Bewildering Stories welcomes...

S. J. Budd

SJ is originally from Cornwall but now lives in London. She has an honors degree in Biochemistry from Kent University. She enjoys brewing mead, mint liqueur and dandelion wine. The myths and legends of her home country have influenced her writing, which explores dark worlds and their mysterious inhabitants.

“The Secret Lake in Bowmere Industrial Estate” exemplifies BwS’ editorial principle: “It’s perfectly okay to depict a character who’s bored, but one must not bore the readers.” The life of SJ’s character Morgan is so boring it can be summed up in the pithy French expression métro, boulot, dodo. But Morgan’s active imagination comes to the rescue, along with a healthy dose of sardonic humour.

Does the story overstep BwS’ guideline about plots that end with “But it was all a dream” or the equivalent? It’s really hard to say. Readers will not expect Morga(i)n(e) Laffey (la fée) to reap a windfall in library fines on a book overdue six hundred years, but they will wonder what that book is and how it might affect Morgan’s life.

Even if the story does overstep our “dream” guideline, our warm and fuzzy readers will surely want to fix Morgan up with Morris Marshall’s James, in “The Last Stop.” In his dreams or alternate reality, he has to settle for an android, who likes epic stories but makes a doubtful dinner date.

Where would James and Morgan meet for their first date? London? Toronto? Maybe somewhere in between... Yes, Cornwall !

S. J. Budd’s bio sketch can be found here.

Welcome to Bewildering Stories, SJ. We hope to hear from you again soon and often!