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.
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.”
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.
The trees have begun to turn on their fall colors, brushing the hillsides with golds and coppers, so it must be time for the Autumn issue of the BWG Roundtable Magazine. It’s also the issue you’ve been waiting for: the second installment of our group story,
In the first installment, we learned that the Jersey Shore was home to a small colony of merfolk who had taken up living on the land. When Clam Shack server Gloria accompanies the merman Hudson into the sea, that act severs a treaty between the merfolk and the creatures of the deep.
The 2022 Spring Issue of Roundtable Magazine, a publication of the Bethlehem Writers Group, is now available online.
I have the honor to be this season’s featured author with, “Desert Buzz”, a short story about a New Englander’s first Southern Nevada spring that may lead to a budding romance.
This season’s theme, Spring Abuzz, offers featured poem, “Hysteranthous”, by Maggie Kennedy. We also have short stories from William Sharon and Richard L. Shelby, poems by Alexander Zera and Christopher Clauss, Literary Learnings from Carol L. Wright, and the ever-popular writing tips from Betty Wryte-Goode.
