Status Update • 30 August 2021

 

It’s now been a month since my wife was released from the hospital, and time remains in very short supply.  The three-times-daily infusions appear to be working, although not as well as her doctors had hoped, so they’ve extended the treatment schedule through September. We continue to see or be seen by a long parade of specialists, therapists, and various other kinds of -ists—there is even such a thing as a “hospitalist;” I didn’t know that—and to spend a lot of time either traveling to or from or sitting in waiting rooms, as she has one outpatient procedure after another. My planner is already booked up solid through the third week of September.

More than any other kind of time, sleep time remains in extremely short supply. I think there may have been a night sometime in the past month when I actually slept for more than two contiguous hours at a stretch and for more than six hours total, but I’m too tired to remember when. 

Obviously, this is having profound impact on Stupefying Stories. In the time I have available for thinking about anything other than immediate medical necessities I’m trying to figure out what we can do, realistically, in what’s left of this year.

That “realistically” requirement is proving to be a real drag.

One thing is for certain. I had been telling people privately, and may even have posted it online somewhere, that we were looking at reopening to submissions after Labor Day. That is now absolutely out of the question. There is no way in Hell or on Earth that we will have time the time to consider any new unsolicited submissions in the foreseeable future. 

Got that? Despite what you may have heard elsewhere, we will NOT be reopening to new unsolicited submissions this fall. 

There will likely be more changes, but getting this message out will do for now. 

—Bruce Bethke