In the new autumn issue of the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable E-Magazine, I’m the featured author with “String Theory“, a humorous look at one way to trigger memory.
The issue also includes the Honorable Mention stories from the 2026 Short Story Awards. In “Our Better Angels,” author Phil Giunta offers a science fiction tale about sacrifice for the greater good. In Rob Sheely’s “Mustard,” we learn about the peculiar effects of a familiar condiment. An enchantment goes awry in Claire A. Murray’s “Ned’s Bedevilment.” And in Roger J. Johns’s “Dr. Marlo Leads the Insect Revolution,” the sky’s the limit. Editor Dianna Sinovic interviews mystery author Misty Simon. The spotlight feature focuses on Mizuki Yamagen, one of the winners of the 2025 Short Story Award. And Literary Learnings delves into eco-horror and climate fiction.
So, grab a cup of warm spiced tea and settle in to enjoy this season’s Roundtable Magazine.
The Bethlehem Writers Group’s 9th Sweet, Funny, and Strange Anthology, Illusive Worlds, is now available for preorder as an eBook for only $0.99. It’s a limited-time offer before the official hardcopy launch on October 16.
With something for everyone, it features aliens, otherworldly gods, inner-worldly specters, sorceresses, and sentient drumming spiders. I have two stories in the collection.
In the near future, NASA’s astrophysicists try to convince a politically assigned administraor of the seriousness of a potential cosmic extinction event with “In Simple Terms.”
In “Hot as Sin”, a young exotic, Mediterranean woman who maneuvers inside the underbelly of global financial transactions suddenly discovers her success came from her unknown dormant link as an incarnated ancient Assyrian goddess.
Available now at your favorite digital bookstore for Kindle, Nook, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play, and Smashwords through this link: https://books2read.com/Illusive-worlds
Based on a fictional wilderness area in Northeast Nevada, Mary Aguilera, a Folkloric Psychology major, investigates the ghost stories and legends surrounding a cursed petroglyph located atop Four Winds Butte.
“Located in the remote wilderness ranges of northeast Nevada, its story began with a 1905 prospector who wandered into a mining camp after days of hiking with a bloody cloth wrapped around his head. He ranted about a native curse that killed his partner before dying on the spot from his injuries. Another reference was a local newspaper clip about a naturist hippie couple in the sixties who stumbled onto the site and disappeared. The only evidence left behind was their backpacks in a chasm thousands of feet below the ridge. Rumors spread of a powerful curse from on top of the Butte, which attracted curious hikers over the years willing to negotiate treacherous terrain to investigate, only to vanish like the others. The last reported disappearance was over two decades ago.
For years, the local tribal council had taken umbrage at any non-natives trespassing on their sacred places. After the last reported disappearance over a decade ago, the tribe convinced the Bureau of Land Management to declare the place off-limits and fenced off the ten-thousand-acre area surrounding the Butte.
Mary had always thought buttes were steep-sided desert mountains formed by the gradual erosion of a larger plateau or mesa, like the famous ones in Arizona. A topographical map of the area revealed barren mountains separated by deep ravines resembling a kicked-up carpet. Though an experienced hiker on rugged terrain, the absence of dotted lines illustrating trails gave her a momentary pause. Smack in the middle of the mountainous terrain was a nine-thousand-foot peak called Neai, Shoshone for wind. A two-hundred-foot flat-topped rock spire jutted skyward from the summit. As for the petroglyph monument cited to be on top, the reference source contained only drawings. No photographs.”
The Bethlehem Writers Group LLC’s contest for their latest anthology, Illusive Worlds: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Tales of Speculative Fiction, has been extended to:
April 30, 2025
We are still seeking never-published stories of 2,500 words that explore broadly interpreted tales of science fiction, fantasy, mythology, magical elements, alternate realities, or any fantastical concepts that imagine a world distinct from our own.
The winners receive cash and publication. Science fiction and fantasy author Adrian Tchaikovsky will judge the 2025 contest. Click the link below for details.
The new deadline is April 30. So, there’s still time to let your imagination go wild. It might just get chosen for the new anthology, forthcoming in 2026.
The spooky season is upon us. Some specters decided to skip this year’s hauntings in favor of curling up to a new anthology from the multi-award-winning Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC, with twenty-one holiday short stories.
In this new addition to the “Sweet, Funny, and Strange” series of short-story anthologies, the multi-award-winning Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC, brings you twenty-one new stories that span the holidays from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve.
The multi-award-winning “Sweet, Funny, and Strange” series of short-story anthologies brings you twenty-one new stories that span the holidays from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve.
In this new addition, the Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC, returns to its roots in and around Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (also known as “Christmas City, USA”), with its eighth anthology to celebrate the holidays.
I am honored to be a contributor with two stories, “Millie’s Christmas Wine” and “The Heart Needs a Home,” to the collection.
Emwryn Murphy’s sweet tale tells about a chosen family’s “Friendsgiving,” crashed by a blood relative who might or might not be happy with what he sees in “As Simple As That.” Jerome W. McFadden once again reveals his humorous side in his story about a would-be Santa who gets into trouble in “Flue Shot.” A. E. Decker shares an intricate Christmas fantasy about “The Goblin King’s Music Box.” Paula Gail Benson gives new meaning to a traditional symbol for the New Year in “Star of the Party.” Beyond these holidays, Debra H. Goldstein writes about Pearl Harbor Day, Diane Sismour about Krampusnacht, and Peter J Barbour about Hanukkah.
Other favorite BWG authors, including Jeff Baird, Ralph Hieb, Dianna Sinovic, Christopher D. Ochs, Kidd Wadsworth, and Carol L. Wright, also share their holiday musings.
In addition, this volume includes award-winning stories from the 2023 and 2024 Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Awards. Sally Milliken, the first-place winner in 2023, presents “The First Thanksgiving.” From 2024, we have our top three winners with first-place winner Rhonda Zangwill’s “Oh! Christmas Tree,” second-place winner Bettie Nebergall’s “Just Ask Santa,” and third-place winner Mary Adler’s “Narragansett Nellie and the Transferware Platter.”
If March weather has you bunkered at home, there is still time to submit a 2000-word or less short story for the BWG Anthology, “Seasons Readings”. Deadline is March 31, 2024.
Holiday stories as those that involve any holiday from US Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, or stories that reference those holidays. There are many such holidays, so fire up that laptop and let your imagination fly.
