Bewildering Stories welcomes...

Richard A. Conine

R. A. Conine is from North Carolina. He’s a retired Navy veteran and has published short fiction extensively in magazines and journals. He also has a novel in print and another on the way.

“Raft” has a distinctly “navy” flavor to it. Chip Corrigan is a cadet in the space navy, but his historical counterparts would be swabbies holystoning decks and pumping bilges in the fleets of the 18th century. Not only does our hapless hero have to trudge around in the sewer of a alien spaceship, he has to quail under the rule-book polishing of “Captain Computer.”

And when Chip inadvertently brings some alien nanoparticles aboard, we can foresee that he’ll eventually return to Earth confined to the brig as a mental case — in a straitjacket. A WW2 song comes to mind: “You’re in the ~~army~~ navy now. You’re not behind the plow. You’ll never get rich...” (I forget the rest).

Richard A. Conine’s bio sketch can be found here.

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