September 2022

After an enjoyable but exhausting summer of work travel (for Donald) and visiting relatives (for Kristin), life has returned to normal. We're hoping to do some relative-visiting ourselves later this fall, but for now, we're back to the usual routine of day job, gardening, and reading Mysterion submissions.

One last summer sightseeing picture, from the Boston Lights lantern festival at the Franklin Park Zoo. We're not sure what bizarre geocentric solar system model is being promoted here.

Our current featured story is by Mysterion veteran Frederick Gero Heimbach. In "The Tithe", Sister has sacrificed more for her God than anyone she knows; surely he won't punish her now for holding back a tithe from this last, terrible offering?

This is Fred's third appearance in Mysterion, officially making him our most published author. For his earlier stories with us, check out "The City Above The Shelf" and "You Shall See Him in the East". We love how these stories of his all illuminate some aspect of Christianity by showing us the perspective of protagonists who follow other religions (often imaginary).

September's story will be from Alex Sobel. Superheroes are real, but don't expect them to save you--or themselves--from "The Practical Ending". Then, in October, e rathke's "Heretic" introduces us to a man claiming to be from another world, who believes beyond all hope that his god will take him home.

To read these stories, you can remember that we always publish a new story here on the 4th Monday of each month, with bonus stories on 2nd Mondays in January and July. Or, for only $3 a month, you can subscribe to our Patreon page and have every story we publish delivered straight to your inbox, weeks before it's available to the general public (plus other benefits that you can learn about here). All our Patreon income goes to paying authors and artists, and we're not that close to breaking even yet, so we could really use your support!

Kitty Corner

Now that the summer heat wave has passed, Maxwell would spend all his time out on the porch if we let him, with brief visits indoors for food, water, litter box, and the occasional cuddle (Marie likes the porch too, but will opt for human company more often than her brother will, and always darts inside at the merest hint of a forthcoming treat).

Since they spend so much time out there, Donald decided we should get them furniture for their porch. They seem to like it.

Watching a squirrel.

It's not all napping in gentle breezes and longing to chase squirrels and birds, though. Every so often, after dark, Maxwell will start yowling. We weren't sure what was upsetting him--the local coyote? neighbors taking out the trash?--until one night we saw it too.

That's definitely not Marie out there. Maxwell is blurry because he wouldn't stop pacing.

We've seen four different cats roaming across our yard this summer, though this tabby and an orange cat are the only ones we've seen approach the front door after dark. They both seem curious about who lives here, and possibly friendly, but Maxwell is having none of it. Once he even chased Marie under the coffee table, hissing and yowling at her, out of apparent frustration that he couldn't get outside and show those strange cats who the boss of this yard is.

Thank you for reading, and be sure to come back on September 26th for Alex Sobel's story about a world with superheroes!

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