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THE BOOK OF JUDITH
Sixteen Tales of Life, Wonder, and Magic
by Judith Field

I have been a huge fan of Judith Field’s stories ever since “The Prototype” first showed up in our slush pile, and subsequently in Stupefying Stories #6. She writes wonderful little stories about life, love, and characters who find magic in even the most mundane places, and she has been a regular contributor to Stupefying Stories, SHOWCASE, and assorted other one-off projects ever since. I keep hoping she’ll turn up with a rough draft for a full-length “Court & Anderson” novel one of these days, but that prospect seems increasingly unlikely. It appears to have something to do with her day job, which involves pharmacy, emergency medicine, and saving lives and all that.

Let that be a lesson to you. I’ve consistently found that the most interesting stories are those written by people who have interesting Real World lives, and who are only writing science fiction or fantasy on the side. Their fiction output tends to be low and slow, by professional writer’s standards, but when they do write something, it’s because they have something interesting to say.

THE BOOK OF JUDITH was definitely a labor-of-love project for us. While it gets good reviews, when people look at it, it’s never sold in the numbers I thought it deserved. I’ve always attributed that to the cover art, which is actually germane to “The Transit of Mars” but just doesn’t pop as a thumbnail on Amazon, as well as Amazon’s bizarre practice of hiding U.K. reader reviews from U.S. customers. We had been talking about pulling this book from release, either to reissue it with a new cover and new interior design or else to replace it with a wholly new book, which would include all the stories by Judith that we’ve published since THE BOOK OF JUDITH was first released, but those plans have been not merely on the back burner, but in a Tupperware pod in the back of the freezer owing to the events of the past three years.

As we work to revive Rampant Loon Press from hibernation, this is one of the projects we’re thawing out and giving a fresh look. While we’re doing that, you might want to give it a look, too, just in case you have any suggestions as to how we might improve it. Right now it can be yours for the lordly price of a mere $1.99 USD, in the Kindle edition, which thus far is only edition.

Mind you, if we do pull it from release to rework and reissue it—especially in print and Kobo editions, as Judith has requested—it will be far more expensive when it emerges from its chrysalis.