Creating Alien Aliens, Part 14: Philosophical Ruminations on “What is Human?” and “What is Alien?”

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota. Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS...

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Fiction • "It Came From The Slushpile," by Bruce Bethke

Editor’s note: A few days ago Guy Stewart brought it to my attention that there was something of a mystery as to why we’d named the magazine Stupefying Stories. Here, in a sense, is our origin story. This one was first published in the July-August 1987 issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction magazine, then republished in the Best of Aboriginal anthology, and then anthologized...

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A little something for the weekend?

Recommended watching, maybe.The DC Cinematic Universe has a well-deserved reputation for being a gigantic dumpster fire. While there have been a few worthwhile movies to come out from Warner Bros. in recent years, in general, movies based on DC comic book properties are just not in the same league as the competing Marvel/Disney products or even the Marvel/Sony products. The...

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How to succeed with Kindle Vella • by Henry Vogel

 In April of 2021, Amazon announced a new publishing platform called Kindle Vella. Even though the platform has been live since July 13, 2021, many writers have questions about Vella. What is it? How does it work? Can writers make any money from it? For those who don’t feel like reading the rest of this column, the short answers are ‘a serial fiction platform,’...

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Goodbye, Melissa Mead

 Frequent contributor Melissa Mead passed away last night. It was a pleasure to get to know her through her fiction. Until she sent us “I Don’t Hate Tiny Tim. Really!” I had no idea what her real life was like, as unlike most writers, she was always strangely reluctant to talk about herself. She preferred to talk about her stories and other writers. Rather than say...

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Email address update

Because Microsoft Exchange continues to play hob with the RampantLoonMedia.com email addresses—email sent to any of the RLP addresses might get through, or it might end up diverted to the Spam, Trash, or Junk mail folders, or it might simply disappear; there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to how Exchange sorts incoming email (and it now appears to be filtering outgoing email, too)—I have created a backup email account: StupefyingStories@gmail.com....

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Creating Alien Aliens, Part 13 B: Iconic Alien vs Iconic Human, and How China and India Fits Into Creating Alien Aliens…

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota. Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS...

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Status Update: 14 February 2022

 Karen had a medical emergency on Tuesday, February 9th. Fortunately she was actually in the oncology clinic and hooked up for chemotherapy when it happened, so medical help was practically instantaneous. At 2pm she’d seemed to be fine. At 5pm she was on her way to the ER. It took them about 18 hours to stabilize her and then move her from the ER unit to the regular hospital,...

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A little something for the weekend?

Assuming you’re not already glued to your TV and watching either the Olympics or all the warmups to the run-ups to the pre-game shows for tomorrow’s Super Bowl, we have three movie in the queue this week. Depending on your frame of mind, we recommend:Black Sunday (1977) If you’re in the mood for gratuitous violence, political intrigue, heroic Mossad and FBI agents chasing...

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Creating Alien Aliens, Part 13 A: Iconic Alien vs Iconic Human, and How China and India Fit Into Creating Alien Aliens...

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota. Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS...

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Talking Shop: Eric's Writing Challenge Update 17

Hello brave fellow travelers. I come to you once more with tiding of my keyboard peckings.I thought that keeping you all up to speed on the revisions to the space opera would be a more straightforward process. It hasn’t been straightforward because the actual revision process hasn’t been straightforward. I’m picking through the feedback I got, which bears only a tangential...

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I Don't Hate Tiny Tim. Really! • by Melissa Mead

 Poor Tiny Tim. I’m not saying that because he has a disability. I’m saying that because everyone, from his readers to his creator, pities him because he has a disability. He doesn’t pity himself, though! He joins in his siblings’ games whenever possible, and they cheerfully take him along with them. And while his father calls him “good as gold,” he’s not a perfect saint....

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A little something for the weekend?

Recommended WatchingDUNE (2021)This film is just plain beautiful. Well-scripted, well-cast, well-acted, beautifully filmed, and the effects are done so perfectly you’ll forget they’re CGI. True, the script does deviate from Frank Herbert’s original 1965 novel in ways that are in some cases trivial and in other cases significant, but in nearly all cases the deviations improve...

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Creating Alien Aliens, Part 12: What Would a Parasitic Intelligence Look Like – and WOULD WE LIKE THEM?

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota. Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS...

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