“Merry-Go-Round” • by Christopher Degni

 The field, once Sara’s favorite haunt, stood graveled and muddy, lonely except for a “Coming Soon” billboard for a 55+ community. She didn’t love the field so much as the annual traveling carnival that had descended upon it, until twenty years ago, when it had stopped. Sara closed her eyes and reflected on that year of lasts: the last carnival, the last year of high...

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“Inheritance” • by Ephiny Gale

  They tell me that taking the memory pill is when you really become an adult. My friend Marie took it when she was 16, as soon as she legally could, and then she stopped liking any of the guys our age or laughing at our favourite shows. That scared me for a long time. She promised she was fine, but there was something different in her eyes afterwards, like she was haunted. Mum’s...

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“The View from the Old Ship” • by Carol Scheina

Sai groaned at the patrol assignments. “We get the haunted ship.” Her co-pilot, Mack, frowned. “You mean it’s got ghosts?” “Naw, it’s got sensor problems. Some old data, something it scanned ages ago, keeps popping up. Covers all the viewports. So if you look at our planet, the continents’ll be all wrong. Techs call it a ghost view. Get it? Haunted?” Mack rolled his eyes....

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“Goons” • by Christopher Blake

  I stroke the oars and shatter the lake’s reflected stars. In the distance, a loon wails. The sack in the bow groans. “Shut up,” I say. “You’re dead.” “I’m breathing,” says the sack. “Good as dead.” The loon cries again, or anyways I think it’s a loon. Only time I leave the city is to deep-six bozos ain’t smart enough to mind their business. Like this bozo who stumbled...

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“Mother Noodges Best” • by Allan Dyen-Shapiro

 Sure, the recruiter had told Junfeng about the brain surgery Tiger Software demanded of its employees, but still. “Boss, I can’t do this anymore. It’s dredging up too much trauma.” Bob, Junfeng’s boss, flashed a sympathetic smile. “Who else would help maximize your productivity? You knew the procedure would draw someone from your memories who only you could see.” HAUNTing—Human...

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“Every Day the Music Died” • by Jenna Hanchey

  They took the music away, but left the feelings it evoked. Today’s wave of nostalgia washed over me like a child standing too deep in the water. I had always felt this when—it was on the tip of my tongue—when that musician played, the one my ex loved. I tried to grasp the tune, even though I knew it was impossible. I assumed they left the feelings on purpose. In my...

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“The First Stage” • by Matt Krizan

  Mark is singing Happy Birthday to Layla—loudly and out of tune, as was their custom—when someone knocks on the front door. He ignores it, watching Layla blow out the candles, but the knocking continues. “C’mon, Mark,” says his sister Sara, “I know you’re in there.” Mark doesn’t respond. He’s giving Layla her present, waiting for her delighted smile when she opens...

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“Inheritance” • by Carol Scheina

Grandma never hid her head, which instead of hair, had numerous strands of inch-long icicles jutting out like a frozen porcupine. They dripped in summertime’s heat and sharpened with winter’s bite. “We have a frost elf ancestor in our line.” She held her head high. Proud. The ice-hair skipped a generation. Only I inherited that cold halo. When I was younger, I’d eye people’s...

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“The Message” • by Helen French

I hide messages in ice, where I hope my captors won’t think to look. There’s an extraordinary amount of data in a single snowflake. Each one unique, each one able to tell a story. I can’t make snow, but I can rewrite its form, so this is what I do from my cell. I stare out the window, I harness the power inside of me, and I magic my message into ice, adding a duplication...

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“Restoration” • by Ephiny Gale

My wife and I go to get scanned every four months; every quark that we’re made up of is recorded as a back-up. Our physical and mental states in that moment put figuratively on ice. After the third scan I feel unusually cold. My wife has appeared in front of me, her face swollen and pink like she’s been crying for days. “What’s wrong?” I ask. She was fine when we got here. After...

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“Ice Hearts” • by Kai Delmas

I found the boy at the forest’s edge. Surely, his mother told him not to wander near Firelight Forest. But boys will be boys. Humans trust nothing more than a child, even when they are children themselves. They seek companionship. So, I skipped through the woods and happened to cross paths with this boy. He asked where I came from. I told him the truth. An important thing,...

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“Love’s Labors, Lost” • by Jenna Hanchey

 I was lost after she broke down.“Get another one,” friends said. “Same model, you won’t know the difference.”They didn’t understand. I loved her. How she brought me coffee in bed every morning, anticipated my needs, smoothed my hair with her cold hand as I sighed over paperwork. Listened. She made everything easier.“It’s programming,” they insisted. “You’ll see.”The...

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“Kickstarting Fate” • by Patricia Miller

“Can you fix it?”“Don’t know yet. Gimme a second to look it over.”We crowded around to watch her work. She grumbled about the rush, the crowd—“Seriously, I’m not lifting another finger unless you stop that damn racket?”—and obviously, the music didn’t make her happy either. A gesture from the Boss, and the music stopped. She gave another glare. We stepped back.“I don’t suppose...

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“Mr. Giz” • by Marc A. Criley

 Three hundred pounds of robot plunked down, shaking the house. The RoboAide™ wiggled on its back, as if trying to scratch an itch. It paused to stare at me, shifted its gaze to my wife when she rushed in, then ignored us. “What’s Mr. Giz doing?”“Tech said the personalization module needs a factory reburn. Normally they swap in a flexibility loaner because depersonalized...

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“It’s What You Think” • by Bob McHugh

 Fiona spoke into her watch. “Accuracy data on ‘It’s not what you think.’”Global recorded utterances of “It‘s not what you think”: 11.82 millionEstimated accuracy of statement: 35.17%“That’s pretty high,” Vance said. “You know me. I can explain.”“Wait.” Fiona glared at Vance. “Isolate instances responding to accusations of adultery.”Global recorded utterances: 3.46 millionEstimated...

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“Support Issues” • by Mark Vandersluis

 I’m at work when the message arrives: “Urgent — Neurochip Support Issue.” I think “Accept” and it opens directly into the Neurochip device in my brain.It reads, “We regret to inform you that Neurochip Inc. has filed for bankruptcy. As a consequence, all our Operations and Support activities will cease within the next few minutes. We are sorry for this inconvenience....

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“Plight” • by Eric Fomley

 Don’t open the door. This is your only instruction when they post you at the bunker’s Southwest Entrance.You obey despite the screams and gunfire that resonate through the thick metal.This is followed by a long silence, broken only by the voice of a little girl.“Please,” she sobs. “Let me in. I’m so scared.”You don’t and she cries. There’s so much despair, you can picture...

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Creating Alien Aliens, Part 18: "Kleptees" – Alien Plant-Animals…

In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Since then, I have shared (with their permission) and applied the writing wisdom of Lin...

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Status Update • 7 October 2022

 “What’s going on with Stupefying Stories?”I’ve been hearing that question a lot lately, in various emotional tones, sometimes with expletives. To tell the truth, I’ve been wondering that myself. Everything seemed to be moving forward nicely in July and still rolling along in August, and then… What the Hell happened?Fortunately, I keep a fairly detailed daily planner....

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