What’s in Issue 96

Bewildering Stories News

Novels	In Gaia, Tala Bar’s heroine, Dar, learns more about the ways of the gentle Amazon people: chapter 2, part II, “The Forest,” installment 3. In installment 4, she intervenes in her capacity as a physician and performs a simple medical procedure. Which raises an unexpected philosophical question... Made It Way Up: In the aftermath of Lane’s rocket flight, Bernard and Essa begin to pick up the pieces of their lives, each in their own way. Four installments in this issue: part 16, Essa; part 17, Bernard; part 18, Essa; part 19, Bernard.
Serial	Thomas Lee Joseph Smith brings to an end the rampage of the monster out of mythology. But it takes a myth to beat a myth: as in the film High Noon, a brave, lone gunman must face down the tyrant. Who is that unmasked man, and what is that magical powder horn? “A Minotaur-So After High Noon”
Poetry	Thomas R. offers a poignant Mother’s Day poem replete with mystery, “The Moon, My Mother.” He says it was inspired by a combination of Tori Amos’ song “Mother” and a Tony Daniel story. And happy birthday, Tom! New contributor Steven Utley sends us the first in a series of humorous poems. “Doggerelium” is somewhat reminiscent of Tom Lehrer’s elemental ditty or Stanislaw Lem’s love poem expressed in terms of higher mathematics. It’s chemistry’s old sweet song.
Interview	Eric S. Brown interviews Eric Hamel and Steven Lyold, the editors of Nocturne Press.

Departments

Welcome	Bewildering Stories welcomes... Claire Yvette Colón, Steven Utley and Jerry Wright.
Challenge	The first three Challenge questions deal with important technical issues that writers have to consider when they begin sketching out the plots of their stories. The unofficial Challenge puts the readers on the spot and up against the wall: From “Tanforan” to the present.
Letters	Stephen Heister finds a commonality that makes sense in his response to Challenge 95.
Net News	Jerry Wright summarizes an announcement received on the Net about a contest being held by Eric Van Lustbader.
The Reading Room	Jerry Wright reviews The Dragon Quintet, edited by Marvin Kaye
Editorial	The Least Likely Places

In Times to Come

Things go in cycles. Sometimes we’ve had three issues filled up in advance. At other times we’ve started the week wondering whether we’d have much of anything for the next issue. But then, when Friday rolls around we’re in clover. And our publisher, Jerry Wright, calculates that our new “frameless” mode has already begun to make Bewildering Stories known more widely on the Net.

For a long time, poetry seemed to be forgotten; now, between Thomas R. and Steven Utley, our readers are in good shape for a while. We normally had short stories and flash fiction galore, but now they seem to have hit a dry spell. Serials were once a novelty; now long fiction is the rule. I’m going to miss Ian Donnell Arbuckle’s Made It Way Up when it ends in issue 98. Fortunately we’ll have Tala Bar’s Gaia to keep us enthralled for quite a while yet. And a new Tamara Tomson serial by Michael J A Tyzuk is all set to come rocketing over the horizon.

We don’t worry about cycles. With our faithful contributors and readers, we enjoy each week and each issue as they come. And that’s just the way it ought to be.

Readers’ reactions are always welcome.
Please write!

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