Well, the stories about gods 'n' such just poured in from the first; exploring divinity -- in whatever fashion - has always been around in sf/f, but seems especially prevalent right now. When we noticed that we had a LOT of these planned for Aeon Two, we jokingly started calling it "the god issue."

When we were reading for Five and Six, we noticed several stories and poems with romantic love threading through them, and since Six would appear in February we thought we'd theme it. It's not something we plan to call attention to every time.