Warmest greetings! It is with great anticipation (and some anxiety) that I present the next update in the continuing development of Patmos! I hope by now that you have been made aware of the creation of the Patmos online community available through Yahoo Groups. This will allow for more interaction, and gives you the option of more detailed feedback in terms of where you'd like the story to go.

As a reminder, the winning story selection is:

I remember distinctly, the cotton candy flavour of her lips as they met mine. She smelled of lavendar and honey, and her hair draped over my face as light as satin. I had lost myself hours, days before this even began, when I first saw her on that stage, and now I held her in my quaking arms as her wandering tongue explored my mouth.

The next part of this story, and its accompanying poll will be developed as soon as possible. In the mean time, I have something else to share, part of a conversation I had the other night, that in many ways explores what I'm trying to do with Patmos.

Let me open the window a little more...there are few things more powerful than words. I use words in my writing to create magic. The words are all me, they come from the real me, but they have a life of their own once they are written. Words paint pictures of worlds and people in synch with, yet up to the imagination and interpretation of, others; and though they originate with me, they are not always what I thought they would become. Words have to power to encourage and enflame the human heart, and the imagination in the same instant. They can calm or provoke strong reaction, and throughout history, many great conflicts have begun with nothing more than words, just as great gulfs have been crossed with the same. Words are a gift to humanity, and one which we all have the freedom to use in our own way.

With Hope,
Joseph