Cat Days of Summer

Here at Mysterion headquarters, we've been getting back to some kind of normal: dim sum with friends, indoor parties, movies in the theater (Black Widow, in case you were wondering).

For us, "the new normal" also includes our house being taken over by cats. Marie and Maxwell have settled in comfortably, and we've enjoyed getting to know them better. Both are friendly and affectionate felines, even with humans they've just met. Maxwell is the adventurous one, always sticking his nose into new places it probably shouldn't be, climbing on human shoulders and scheming to get onto the dining room table. Marie is a talkative little girl who greets us with loud meows whenever she wants attention, loves belly rubs, and has proven herself a ferocious hunter of cat toys.

Marie only stops meowing when she falls asleep.

Maxwell getting into trouble. Again.

Submissions Closed

We're now closed to fiction submissions until January 2022. Many thanks to all who sent in stories! We received a total of 292 stories, a bit above our usual number of submissions. As always, we will try not to keep you waiting for too long while we make our selections.

Recent and Upcoming Stories

Since last month was July, we have two new stories out since our last monthly update. In C.A. Barrett's middle-grade historical fantasy "Bearing the Flame", twelve-year-old Basil learns that there's more to being a Chandler of Christ than kindling talent. "Ceiling Snakes and Slithering Saints" is also historical, but with a more recent setting. When the trusses supporting a church's roof turn into snakes, the Slithering Saints can help; but only the townsfolk can solve their community's real problems. The author, Barbara A. Barnett, published "This Is the Way the Prayer Ends" with us back in December, and we're thrilled to bring you another of her stories.

On August 23rd, be sure to come back for Jessica Snell's science fictional love letter to books and libraries, "Vocation." And we're hard at work editing the September and October stories, so you can expect more news about them soon.

Patreon

Our generous Patreon supporters are our main source of external funding for the magazine ("external" meaning "not out of our own savings"). Right now, we have 20 active Patrons, providing $213/month, which all goes toward paying authors and artists for their work. We'd love to bring these numbers up so we can afford to publish more and longer stories. So if you enjoy Mysterion but are not currently supporting us on Patreon, please consider signing up!

Subscriber benefits include early access to all our stories, the opportunity to participate in monthly chats with Mysterion editors and authors, exclusive behind-the-scenes content about what it's really like to publish an online magazine; and, of course, that warm feeling you get when contributing to a good cause.

Although our readers have not yet taken us up on this offer, for any month that we see a net increase on Patreon of at least 5 subscribers and $10/month income, we'll take the following month off from asking our readers for money. And if we get to all the way up to $275/month, we'll start publishing an additional two stories each year.

You can pledge as little as $1/month, but $3/month is the point at which you start getting early access to stories!

Many thanks to all who support us already, including some who signed up before we'd even started publishing an online magazine!

R.I.P. Donald Howard Crankshaw

We have some sad news from last month. Donald's father Don Crankshaw passed away at his home in Louisiana on July 22nd. While we're glad that Donald had the chance to visit with his dad during our recent visit in June, it's always hard to lose a parent, and we welcome your prayers for Donald and his sisters especially.

Thank you for reading, and don't forget to come back on August 23rd for our next story!

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