Mélange vol.1 April

Among my favourite films, there is a musical entitled "The Sound of Music". There must be a thousand different ways of interpreting the message it contains, but I would say that it is appealing to people's goodness of heart though the "sound of music".

I would like to do the same in this literature magazine. Literature is more silent than music, but all the more it can make a special melody in people's consciousness and thus appeal to people's good mind in a unique way. When a person reads a piece of literature, he becomes what you could call a "solitaire." Also, when he writes, he will be exposing himself in front of the dark, immense, universe. Just himself, with no one. A solitaire.

However, literature is not an exclusive, self-satisfying way of expressing a writer's mind. A Writer expects readers to share the message or emotion that they have. It is an encounter of solitaires -both the writer and the reader. In this way they can have more understanding.

The magazine title "Melange" is a French word meaning "mixture". We, the Writers' Group The 8th Continent liked the sound of the French word and it is appropriate for our magazine because we have various styles of work written by people from various backgrounds.

We hope many people will share the enjoyment of reading and writing and urge you to join this association, in which all can benefit from "solitaires meeting solitaires."

This association, the Writers' Group The 8th Continent would like readers who are interested in writing to participate. The basic requirement is the ability to read and write in English, but if you feel awkward we will be able to translate some work into English. Possible languages other than English are Japanese and Mandarin. However, please note that our translation skills are limited and we appreciate and promote work written in English. We also do not accept work that contains offensive language or inappropriate themes.

To submit work, please contact me or any of the other contributors listed in this publication and we will welcome your input. Our e-mail address is: melange_writers@hotmail.com.