For the latest news, latest download links, and best of all, FREE STORIES, check out our companion webzine, STUPEFYING STORIES SHOWCASE, ready to read now at this link:
StupefyingStoriesSHOWCASE.com
This week featuring:
“Special Delivery,” by Peter Wood
“The Cubes,” by Taylor Vaughan
“Rheum,” by Parker Lee
“Caveat Emptor,” by Steve Coate
Junk Food Cinema, by Badger & Vole
2013: The Year in Pre-Review, by Bruce Bethk...
Friday, November 29, 2013
Saturday, November 23, 2013
SHOWCASE #11 ESCAPES!
Sometimes a project is released, and other times, it escapes. This one is definitely more of an "escape," and deserving of front-page top-of-the-fold coverage. Ergo, imagine Paul Winchell reading:
SHOWCASE #11 ESCAPES!
READ ALL ABOUT IT...
Saturday, November 16, 2013
SHOWCASE #10 IS LIVE!
For the latest news, latest download links, and best of all, FREE STORIES, check out our companion webzine, STUPEFYING STORIES SHOWCASE, ready to read now at this link:
http://www.StupefyingStoriesSHOWCASE.com/index.html
This week featuring:
“An Indelible Feast,” by Alex Shvartsman
“Stanhope's Finest,” by Natalie J E Potts
“Allegory at Table Seven,” by Jarod K. Anderson
Plus Badger & Vole Review “Thor: The Dark World,” and we preview...
Friday, November 8, 2013
SHOWCASE #9 IS LIVE!
For the latest news, latest download links, and best of all, FREE STORIES, check out our companion webzine, STUPEFYING STORIES SHOWCASE, ready to read now at this link:
http://www.StupefyingStoriesSHOWCASE.com/index.html
This week featuring:
“Jackie, We Hardly Knew Ye,” by Carly Berg
“Tempora Mutantur,” by Anatoly Belilovsky
“White,” by Jennifer Davis
“Happily Ever After,” by Edward Ahern
“Lessons Learned From My Fifth Attempt to Conquer...
Monday, November 4, 2013
Book Release: TWO, The 2nd Annual Horror Special
STUPEFYING STORIES is thrilled (and more than just a little relieved) to announce the release of:
TWO is one of the biggest and best collections of horror stories we've ever assembled, containing sixteen fresh and exciting new tales of ghosties and ghoulies, vampires and zombies, monsters and mayhem, and things that go bump in the night! Edited by Philip K. Dick Award-winner...
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
SHOWCASE #8 RELEASED!
For the latest news, latest download links, and best of all, FREE STORIES, check out our companion webzine, STUPEFYING STORIES SHOWCASE, ready to read now at this link:
http://www.StupefyingStoriesSHOWCASE.com/index.html
This week featuring:
“Soft Magic” by Paul DesCombaz
“The All-Seeing Ring” by Kelda Crich
“The Calling Card” by Eric J. Guignard
“The Blue Ridge Wreath” by Georgia Ruth
Plus:
Badger & Vole Review “Marvel's Agents of...
Friday, September 6, 2013
SHOWCASE #7 RELEASED!
For the latest news, latest download links, and best of all, FREE STORIES, check out our companion webzine, STUPEFYING STORIES SHOWCASE, ready to read now at this link:
http://www.StupefyingStoriesSHOWCASE.com/index.html
This week featuring:
“Reckoning” by David Steffen
“Bacco Joe” by K.B Sluss
“In Vino Veritas” by Anatoly Belilovsky
“A Hole” by Jason Armstrong
Plus:
“Why SHOWCASE?” by Bruce Bethke
“Q&A: About SHOWCASE”
“New Release...
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
SHOWCASE #6 RELEASED!
For the latest news, latest download links, and best of all, FREE STORIES, check out our companion webzine, STUPEFYING STORIES SHOWCASE, ready to read now at this link:
http://www.StupefyingStoriesSHOWCASE.com/index.html
This week featuring:
“The Storyteller” by Alex Shvartsman
“Here There Be Monsters?” by Robert Lowell Russell
“Oath” by Guy Stewart
“Not Taken” by Kit Yona
Plus:
“On Writing Oath” by Guy Stewart
“How I Spent My Summer...
Sunday, July 28, 2013
SHOWCASE #5 RELEASED!
For the latest news, latest download links, and of course, FREE STORIES, check out our (usually) weekly companion webzine, STUPEFYING STORIES SHOWCASE, ready to read now at this link:
http://www.StupefyingStoriesSHOWCASE.com/index.html
This week featuring:
“The Piano is a Percussion Instrument,” by Maude Larke
“Timeless Bore,” by Peter Wood
“After the Kaiju Attack,” by John Zaharick
“Space Program,” by Lance J. Mushung
“The Wishing Hour,” by...
Saturday, July 13, 2013
SHOWCASE #4 IS ONLINE!
For the latest news, latest download links, and of course, FREE STORIES, check out our (usually) weekly companion webzine, STUPEFYING STORIES SHOWCASE, ready to read now at this link:
http://www.stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com/index.h...
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
STUPEFYING STORIES: JULY 2013 ISSUE RELEASED
...and we’re back! After a planned three-month hiatus that accidentally
stretched out into six, STUPEFYING STORIES returns—retooled, reworked,
and better than ever! With more and bigger stories by more outstanding
authors, STUPEFYING STORIES MK.II is tanned, rested, and ready to rock! Chock-full of great stories and novelettes, our July issue includes:
"All the
Beautiful...
Friday, June 28, 2013
It's even more aliver!
The incredible THIRD issue of STUPEFYING STORIES SHOWCASE is out of the gates and up and running on http://www.StupefyingStoriesSHOWCASE.com. Featuring new stories by Arthur Bangs, A.G. Cauthen, and Simon Kewin, as well as review and previews, it's full of good reading, and best of all, FREE!
We've also done a bit of work this week on our new reader forum, THE FEEDBACK LOOP, and it should be much easier to use. Check it out...
Friday, June 21, 2013
It's alive....again!
The incredible SECOND issue of STUPEFYING STORIES SHOWCASE is out of the gates and already up and running on its new permanent home, http://www.StupefyingStoriesSHOWCASE.com. Featuring four new stories by Robert Lowell Russell, Franziska Louise, Robert Bagnall, and Joy Bernardo, it's tested, ready (mostly), and best of all, FREE!
And with this issue, we also introduce our new reader forum, THE FEEDBACK LOOP.
God help us, we've got a reader forum....
Friday, June 14, 2013
It's alive!
Okay, so it was more of an escape than a launch, the paint isn't completely dry in places, and trust me, you don't want to look behind that tarp, but Issue #1 of our new webzine, STUPEFYING STORIES SHOWCASE, is on the interwebs! Featuring four new stories by Sarah L. Byrne, Samuel Marzioli, A. G. Carpenter, and Gary Cuba, as well as a surprisingly gentle review of Star Trek Into Darkness, it's new, it's ready, and best of all, it's free!
Click here...
Friday, May 31, 2013
Previews of Coming Attractions
Oh, what a month it's been. One kid just graduated from college; another is finishing high school today. One daughter and her husband are all moved into their new house; another and her husband just barely made it into their new apartment in time. Three weeks ago my new grandson made his big debut on the stage of life: I'm a grandfather. I'm still having trouble...
Thursday, May 23, 2013
The Slush Pile Survival Guide
"The Talk" (Part Three)
by Bruce Bethke
Previously, in "The Slush Pile Survival Guide:" Part One | Part Two.
And now the horrible, terrible, no good, very bad conclusion...
¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤
This is the part of The Talk where English teachers and Creative Writing professors wince, aspiring writers plug their ears and sing, "La la la, I can't hear you," and even successful authors with...
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
The Slush Pile Survival Guide
"The Talk" (Part Two)
by Bruce Bethke
...continued from Part One...
"Mr. Bethke? How do I become a writer?"
The Snark is strong with me. You have no idea how hard it is not to answer, "Well, what exactly is a writer? It's someone who writes, isn't it? Have you ever written anything? You have? Congratulations! You're a writer!
"Next question?"
But it's cruel to leave...
Friday, May 10, 2013
The Slush Pile Survival Guide
"The Talk" (Part One)
by Bruce Bethke
And once again, Spring returns to the North Country. In the space of two short weeks we've gone from watching the glaciers calve...
To watching the trees bud, the grass turn green, and the crocuses, tulips, and daffodils erupt from the ground in a glorious riot of color, only to get nommed to bits every night by hordes of ravenous...
Friday, April 12, 2013
The Slush Pile Survival Guide
"The Story Arc: Without One, Your Roof Caves In"
by Barbara V. EversMAPC, FSPRC
As a first reader for Stupefying Stories, I recommend rejecting more submissions because of incomplete story arc than any other element of writing.
What is a story arc? Think of it as representing the plot of your story. It’s the structure into which the characters, world, and action of the story must fit. Most stories follow the traditional three-act structure:...
Friday, April 5, 2013
The Slush Pile Survival Guide
"Things Change"
by Bruce Bethke, Editor
Why bother reading submission guidelines? After all, you know your story inside and out, and you also know everything worthwhile there is to know about the magazine to which you plan to submit it. (Or at least, you read a paragraph or two about the magazine, on someone else's blog, about a year ago.) Why waste your time looking at submission guidelines now?
Short answer: because in the publishing business,...
Friday, March 29, 2013
The Slush Pile Survival Guide
"Twelve Tips for Making A Good First Impression"
by Katherine Karr, Editorial Minion
When you send a submission to STUPEFYING STORIES, the very first thing that happens is that it's received by a kindly, somewhat gray-haired, grandmotherly type woman -- in other words, me. Some mornings Bruce beats me to the inbox, but most morning's it's my job to:
receive the email
download the attachment
run it through our anti-virus and anti-malware filters
verify...
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
2013: The Year in Review, So Far
Good grief, is it the end of March already?
I was doing some unnecessary grumbling the other day, along the lines of why am I so tired and where has all the time gone, when my wife simply said, "Look at your planner." So I did.
Oh yeah, that's right. I've been on The Kick since the second week of February.
The Kick, if you're not familiar with it, is a distance-runner's term for the last leg, the last lap, that last chance to change the outcome...
Friday, March 8, 2013
In lieu of a column today...
Here's a golden oldie from the archives of The Friday Challenge. The challenge was:
It's a few years in the future. You're a freelance writer working for some publication whose nature you're free to define, and you're writing a review of the controversial new children's book: Heather Has Two Mommies, Three Daddies, A Pig's Spleen and a Baboon's Heart. What do you want to tell your readers about this book?
Herewith, one of the more unforgettable...
Friday, February 22, 2013
The Slush Pile Survival Guide
"The Trouble with Advice"
by Bruce Bethke
Thirty-five years ago I was living in Los Angeles, shopping my demo tape all over Hollywood, and trying to take my musical career to the next level. Auditions and callbacks were few and far-between, though, so I spent a lot of time either in my apartment or else down at the beach, watching the nonstop freak show, scribbling away in my notebook, and doing my best to follow in the unsteady footsteps of...
Friday, February 1, 2013
The Slush Pile Survival Guide
"About That Secret Handshake"
by Bruce Holland Rogers
Pity the poor writer who feels that he or she is perpetually this close to selling novels or short stories. There is no discouragement quite like hers. She has studied her craft, she has tried her manuscripts out on test readers who have helped her sharpen her stories, and she has researched markets to make certain she's sending her work to the editors who publish that sort of thing. Yet her...
Monday, January 21, 2013
2012: The Year in Review (Part 4)
Continued from Part One | Part Two | Part Three
Announcing Some Mid-Trajectory Course Corrections
Therefore, as the cumulative result of our many eye-opening learning experiences in 2012, we've decided to make some significant changes as we move into 2013. Effective either immediately or phasing in over the next few months:
1. We've decided to let STUPEFYING STORIES become the science fiction and fantasy magazine it clearly wants to be. We're...