We wish you a merry Life Day.

Our sixty-first issue is characteristically odd, but in a reflective sort of way. Which feels about right for the month in which we’re forced to think back over our indiscretions in an effort to estimate our probable position on some bewhiskered chubster’s twice-checked list.

Visit Asbury Park with Kailey Tedesco; ponder the Festival of the Lamb with Geza Fuchs; explore the quiet meditations of Japanese short-forms with Abra Deering Norton and Al Ortolani; play the lottery with Dawn Corrigan, and inhabit Andrew Collard’s sci-fi recollections. And you won’t want to miss the cover art, DeAnne Hodum’s Dragasaurus Rex.

Whether you’re praying to Santa, gambling for chocolate, or filling a dishpan with raw caribou meat and wintergreen Tic-Tacs for the Abominable Snowman’s birthday, we hope this season finds you pine-scented and filled with cheer and cocoa.

Chew it online or inhale the PDF.

As the Day of the Turkey approacheth, we figure it’s a good time to baste these glowing pages with thankfulness. We’re grateful for our audience; there’s no point in beaming stories out into space if no one’s receiving the signal, so readers: thank you. We’re also grateful for every story and poem that hits our inbox, whether we publish it or not. Our continued existence depends on submissions, so writers: thank you.

Finally, we want to extend a laurel and hearty handshake to each of this year’s Pushcart Prize Nominees:

Andrew Hemmert, “Dinosaur World” (poem)

Aida Ibisevic, “Little Monster” (fiction)

Anna Lea Jancewicz, “Unexpecting” (fiction)

Ally Malinenko, “Vital: A Love Story” (fiction)

Trevor Tingle, “Xenophobe” (poem)

Yvonne Yu, “The First Last Mermaid Porn Queen” (fiction)

Together, those six pieces sum up everything we love at Jersey Devil Press.

One last thing: if you read something you like—in this magazine or anywhere—leave a comment, if you can. The internet is essentially just one big bathroom wall, so take a moment to let someone know you were there.

They can rebuild him!

8/31/14 UPDATE — Surgery was a success and Eirik will update more when he’s feeling up to it. Break out the Ewok victory song!

This is it people. Our friend, founder, and fearless leader Eirik Gumeny is about to head into surgery for his double-lung transplant. Help him across the finish line with whatever you’ve got — good thoughts, prayers, positive energy, the healing power of the Force, whatever! Send it towards Stanford now! You in the back with that Infinity Stone — get on this shit!

(Warm thoughts, well wishes, and inappropriate jokes also welcome on twitter and Facebook.)

Finally, while it’s awesome beyond words that he’s getting lungs, cash still wouldn’t hurt. Sadly, none of this is cheap. Donations always welcome here.