Having just read a series of short story submissions that involve death and loss, I'd like to remind authors that a magazine that publishes too many pieces with these themes would be dreary and unreadable. I also think it is difficult to write about these themes in an artful way. In an essay that appears in Writing After Retirement; Tips from Successful Retired Writers (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), I consider themes in over-fifty writing and address this issue, in particular. To quote myself:
". . . I do not disregard the darker aspects of aging; I just do not want to overemphasize them. I have the feeling that this is the case even for magazines that do not focus on this age group."