This particular issue is blessed with twenty stories, and a few are really worth remarking:
On Impulse by Bill Lamp is third person pov but is so deep into the character’s head that a day or two after reading it I went back to it and was surprised to find it wasn’t first person. This is the story of a rock climber who goes through his emotional and egotistical feelings towards the other members of the group during a few climbs, and is highly insightful into human nature. The conflicts are obviously triggered by the danger, but also by the competitiveness of thte sport. Even more, the natural desire to be thought well of and liked by your peers. Very nice.
The Melted Buddha by Vincent G. Barnes takes a simple event and makes it stressful and imaginative reading. The protagonist (third person pov) notices that a statue of Buddha on his TV shelf has melted. He received it from a couple who he met on a trip to Bangkok, and the couple is coming to visit within a few days. He makes every effort to replace it before they come, and comes to a reasonable facsimile of it by remolding it and sticking it in the freezer. But it keeps melting back down–and here’s the fine point in the story: is it affected by how he lives his life, what he watches on TV? Is he offending Buddha? The ending of the story is just as magical–according to the reader’s imagination.
Sitcom Mom by Chris Haven is wonderfully well-written in the third person pov of a young girl’s fantasies. As we follow her through her worlds, she exists equally in both, intertwining reality with fiction so that we accept it as readily as does she. As a student who isn’t especially well-liked by the others, we easily follow her as child movie star through hallways that may lead to her dressing room or classroom, depending on her mind. We can relate to this child-world of imagination; we’ve all done it without taking it this far. Lovely story, nice resolution.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology