With this issue, we introduce a new feature, focusing on the authors who have been recognized in our annual story contest. It’s a way to get to know more about the authors whose stories caught the eye of our judges.
Avery Other
Avery Other is a human person who likes telling stories. She lives in Lincoln, NE, where she works full-time as an unreliable narrator. She is definitely not a plastic lawn flamingo with delusions of grandeur. Her favorite color is pink. You can find Avery on Blue Sky: @averyother.bsky.social, or at averyother.com.
BWG: From your website, you have won several short story awards (including ours). Congratulations! What draws you to that format (vs. novel-length works)?
Avery: Thank you! I intend to write something longer eventually, but I decided to start with short story and microfiction contests after a (too) long writing hiatus. And of course I’ve fallen in love with the shorter formats. It’s a great way to play with lots of different weird ideas without the longer time commitment of something massive. It’s also been invaluable for finding my voice, rebuilding old skills, and adding to that foundation with the help of online writing communities.
BWG: In what genre do your stories generally land and why?
Avery: I love everything speculative, especially sci-fi. I am drawn to space stories most of all. There’s so much possibility out there. Simply put, we are small; space is big. It’s inspiring. And terrifying! When I was old enough to learn our sun was a star but did not yet grasp that shooting stars weren’t, I was constantly concerned what might happen if our star decided to “shoot.” Would it be fun? Would we die? Both? Space caught me early.
BWG: What inspired the two stories that placed in the 2025 Bethlehem Writers Group short story content (“Smiling Fish” and “Peaches”)?
Avery: “Smiling Fish” was originally written from prompts in an early round of the NYCM Short Story Challenge. The prompts were Crime Caper, Office Manager, and Demolition. I definitely wanted to make it sci-fi because I was in that do-whatever-I-want within the rules mood, and Crime Caper + Sci-Fi felt like an opportunity. Almost immediately, I decided I wanted to demolish planets. And I had just re-upped my cyber security training for my day job, so phishing became part of the crime that was capered. I had a blast writing that story.
“Peaches” was also from prompts: Enemies to Lovers, Pacifist, Spiderweb. I thought about the most bonkers way I could satisfy the prompts and . . . landed on spider bondage, I guess! I tried to make it both silly and heartfelt. A beta-reader friend was writing an Enemies to Lovers story about a sexy yeti at the time, and we giddily egged each other on.
BWG: What are you working on now?
Avery: I’m between writing projects at the moment. Just reading a lot. Thinking. Working. TTRPGs with friends on the weekends. Avoiding the dishes.
Natalie Bucsko
Natalie, of Cumming, GA, placed second in the 2025 contest with her story “Missing Ingredients.” Natalie is an emerging writer, with works that span from the more literary to the delightfully weird. She lives in the metro-Atlanta area with her incredibly supportive husband, spit-fire daughter, a hyper husky-corgi, and two himbo orange tabbies. She’s a proud member of several amazing writing groups and a writing contest goblin. Find her on her website nataliewriteson.com or on Blue Sky: @nataliewriteson.bsky.social
BWG: What draws you to the short-story format (vs. novel-length works)?
Natalie: I love short stories. The Martian Chronicles is essentially a short story collection, and I first read that in junior high. I was also obsessed with Edgar Allen Poe as a kid. One of my favorite classes in high school was a science fiction and fantasy class, and almost everything we read was a short story. And some of them have just stuck with me for so long. “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “All Summer in a Day.” Microcosmic God is more novelette than short story, but that sticks with me as well.
Though I do plan to try my hand at novel writing some day, I think it is amazing what impact you can create in short stories. And it makes you think strategically about what to include, how to make prose do double duty, because you have limited word count.
BWG: In what genre do your stories generally land and why? (From your website, I would say horror and mystery . . . )
Natalie: I think it would be hard to pick a genre; I write across the board. I have some very “LitFic” pieces, some weird west, some horror. I think I lean toward speculative fiction. I love the ability to include fantasy, sci-fi, or magical realism elements to create a message about our own world. I have a lot of pieces set on Mars, a lot of pieces with witches, and a lot of pieces with ghosts. But none that combine all three yet (so my to-be-written list grows again!).
BWG: What inspired your story “Missing Ingredients,” which won second place in our 2025 short story contest?
Natalie: Spoilers incoming! “Missing Ingredients” started as a story for a prompt-based writing competition. I hadn’t written in years and thought a time-limited, prompt-based competition would help reignite the spark. And it did!
For the comp, I needed a cozy fantasy and just got this idea in my head about a witch who uses tea and baking (two passions of mine) by imbuing them with magic to help her customers. And I loved the idea of her being such a workaholic that she is so oblivious to a repeat customer being there because she likes her! I had to include a gym for the setting, which is how Saira’s character got shaped. And it was so fun thinking about the ways a gym might exist in a fantasy world. I loved the story so much, I continued working on it and expanded it into the piece that was submitted for the BWG contest. And could not be more thrilled with second place. In fact, BWG asking to publish it was my very first publishing request.
BWG: What are you working on now?
Natalie: I’m working on another cozy fantasy piece, about a witch who works as a curse cracker. I am also working on a darker fantasy piece about someone who accidentally releases a sorceress from imprisonment. And of course, something set on Mars (inclusion of witches and ghosts to be determined).