Rave Review for Issue #21!

I have no idea who this person is, but I love this review of Stupefying Stories #21 on Hamilcar’s Books. Rather than quote too much of it, I’ll just quote my favorite part: “All of the tales are well-structured and well-written. I was pleasantly surprised that none of the writers were ‘weak links’, nor did any of the stories feel like they were ‘mailed in’.  Perhaps...

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Family Matters • by Bruce Bethke

Nota bene: This is the introduction George Scithers wrote 36 years ago for the original magazine publication of “Cyberpunk” in Amazing Stories. Please read it closely. I no longer remember the name of the con. It was somewhere between 25 and 30 years ago, and I want to say it was a WorldCon, but in truth, I don’t remember. What I do remember is that I was with a bunch...

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SHOWCASE: “The Very Last Time I Will Ever Have Sex with a Tree,” by Nathan Cromwell

How, you might wonder, did I end up in a public park with my pants around my ankles and my—er, parts—pinched inside a tree? Long story short, I met a brunette at Retox, she was hot and I was tipsy, and I didn’t check her I.D. Even sober I hate asking a woman to prove she’s real: choose the right moment, it’s awkward; choose the wrong moment, it can scotch the whole deal;...

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SHOWCASE: “The New Herd,” by Lilliana Rose

The new herd of cows had arrived for milking, white skin gleaming in the sunlight as they were ushered from the transport ship. They walked as if their udders were tight with gold. But they refused to be touched. Maybe they were a little skittish from their long flight through space, God forbid. I prayed to the Sun, our God, to ensure none were sick. The cows often became...

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It’s another Free eBook Friday!

In recognition of WorldCon 2018, the 8th Anniversary of the original launch of STUPEFYING STORIES, and any other excuse special occasion we’re sure to think of if we just keep vamping long enough, Rampant Loon Press is excited to announce that beginning at midnight Pacific time tonight and running through—well, sometime later this weekend, we aren’t exactly sure when—we are...

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Talking Shop

Op-ed: “How to Write Heroes: An Incomplete Primer” • by Auston Habershaw Previously: “How to Write a Good Bad Guy” Okay, so the first thing to keep in mind here is that the idea of what makes a “hero” is enormous and varied and in most cases culturally and historically informed—defining the term is a much slipperier task than you think. So in the interest of brevity,...

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Free eBook Friday • 8/17/18

The Book of Judith by Judith Fields This Friday’s featured free ebook is The Book of Judith: Sixteen Tales of Life, Wonder, and Magic, by Judith Fields. Judith has been one of our favorite contributors ever since “The Prototype” first showed up in our inbox—and subsequently in Stupefying Stories #6—and in this book we collected every story of hers we’d published up to...

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SHOWCASE: “Serial Adventures in the Tropeosphere,”by David A. Gray

Nota Bene: I know I said that the introduction to last week’s SHOWCASE story, “The Moshe 12000,” was an exception, but—well, here we go again. TO: David A. Gray FROM: Stupefying Stories DATE: 07/24/2018 RE: Submission 1806173, “Serial Adventures in the Tropeosphere” Dear David, Thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider this one. It has a snarky “Philip K....

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Status Update • 7 August 2018

With Stupefying Stories #21 now out on Kindle, we’re moving ahead with back-office work. We have six more Stupefying Stories books—magazines? bookazines?—currently in various stages of development and scheduled for release between now and December, as well as three new original novels and three reissues. If you picked up a copy of #21 during the recent free ebook promo, thank you, we hope you enjoy it, please give it a rating and a quick review on...

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Topic for Discussion

For reasons too complex to explain now, we wound up listening to Surrealistic Pillow the other night, for the first time in decades. In the summer of 1967—the “Summer of Love” as it was called then, although a friend of mine who was living in Haight-Ashbury at the time says the “Summer of Lice” was more accurate—there were four essential albums that everyone was listening...

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Well, here’s a surprise...

This just in: Dear Editor, Congratulations! Stupefying Stories has been randomly selected as Duotrope's Listing of the Day! This means we will be featuring it today prominently on our website (https://duotrope.com), as well as on our Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/Duotrope) and our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Duotrope).We just wanted to let you know that we're giving you a little extra exposure today. If you'd like, you can...

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SHOWCASE: “The Moshe 12000,” by Robert Allen Lupton

Nota Bene: As a rule, we are not in the habit of explaining why we chose to publish a given story. However, “The Moshe 12000” begs for an extended introduction. The story begins, as so many great stories do, with a rejection letter... TO: Robert Lupton FROM: Stupefying Stories DATE: 7/18/2018 10:13 AM RE: Submission 1706233, "Grudge Match" Dear Robert, Thanks for...

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Book Release Update

The Free eBook Promo for Stupefying Stories #21 is going well—at the moment it’s the #1 bestseller in the Kindle Fantasy Anthologies category and #3 in Kindle Science Fiction Anthologies—but we did stumble a bit getting off the blocks this morning and appear to have run afoul of yet another one of Facebook’s unpublished policies on promotional usage. Therefore, to get maximum mileage out of this promotion, we’ve decided to extend the free ebook...

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STUPEFYING STORIES #21 ESCAPES!

JUST RELEASED: STUPEFYING STORIES #21 Featuring: “DEW Line,“ by K. H. Vaughan “The Crippled Sucker,” by L. Joseph Shosty “My Disrupted Pony,” by Jeff Racho “Cog and Bone,” by M. Lynette Pedersen “Tendrils Beneath the Skin,” by Derrick Boden “The Phoenix of Christ Church,” by Rebecca Birch “Lenses,” by Eric Dontigney “The Search for Josephine,” by James Mapes “Wayfaring...

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Talking Shop

Op-ed: “How to Write a Good Bad Guy” • by Auston Habershaw The villain is a key role in any adventure story. It’s really, really hard to have Star Wars without Darth Vader. There is no Infinity War without Thanos. Hell, there’s not even a 101 Dalmatians without a scenery-chewing Cruella De Vil. Despite this clear need for a villain, however, not every villain is up to...

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