Bewildering Stories Editorial

by Jerry Wright

Time Considered as a Helix
of Semi-Precious Chipmunks

Jaugustuly. Who would think of such an unlikely and ungainly name for the opening edition of a new story-oriented website... Well, obviously someone did, and for his sins, it was the now long-missing third member of the BwS triumvirate who gloried in the cognomen of “The Invincible Spud”.

Yes, Spud was a potato of skewed perceptions who loved (and probably still loves) all things SF. And it was due to his prodding that the good ship Bewildering Stories struggled clumsily into the aether, thence to achieve the lofty heights we’ve attained on this, our fifth anniversary.

If one were desperate, one could search through the Wayback Machine (aka the Internet Archives) for a glimpse of the Issue Before Issue One and see the front page. Sadly, page 2 is missing, lost in the mists of history; otherwise, one would discover that the longtime contributor Thomas R. was actually our first contributor. Although not with an actual story, but rather the skeleton of a story.

Still, who in those heady, rather silly days of yore would believe that we would actually be able to produce, and with great regularity, a weekly magazine for five, now going on six, years.

But although this undertaking couldn’t have happened without the “yeoman efforts” of both of us (Don Webb and Jerry Wright), it certainly wouldn’t have happened without the driving force of desire of our many writers. Occasionally Don and I find ourselves boggled at the steadily increasing quality of writers who submit to us, and the willingness, and in fact the desire, of writers for feedback, comments, and help, all of which the editorial crew have been pleased to be able to supply.

As is mentioned in the section “Bewildering Info,” our crew of review editors is varied and fluctuating, and we are always in the market for both reviewers and proof-readers. We’d also love to find someone with deep artistic ability and more time than good sense who could find or create illustrations for our stories, remembering that this is a weekly magazine. I think the stress level would quickly bring such a person to their knees, and of course, any sane person would run screaming from such a task.

Sigh...

While Don wends his way through the never-ending task that is Bewildering Stories, I’ve been chipping away at Bewildering Press, our “dead-tree” print arm. We hope to have Michael E. Lloyd’s Observation One: Singing of Promises out in mid-July, with Colin P. Davies’ Tall Tales on the Iron Horse out next.

I also really need to re-do and re-release our first book, the First Bewildering Stories Anthology. Ah well, much to keep us busy for the foreseeable future, as long as we can keep our health up.

Bewildering Stories is listed on Ralan Conley’s site under the heading “4theluv,” and there is no question that we do this for the love of SF, out of a desire to give something back to a field that has given us so much over the years, and of course the fame, the glory, not to mention the cash. (I said not to mention the cash... as it seems to be outgoing, not incoming). Anyway, party on, Dudes, and let’s try for another five years!

Jerry