Bewildering Stories introduces and welcomes...

Graham J. Darling

Graham lives in Ottawa, where he delights in producing hard science fiction, mythopoeic fantasy and horror. He has won a prize for scaring readers and is widely present on social media.

“The Queer Kid” depicts a schoolkid who is queer, all right, but not in the current sense of a particular psychosexual orientation. Rather, the boy is “queer” in the older sense of being strange, unusual, unconventional.

Readers may be tempted to equate the “queer kid” with Jesus Christ. That’s understandable, if only because the kid’s heart is in the right place, and he is a paragon of non-violence. However, he is endowed with magical powers, and the story soon becomes a fantasy. Coincidentally, the review article in this issue discusses an opposite figure, the Jesus of history.

Graham J. Darling’s bio sketch can be found here.

Welcome to Bewildering Stories, Graham. We’re glad to have you with us!