NEW STORY: “Rebirth” • by Toshiya Kamei

The flame of Magdalena’s torch sent shadows dancing across the walls of the crypt. She prowled toward my open sarcophagus on her nightly patrol, dressed like the other priestesses who supposedly communed with the dead: face obscured by the hood of a heavy wool cloak, feet snug in worn boots, a dagger sheathed at her waist. She didn’t remember what I remembered, but her...

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REPRISE: “Reunion” • by Toshiya Kamei

The carriage door creaked open, and a chilly draft blew against Maya’s cheeks… SYNOPSIS: It was the greatest honor one could ever hope to have; to be chosen by the gods themselves to give up one’s life to serve their glory… wasn’t it? Toshiya Kamei begs to differ, in “Reunion.” » READ IT NOW Toshiya Kamei (she/they) is an Asian writer who takes inspiration from fairy tales,...

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The Never-ending FAQ • 19 March 2025

I’ve heard from a lot of people since last Saturday’s announcement that we’re going to be striking the tent and closing the circus. The first thing to remember is…Oh, I bet you can guess.To reiterate: if you have a story under contract with us, we will publish it, unless you choose to withdraw it.The exact nature of that publication may vary. Some of the stories we originally...

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REPRISE: “The Prediction of a Horrific Crime” • by Humphrey Price

“I figured I had about an hour before being arrested by the Pre-Crime Police…” SYNOPSIS: In a rigidly ordered and nearly crime-free society, where everyone everywhere is under the constant surveillance of the government’s Precog AI network, how can one person hope to commit an utterly horrific but absolutely necessary act of defiance against the system? Space systems engineer...

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Feeding the Muse • Living Well on a Writer’s Budget

Editor’s Note: This column was first published on 3/21/2018. With today being St. Patrick’s Day—or as we call it around here, The Day Before Corned Beef Briskets Go On Clearance Sale—this seemed a good time to resurface this one. Karen always wanted to reboot her “Feeding the Muse” series but that never got the chance. Here’s hoping you enjoy this one. Bon appetit!—Bruce...

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AWARDS NEWS! Congratulations, Henry Vogel and Barbara V. Evers!

We’ve just learned that Henry Vogel’s latest Rampant Loon Press novel, THE PRINCESS SCOUT, is a finalist for the 2025 Imadjinn Award for Best YA Novel, which will be presented at Imaginarium 2025 this coming July.We’re pretty pumped about this. Two years ago Henry’s previous novel, THE HOSTAGE IN HIDING, made a strong run for the Imadjinn Award, only to be beaten in the final...

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Status Update • 15 March 2025

I’ve been thinking a lot about inertia and entropy lately.This two-month hiatus wasn’t planned. While it’s tempting to blame it on the Never-ending Repair & Remodeling Project, that was only the inciting incident.Previously on Stupefying Stories: Last summer’s destructive hailstorm made major repairs to the house necessary, which subsequently mushroomed into The Remodeling...

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The Never-ending FAQ • 26 February 2025

First news: I’ve shut down our crowd-funding campaign. Or rather, I’m trying to. While I’ve emailed everyone on our (pathetically short) list of supporters, some folks still have monthly automatic credit card payments set up. To them I say, thank you for your continued support, but going forward I’m going to refund your automatic payments anyway, so you may as well shut them...

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Wrapping up “Stories You Probably Missed” week

The destruction/construction crew showed up a half-hour before dawn this morning and they’ve been hammering and sawing away ever since, trying to get the job finished today, so my ability to concentrate is not quite what it might be. The plan for today was to wrap up “Stories You Probably Missed” week with the last of the stories we published during the period when we couldn’t...

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“(re)Visions in the Jar” • by Sophie Sparrow

Continuing with this week’s theme, two weeks ago we published “Visions in the Jar,” a beautiful and heartbreaking little story by Sophie Sparrow. Unfortunately we did this during the period when we were temporarily unable to access our Facebook, X/Twitter, or Bluesky accounts, so we were unable to promote the story, and thus the readership numbers were not what we feel this...

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A puzzling thing happened…

…during our span without access to Facebook, X/Twitter, or Bluesky. Christopher Degni is usually one of our most popular writers. We’ve been publishing his work for years, beginning, I think, with “Life and Jacq and the Giant and Death.” (Actually, going strictly by chronology, we published “Merry-Go-Round” first, but I believe we accepted “Life and Jacq…” for publication...

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