May 2022

We know some people are anxiously waiting to hear back from us about stories submitted in January, so we'll keep this monthly update brief so we can get back to reading them. As of Thursday night, there were 8 stories that had not yet been read by anyone, 18 waiting to be read by either Kristin or Donald, and 10 that had advanced to the Final Round. The end is near!

If you're already thinking ahead to our next submission window in July and wondering what to send or write, we never get enough science fiction. We publish mostly fantasy and supernatural fiction because that's mostly what authors send us.

Speaking of science fiction, our April story was "On Charis Station", by D.G.P. Rector, a space opera about pirates on the run from bounty hunters, and a station caretaker who would prefer to be left alone but still tries to do the right thing.

On May 23rd, we have another fantasy story by K.J. Khan. "The Trial of Corin of Westfyr" is set in a secondary world rather than the mythological Greek past of her first story for us, "Soul's Wager". Although both Donald and Kristin tend to gravitate toward secondary world fantasy in own own reading (and writing) preferences, it can be challenging to write Christian-themed stories in these worlds, especially for Christian authors who want the religious system to be consistent with their understanding of God but not a direct copy of some flavor of real-world Christianity, or a C.S. Lewis pastiche with an animal Jesus. However, we both liked how K.J. approached religious worldbuilding here, as well as the story of an honest man caught between competing interpretations of duty.

Our June story, Andrew Hansen's "Grandad and the Lockbox", returns to present-day North America. A young protagonist has a way to look in on another world, and even change it; but none of his changes seem able to address the real problems.

These stories will be published here on the website in late May and late June; but if you'd like the opportunity to read them now, consider signing up for our Patreon! For $3/month, our most popular support level, you get to read all the stories on the first day of the month in which they'll be published. And, at a couple of our higher support tiers, you get a special subscriber-only e-book every two months, with the next two months' worth of stories. (As an even more special bonus: if we can sufficiently increase our Patreon revenue, we'll start publishing additional stories.)

Kristin still finds time to bake every now and then:

There's still enough of a chill in the air that Maxwell and Marie enjoy snuggling together in their cat tent. Marie also enjoys dragging the tent around the house by the attached mouse toy, which is why the poor mouse is losing its stuffing. We're not sure that Maxwell climbing in on top of Marie isn't just a gambit to annoy her enough that she gets out and leaves the tent to him; but in this photo, she's decided to tough it out.

Back to reviewing submissions now! Thank you for reading, and be sure to come back on May 23rd for "The Trial of Corin of Westfyr"!

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