Here's New Writing Scotland 18 and we think it's a good one. That's what all the editors say, but oddly enough we have the opportunity to be all the more convinced of it this year. Delays in production -- nothing to do with the editors, we swear --have meant that, in writing this introduction, we are looking at our selection some six months after it was made, looking at Going up Ben Nevis in a Bubble Car almost with the fresh eye of the casual reader who might pick it up in a bookshop. It stands the test. We're pleased that we chose as we did. At the same time, this process does bring back the warm spring days (remember them?) during which we discussed the NWS submissions. Technically, we pulled them apart. Aesthetically, we considered whether they did the same to us. A few notes survive. 'Superbly stylish', reads one, and 'Made me greet', admits another, though in fact neither of these pieces made it through the final cull. (Did we mention that competition is fierce?) 'Great, loopy family story' made it, however. Can you spot it? So did the one in a Brummie accent. Yes, of course it's eligible -- read the submission guidelines on another page with care -- and we weren't obliged to bend the rules in order to include such an exceptional story. So did the Mars Bar one. Occasionally there's a piece which causes the editors to sit back, look at one another, and wish they had written it, and this is one of those. Apart from such gut reactions, we think that, in the NWS tradition, this is a pretty balanced collection, representing stories and poems, English, Scots and Gaelic, city and country, men and women, gay and straight. Again, we didn't have to tweak our selection towards this result, and that gives us confidence for New Writing Scotland 19, when judging will be done 'blind'. (No authors' names on entries, see the guidelines again.) We reckon that our final selection for the next volume will still reflect the good writing coming to us from the widest possible range of sources, stylish and loopy and making us greet.