The Readers’ Guide

What’s in Issue 515

Novel	Red alert! Battle stations! Get Jane off the station on the fastest ship at hand! Yes, do that; it’s exactly what Jane wants: Martin Kerharo, The Dohani War Chapter 9: Extraction, part 1; part 2
Novella	Black Water Swamp is not exactly an ideal home for anybody other than Crazy Charley. But little Billy Joe knows what counts. It’s the one place where he won’t be abandoned or sent away: Ron Van Sweringen, The Boy Next Door, chapter 15; chapter 16; chapter 17, conclusion.
Short Stories	New contributor Troy Blackford introduces Darius, a ghost hunter who thinks his job is a crock and, frankly, a bore. His colleagues don’t think so. Not anymore: Hearing Voices. Jonas is hired to investigate a hotel room from which two previous investigators have mysteriously disappeared. He’ll discover that the room has a way of revealing rather than hiding things: Ásgrímur Hartmannsson, No Check-Out. New contributor R. MacInnes shows the kind of reward that awaits those who make a Faustian bargain: The Contractual Obligation.
Flash Fiction	Some trapped miners will eventually be rescued from a cave-in. But they will find they’ve dug themselves into an even deeper hole: Arthur Mackeown, Force of Circumstance.
Poetry	Oonah V. Joslin, Global Language Village Art B. Z. Niditch, Simulacrum
Short Poetry	New contributor Jason C. Ford, Another Folder
Memoir	New contributor Walter Lacey discovers the meaning of a vivid dream by Connecting the Dots.

Departments

Welcome	*Bewildering Stories* welcomes Troy Blackford, Jason C. Ford, Walter Lacey, and R. MacInnes.
The Critics’ Corner	Don Webb asks Where is the Center of “The Boy Next Door”?
Challenge	Challenge 515 Sam on Wry
The Reading Room	John Gregory Hancock, A Plague of Dreams, excerpts
The Art Gallery	A randomly rotating selection of Bewildering Stories’ art NASA: Picture of the Day Previous NASA photos Earth Observatory Picture of the Day Our Earth as Art *Sky and Telescope*, This Week’s Sky at a Glance

Randomly selected Bewildering motto:

Randomly selected classic rejection notice:

Bewildering Stories’ official mottoes:

“Poems are not made with ideas; they are made with words.” — Stéphane Mallarmé
Ars longa, vita brevis. Rough translation: “Proofreading never ends.”

To Bewildering Stories’ schedule: In Times to Come

Readers’ reactions are always welcome.
Please write!

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