Bewildering Stories welcomes...

Russell Helms

Russell holds several advanced degrees, notably in History and Creative Writing. He’s the managing editor of Jelly Bucket and has published prose fiction widely. He says he’s “drawn to the calm and dignity of squalor.”

“What Glenda Wanted” has squalor, all right, but calm and dignified it ain’t, not with fleshy spiders and a tornado. And that’s the beauty of it: Glenda can smile peacefully at the end, because the black shoes she picked up in 1947 can begin to come off now that the emotional tornado of 1974 has run its course.

“Glenda” gives new meaning to the term “a story within a story.” Traditionally, it means a frame story, where two stories mirror one another but are kept separate. We have that in “Glenda” to some extent in the “1947” flashbacks, but in actuality we have overlayed stories: that of the 1974 tornado is superimposed on that of events in Glenda’s childhood in 1947.

Russell Helms’s bio sketch can be found here.

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