Bewildering Stories welcomes...

Tim Simmons

Tim says that writing doesn’t come naturally to him. Does it, to anyone?! Tim has already shown artistic talent in music and painting, and I expect that success awaits him in writing as well as in the other arts. Consider those computer adventure games he’s programmed, as well as — get this — a children’s website for the Army Corps of Engineers. Now that’s creativity at work in novel areas. You’ve got talent enough for several people, Tim: please send us more stories!

“The Sign of the Cross” may strike some readers as very strange. Speaking as a former Southerner, I can say that Tim’s Lottie is surprisingly erudite but not far-fetched. The space aliens — sorry, I have no equal familiarity with such — seem to be Lottie’s mirror image: opposite in almost every way; and yet both she and they make the same mistakes.

Lottie uses Bible passages as incantations that might control the external world or at least boost her morale; the aliens — arguably dim-witted compared to Lottie — make a similar mistake: they take symbols as being universal and, rather than seek to understand them in context, interpret them in the narrow perspective of their own culture. Lottie can be excused for being pre-scientific, but the aliens ought to know better.

Tim’s bio sketch can be found here.

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