July 2025

It's July, so Mysterion is open to fiction submissions again! As of yesterday (July 6th), we had received 85 submissions.

We're currently in New Hampshire for a long weekend hiking vacation with Kristin's nephew Simon, visiting from Calgary. The three of us did a 9-mile hike up and around the shoulder of Mt. Washington on Saturday (Tuckerman Ravine Trail to Lion's Head Trail to Alpine Garden Trail to Nelson Crag Trail to Old Jackson Road, for those who are curious and familiar with the trails). Then, on Sunday, Kristin and Simon did a much shorter and easier hike to Arethusa Falls, while Donald stayed at the inn and rested his sore knees. 

We were lucky enough to see a black bear cross the Alpine Garden Trail ahead of us, and even luckier that it seemed eager to put some distance between itself and any hikers.

The Arethusa Falls hike was just under three miles round trip, including a short loop section to see some smaller waterfalls downstream, and much easier overall. The main attraction is taller and more spectacular than Kristin had expected.

Simon will be here until July 12th, for a total of two weeks, so we probably won't make a lot of progress on reading Mysterion submissions until then. So far, we've also taken him out for an omakase sushi dinner in downtown Boston, and kayaking on the Charles River. Next week's plans include going to see a professional soccer game (New England Revolution vs. Inter Miami CF). (Simon, who plays hockey, was more interested in seeing a soccer match than a baseball game, so we didn't attempt to get Red Sox tickets.)

The three of us also drove down to Warren, RI for an art opening at The Collaborative Lab to see the work of one of their current featured artists, Mysterion author K.J. Khan. Her paintings will be on view through July 26th, along with the work of several other talented artists--in case any of you reading this are somewhat local and interested in visual art. The gallery is open Thursday through Sunday, 3-6 pm. Although we just went for the art opening and then out to dinner, Warren seems like a good destination for a day trip, with a waterfront, parks and nature preserves, multiple galleries, and shops selling the work of local artisans. (K.J. Khan's stories "Soul's Wager" and "The Trial of Corin of Westfyr" are always on view here at Mysterion!)

New Hampshire is actually the second overnight trip Kristin and Donald have taken since our last monthly update. In June, we were in Chattanooga, TN for LibertyCon. This was a new science fiction convention for us, and one we would definitely be interested in attending again. It's small (limited to 1000 attendees), and has both a strong emphasis on books and authors (especially military SF, hard SF, and pulp), and a great room party scene. (Room parties at Massachusetts cons still haven't recovered from the pandemic, largely because most of them still require masks; and Massachusetts' restrictive laws around alcohol probably don't help, either.) There seems to be more political diversity, with more conservatives and libertarians than we tend to run into at other cons. The Sunday morning non-denominational Christian prayer service was pretty well attended (they also have a Friday night Shabbos service). There's a good art show, plenty of gaming opportunities, and karaoke on Friday night. Although we've seen Author/Artist Alleys at other cons, where those for whom it doesn't make sense to get a table in the dealers' room can show off and sell their creative work, we appreciated that LibertyCon put it in a main hallway that almost everyone walked through rather than tucking it away in some obscure corner, and to see so many authors participating (it seemed to be more a part of convention programming, like doing readings or being on panels, than seen as a low-budget alternative to being in the dealers' room).

If all that makes you think LibertyCon is an event you'd like to check out, we recommend being ready to register as soon as they open, at noon EDT on Saturday, July 19th. They often sell out the first day.

Chattanooga was also a fun city to visit, with a lot of great restaurants--and a cat cafe, which we realized too late! Kristin enjoyed the distillery tour at the Chattanooga Whiskey Experimental Distillery, and recommends it to anyone (21+, of course) who wants to learn more about how whiskey is made. It really gets into the details of grain selection, malting, barrel aging, barrel construction and charring, etc.

PATREON

If you enjoy Mysterion, please consider supporting us on Patreon! You can sign up for as little as $1/month, or select a higher tier with more rewards.

Our Patreon support has dropped off recently and is currently at $201/month, so now is an especially good time to subscribe. $200/month is the threshold below which we would need to start cutting back on art. We have been featuring new artwork here every three months (check out the latest, by Arthur Bowling III!), but would need to switch to every four months. This might not seem like a big deal, especially if you're an author rather than an artist, but we'd been hoping to reach our next goal of $275/month so we could start publishing two additional stories each year, and now that goal is much further off than it was.

We would especially love to see more new subscribers in the $3-$10/month range. While we love and are immensely thankful for our $25+/month Patrons, having more subscribers who each contribute a smaller amount is overall a more stable funding situation for us.

However, if you would like to sign up to contribute $25/month...

MYSTERION 3 UPDATE

...now is also a good time to do that, as we'll have a new book out soon! Anne Horn, who does the covers for our bimonthly eBook editions of the magazine (available as a Patreon reward to $10/month subscribers!), has agreed to design the cover for the next anthology as well. This will be a reprint anthology of the stories we published here in the online magazine in 2020 and 2021. We already have artwork lined up, but needed a professional graphic designer to do the cover layout.

The rest of the book is ready, and we hope to have the cover done in the next few weeks, so perhaps as early as August? Patreon subscribers who contribute at least $25/month will get a copy of the paperback edition mailed to them as one of their rewards, and those contributing at least $5/month will get digital copies of the ePub and PDF editions.

COMING SOON...

We have three new stories on deck for July and August. 

In Gretchen Tessmer's "My Gallery Granddaughter" (appearing July 14th), the Curator's authority over paintings is absolute. But why should the Curator have the power to decide who stays in the gallery and who is banished to storage?

On July 28th, returning Mysterion author Joshua Lampkins brings us a story about how faith is as "Bright and Distant as the Moons". In this far-future science fiction setting, a priest has to decide whether to put others in danger to uphold the principles of a religion he doesn't believe in anymore.

Finally, on August 25th, in L.H. Phillips's "Timestorm", a man finds his comfortable solitude challenged by visitations from the past, and a long-ago catastrophe he can't possibly avert.

We hope you'll come back to check out the stories once they're published. In the meantime, thank you for reading, and thank you for your support!

---

Support Mysterion on Patreon!