Bewildering Stories welcomes...

Emily M. Peters

It is contrary to Bewildering Stories’ custom to extend an official welcome to contributors who choose — as is their right — not to have a bio sketch in our Biographies & Bibliographies. But I think Emily is a special case, and I don’t want our regular issue to have an omission that might be entirely too conspicuous. Let’s just say that former Review Editor Katherine Allen may still hold the record as the youngest contributor to Bewildering Stories. But now I can’t be sure.

“Experiment Failed” is a daring — even brave, as one of our Review Editors notes — work of fiction. It tells a story entirely from the point of view of a character who is seriously deranged, even delusional, and, above all, violent.

Such a story is far more than “Halloween scary.” Not even the TV series Criminal Minds goes so far, and it is based on real cases and uses a knowledge of abnormal psychology to solve mysteries according to its melodramatic formula. “Experiment Failed” is not melodramatic; it’s entirely too realistic for comfort. If Shelly and Allayne go trick-or-treating on Halloween night, they should be armed to the teeth.

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