Roxby

“THE FULLNESS, OR NOT, OF CERTAIN WORDS”. Sources consulted: www.etymonline.com and www.merriam-webster.com.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby

“BURNT UMBER” is another poem from Kathleen Roxby’s collection titled “A Singular Prism” which focuses on color. Burn umber caught the author’s attention in childhood when she encountered the color in of her box of 64 crayons. She always thought it was an ugly color but liked the name. She thought “umber” was a word that should be in a poem by Poe, and as such is appropriate for the month of October.