Well, that was exciting. I had a nice long chat going and then I hit some unholy keycombination and blew it all away. That ain't no fair.
Anyway, as I was saying, before I so rudely interrupted myself, I promised David Wilson, aka D. Harlan Wilson that I would mention his new book. (Actually I promised him a couple months ago. Ow.) His new book from Eraserhead Press is Stranger On The Loose available at fine internet bookstores everywhere, and if you can't get to an internet bookstore because you don't have a computer, then what are you doing reading this, hunh?
Back in the early days of BWS, the best stories, the ones with the strongest Story flavor came from a coterie of horror writers who seemed to take Bewildering Stories to their little hearts (which no doubt they kept in jars, and/or under rocks). Since that time, the general quality of stories has just ZOOOMED up, and the horror writers have gone, for the most part, elsewhere, although on occasion they return, as Steven Shrewsbury does next issue.
We never intended BWS to be a horror magazine, and instead we've become a place where stories that don't fit elsewhere can find a home. Which in a sense is sad. Why? We've been getting some top of the line stories here, because all we ask for these days is that it be a good story. Experimental? Maybe. But many of our stories are good enough to be in top-line magazines. If there were one like Bewildering Stories. So, we need to increase our readership. And the magic is "link, link, link". So Don and I are going to be running around (electronically, that is) to everywhere we can find and exchange links as much as possible. We want people to READ these great stories of ours. We want 50,000 hits a month. We want our coffers to fill with silver, and gold, and never mind...
We have fine SF, Fantasy, Mainstreamish, Noir, and I don't know whatall. If it's readable, and not boring, we want it. No... No Nurse Romances. But other than that... Well, we do have SOME judgement left.
Jerry. The Bottle Washer
Whut? Nurse romances is wuthless?! Awww... Hey, now that we’ve published horror fiction, what about a send-up of the Harlequin line? One thing we’ve learned is that we can’t rule out anything, not as long as we can say, “Yes, that’s truly a Bewildering Story!”
Don (a.k.a. Igor, the bottle drinker)