Guide to the Bewildering Stories website
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About Bewildering Stories and Bewildering Press |
Display:
Reading Scheduling |
The Menu Disclaimers | |
Bewildering Stories
Bewildering Stories — known informally as “BwS,” is a weekly electronic publication featuring speculative fiction as well as non-fiction, namely poetry, articles, essays, reviews, and art.
What is “speculative fiction”? We’ll leave the definition to others; we have no hard and fast rule. Theoretically it’s not contemporary realism, but that leaves the door wide open to just about anything. And we’ve cheerfully published contemporary realism, too: it was sent to us, and we liked it. If your submission — whatever it may be — meets our guidelines, we’ll be glad to consider it.
(All underlined names on this page link to bios.)
Bewildering Press
Bewildering Stories itself appears only on line, not in print; but it does have a print division: Bewildering Press. It was launched in 2006 and is devoted to the print publication of novels and anthologies. Any author published or scheduled by Bewildering Stories is eligible for consideration by Bewildering Press.
Jerry Wright — Publisher
Crystalwizard — Managing Editor of Bewildering Press; also Bewildering Stories forum manager; art consultant
About Bewildering Stories
Bewildering Stories premiered with our Jaugustuly 2002 issue. We used to publish pseudomonthly, which meant that every issue index had a zany title of some sort. We ran out of ideas for titles and then moved to pop quizzes. Such were the games of bygone times.
We’re not just an electronic magazine; we’re a meeting place and, at times, an on-line seminar. We welcome discussion of anything published in Bewildering Stories or elsewhere.
- Our forum provides an opportunity for informal conversations with our editors, contributors, and readers.
- The official Challenge appears regularly in the Departments. It poses questions about stories or non-fiction in current or past issues.
- The Critics’ Corner appears occasionally in the Departments. It features articles and essays on writing and literature. Anything appearing in Bewildering Stories is open to discussion and critique. Readers and authors are all invited to participate.
- The Letters department allows for informal feedback such as fan mail, news, comments on stories, editorials, etc.
The Bewildering Stories Crew
- Jerry Wright — Publisher; he has also been known as “Ye Editor” and “Bottle Washer.”
- Jerry is the ultimate arbiter of our esthetic guidelines. He also manages the server on which Bewildering Stories and Bewildering Press reside and is generally in charge of public relations.
- Don Webb — Managing Editor; founder and originator of the Bewildering concept.
- Don has also been known as “Ye Copy Editor.” He notifies contributors of scheduling and does the formatting for each issue. He also manages the website for Bewildering Press and is the editor for submissions originally in French or German.
- Bill Bowler — Coordinating Editor
- Bill distributes submissions among the reviewers and sends acknowledgments and critiques to contributors. Bill is also the editor for submissions originally in Slavic languages.
The Review Board
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Agnes Blom Bertil Falk Gary Inbinder R D Larson Sheila M. Murdock |
Michael E. Lloyd (also creator and manager of the Titles, Authors and Genres index) Carmen Ruggero (also Editora de Español e Inglés) Lewayne L. White (also Reviews page consultant) |
| Sheila Murdock and Carmen Ruggero are on leave in winter 2008. | |
Associate Editors
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Clyde Andrews Fiona Davis Mark Murdock Slawomir Rapala |
Jenny Claire Rutherford Tamara Sheehan Tim Simmons Maria Zlotkowska |
Consultants
Danielle L. Parker (book reviews)
Editors ab officio
Bewildering Stories is grateful to editors who have previously served in an official capacity: Katherine Allen, Ian Donnell Arbuckle, Mary King, Thomas D. Reynolds, and The Invincible Spud — designer of the original website and self-designated Official Vegetable of science fiction.
Display
Fonts: Bewildering Stories prescribes fonts and sizes only for special items such as headers and footers. Texts are displayed in the fonts of your own Net browser’s preferences, which you may change as you wish.
Early issues prescribed the Times font and green text on a black background. If any contributor to an early issue would like us to update the display of his or her submission, please ask; we’ll be glad to take care of it.
Sizes and colors: You may change the size of the text in your Net browser. In all but a few “departmental” pages such as this one, you are given a choice of text and background colors. Some combinations work better than others.
Reading: Bewildering Stories is designed primarily to be read on line. For that reason we tend to be very strict about limiting pages to 3,000 words at most. Our Submissions page gives more details about works longer than that.
We are also mindful of a verse that Omar Khayyam crossed out:
Bewildering bliss beneath the bough:
A glass of wine, a laptop computer, and Thou.
We encourage readers to print out pages of their choice, perhaps file them in a loose-leaf binder, and then curl up beneath the bough, etc. Handy tip: Most footers offer an easy print option with buttons that will change the font color to black and the background color to white.
Scheduling
In general, our scheduling priorities are:
- art and poetry
- flash fiction (shorter than 1,000 words) and drama
- non-fiction (articles, interviews, review articles, reviews, guest editorials and essays)
- short stories (shorter than 9,000 words)
- serials (longer than 9,000 words)
More information about lengths can be found in our all-important Submissions guidelines.
We classify prose fiction as either flash fiction, short story, serial, novella or novel. We do not use the term “novelette.” We also use the category “prose poetry,” but we consider poetry non-fiction.
Serial is a generic term that applies to a work appearing in more than one issue.
- “Serial” is also a category that we apply to a work appearing in two or three issues.
- A novella normally appears in four to six issues.
- A novel is anything longer.
But please don’t hold us to an exact application of these definitions. In practice, they can be somewhat elastic.
Once begun, serials continue until completed.
Intermittent serials cannot be considered. These especially include novels in progress. If you’d like to send us a novel, your submission will be welcome; but please send the whole thing, not an excerpt.
Related short stories are not considered as being parts of a single serial even if they have a synopsis in common. One or more may be serialized in more than one issue, but that’s a separate matter. Examples: Robert L. Sellers, Jr.’s “weird wild west” series; Slawomir Rapala’s “Aezubah cycle.”
The issue’s overall length will probably affect the total number of titles and installments it contains. Since each issue is made up week to week, not in advance, submissions may have to be rescheduled. When that happens, the only notice given is in the semi-official preview, “In Times to Come.”
We consider seven fiction titles the optimum number for an issue, depending on the length of the contents. Simultaneous installments are considered one title. We prefer to limit the total number of non-departmental pages in any issue to about fifteen.
Title Limits:
- Flash fiction: the normal limit is two titles in any one issue. The number may vary according to issue length.
- Poetry and Art are considered non-fiction. The normal limit is three titles in any one issue.
Bewildering Stories is not very receptive to minimalist poetry, but short poems — normally of sonnet length or shorter — may be added to the schedule early.
Simultaneous appearance by one author: Any author may contribute more than once to the same issue. However, simultaneous appearances are limited to three: once in the fiction section, once in non-fiction and once in the Departments. Exception: the same author may contribute more than once in the fiction section under different names or if one of the works is a novel.
The Menu
We actually have two menus: the “menu column” on the home page and the “menu bar” on interior pages. The following describes both.
| Issue Index | A list of authors and titles by categories within an issue. Visible only within issues, not in departmental pages. |
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| Readers’ Guide | A description of the contents of an issue; also a bulletin board for news items. Not available in issues of Year 1 and part of Year 2. Visible only within issues, not in departmental pages. |
| All Issues | Also known as the Archive. Links to all previous issues of Bewildering Stories. You can also search for authors’ names, titles, and content in all the issues. |
| Titles, Authors, Genres Index | Michael E. Lloyd’s comprehensive index by authors, titles, and genres. |
| Biographies & Bibliographies |
Personal sketches from most of our authors. Almost all the “bios” have bibliographies that are linked to the authors’ contributions. We try to update the bibliographies as we go, but it’s a big job, and we need the help of authors and readers. Please e-mail us reminders if anything seems to be missing. Just say “Please add (title) in issue (number) to (author’s) bibliography.” We take it as constructive reader feedback! |
| Reviews | A linked bibliography of book and film reviews from issue 1 to the present. |
| Editors’ Choices | Editors’ Choice selections from recent issues. They appeared semi-annually as Retrospectives beginning with issue 53 and then as Quarterly Reviews, beginning in 2006. |
| Special Features | Indexes to novels for which no table of contents appears elsewhere on the website. The home of Ray Cummings’ The Girl in the Golden Atom and of Cyrano de Bergerac’s The Other World (also known as Voyage to the Moon), the only English-language version on the Net. |
| Bewildering Info | This page. A general guide to the website. |
| Contact | For sending us e-mail; helpful hints about e-mailing submissions. |
| Submissions | Our Bewildering esthetics and mission statement; helpful tips about sending files. This page answers a truly... bewildering... array of questions. |
| Style Manual | How to format a submission to Bewildering Stories. The gist: keep it simple! |
| Writer’s Craft | An linked index of Bewildering Stories essays on writing. |
| Forum | For discussions with our contributors, readers and editors. |
| Links | Other websites of interest. We have exchanged links with most of them. |
| Art Gallery | Original graphic art and photographs. Contributions welcome! This department is currently under reconstruction. |
| Bewildering Press | Books in print and forthcoming at our print division. |
| Story Contests | The entries and results in our short-story contests. |
Disclaimers
The opinions and ideas published on this website do not necessarily reflect the views of Bewildering Stories or its editors. For that matter, works of literature do not necessarily reflect the personal opinions of their authors. Bewildering Stories will correct errors of fact but will not remove anything on the basis of objections to opinion; rather we invite discussion of anything we publish.
The Publisher takes sole responsibility for everything that appears in Bewildering Stories. If you find anything personally offensive, explain why and he will remove it forthwith.
We accept contributions on the presumption of good faith, that they are the original work of their respective authors. If you believe anything we publish is plagiarized or published without permission, please let us know; we will conduct an investigation and take the appropriate action.
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Lemures ex caverna The Invincible Spud’s Imaginary Staff | |
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Frogz Balonium, Assistant Editor Hakuna Matata, Art Director Holly Schmidt, Music Director |
Provolone Smithzok, Wildlife Manager Robert Thibde, Resident Bewilderologist Emile Potash, Crash Test Dummy |
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The Bewildering Blob, Figment of Our Imagination Jessica P. Glurki, Resident Xenopsychosociophysicobiochemist | |
Copyright © 2004-2008 by Bewildering Stories
Page last updated: Friday, 07-Mar-2008 18:05:01 EST
