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Wednesday, July 31, 2024

The Never-ending FAQ: introducing the F.O.S.S.

Welcome to this week’s installment of The Never-ending FAQ, the constantly evolving adjunct to our Submission Guidelines. If you have a question you’d like to ask about Stupefying Stories or Rampant Loon Press, feel free to post it as a comment here or to email it to our submissions address. I can’t guarantee we’ll post a public answer, but can promise every question we receive will be read and considered.

Today, instead of answering questions from the mailbag—and oh boy, are there a lot of questions from the mailbag waiting for answers, but we’ll get to them next week—today we’re going to follow up on the July 10 Never-ending FAQ, and introduce you to the first iteration of F.O.S.S.: the Friends Of Stupefying Stories.

The F.O.S.S. list is a new section we’ve added to our online bookshop, where we promote books written by people we know and like. We have no financial interest in these books. We just know these people, like their work, and think you should take a closer look at what they’re doing, even if we didn’t publish it.

My gosh, we’re being altruistic, aren’t we? What’s wrong with us?

Never mind, we’ll figure that out later. This month’s F.O.S.S. list begins with…

Halogen Dreams, and Other Nightmares
by Anatoly Belilovsky

Pride of place goes to Dr. Belilovsky, in large part because he created the F.O.S.S. list. Inadvertently, it’s true, but nonetheless, the F.O.S.S. list wouldn’t exist without his inspiration. If you’ve been following Stupefying Stories you know that Anatoly has been with us since his story “Picky” appeared in issue #1, and in the years since we’ve published so many of his stories I’ve lost count. (I think “The Sound of Music” is still my favorite, though.)

Now you can either hunt for his stories, which are scattered far and wide across space, time, and the Internet, or you can find a lot of them here, collected in one volume. Enjoy!

A Metal Box Floating Between Stars
by Jamie Lackey

Jamie Lackey is another of our favorite writers, whose career we’ve been following with great interest ever since her story “Music from the Air” showed up first in our slush pile, and then in issue #4. Ms Lackey has since gone on to become a hugely successful author with an enormous pile of books to her credit, but since the bookshop software only lets us link to one title, A Metal Box Floating Between Stars is it.

If you are not following Jamie Lackey, you should be.

Red Dust and Dancing Horses
by Beth Cato

Beth Cato is yet another of our favorite writers, whose burgeoning career we continue to follow with interest as she piles up success after success and novel after novel. “Red Dust and Dancing Horses” holds a special place in our hearts, though, as we were the first to publish it, in issue #5, way back in 2012. 

You definitely should check out Beth’s list of publications on Amazon, or at least take a look at this story. Yippie-ki-yay!

Iron and Smoke
by Brandon Nolta

Brandon Nolta has been a staunch supporter of Stupefying Stories since so far back, I can’t actually place a date on it. While we’re really happy with his story “Cloudbreaker Above” in Stupefying Stories 25—and if you haven’t read that yet, you should—for the F.O.S.S. list we’ve selected two of his books that we didn’t publish: Iron and Smoke, which is a Weird Western with a very different twist, and…


These Shadowed Stars
by Brandon Nolta

…a collection of his short stories that moved one reviewer to say, “anyone can see that Nolta is up there with Bradbury, Vonnegut, Harlan Ellison, and Thomas M. Disch.”

Having known Bradbury, Disch, and unfortunately, Ellison—yeah, I can see that. Plus Brandon is a lot easier to work with than Ellison ever was, too. 

 

How to Sell the Stars
by Richard J. Dowling

Richard J. Dowling has been one of my personal favorites ever since we published “Dragonomics” on the old SHOWCASE site. We don’t get a lot of stories from Richard, but when we do, they’re always very good, and always very well-received by our readers. (Right now his story “gastronomic” is our #1 most-read story of 2024.)

Of his snarky, satirical SF novel, How to Sell the Stars, let me just say that if you’re old enough to remember Pohl & Kornbluth, you’ll enjoy this one.

Walden Planet, and Other Stories
by Richard Zwicker

Richard Zwicker is another old friend of Stupefying Stories who’s been with us since issue #5. What really sold me on him, though, was “Riddle Me,” which first appeared in issue #7, and which we liked so much we reprinted it in SHOWCASE last year. 

Some might think Zwicker’s stories are a little too literary for science fiction. I say, what’s wrong with that?

The Reopened Cask, and Other Stories
by Richard Zwicker

Case in point, “The Reopened Cask.” You have read Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” haven’t you?

If you’re the sort who enjoys stories that build on the classics—for example, imagine a story in which Victor Frankenstein’s great nephew accidentally reanimates the Thanksgiving turkey—you should check out Richard’s books.

Shrouded Horror: Tales of the Uncanny
by KC Grifant

Not everyone on the F.O.S.S. list is an old friend. Some are quite new: for example, KC Grifant began to show up in SHOWCASE just last year, with a very short and disturbing story, “The Sighting.”

If you like your horror straight up and shocking, KC Grifant is definitely a writer you should consider.

Cursed & Creepy
by Angelique Fawns

Likewise, Angelique Fawns is a writer who began to show up in our virtual pages within the last year, first with “Graveside Dining.” Actually there are three books in the Horror Lite series, and I really should take a closer look at them, as I’m seeing that quite a few writers we publish are also publishing there. Perhaps there is a synergy to be found. 

In any case, the bookshop will only let us tout one book, not a series, so Cursed & Creepy it is.

 

Thin Air: The Cosmic Crime Fiction
of Gustavo Bondoni

Argentine writer Gustavo Bondoni is another new friend who began showing up in our pages about three years ago, and who has since written so many stories for us I’ve lost track of just how many we’ve published. I’m still rather fond of “Siren,” though.

While he’s new to us, if you look at his author’s bio, you’ll see that he’s written a lot of stories and novels, and has years of accumulated publication credits. With all the books on his c.v., Thin Air is the one he wants on the F.O.S.S. list. So here it is.

Pick Your Potion
by Ephiny Gale

Ephiny Gale first showed up at about the same time Gustavo did. She’s written relatively few stories for us, but the ones she’s sent us have all been unforgettable. Today my favorite is “This is (Not) My Beautiful Cat,” but I might have a different favorite tomorrow. 

Her debut short story collection, Pick Your Potion, comes out in September, but is available for pre-order now.

Flash Futures
by Eric Fomely

If you’ve been following SHOWCASE at all in the past two years, you can’t have missed Eric Fomley’s brilliantly executed flash fiction stories. There are days I’d really like to see what Eric could do with a longer format, but he seems content to keep producing perfect miniatures, like “Getting Sponsored” or “Seedling.”

If you like very short and really fast reads, check out Flash Futures.

 

An Uncommon Curse
by Devan Barlow

New friends don’t come much newer than this. We just published “Without My Flaws” less than two weeks ago. But Devan definitely has the writing skills, and this novel—a mashup of a rom-com fairy tale stage musical with tap dancing—definitely gets points for originality. 

The book is available on a wide variety of e-readers, so you can click on this link to get it for, say, Kobo, but as usual, our bookshop works best with Amazon Kindle links. 

Identified: A hacker thriller ripped from the headlines
of today’s newspapers

by John Wilander

Just when I thought I was done with putting together the F.O.S.S. list for this month, this actual physical book showed up in my mailbox. I will admit, whenever anyone uses the expression “ripped from the headlines” in advertising copy I start to laugh, because I’ve known so many hopelessly clueless headline writers. But I’ve exchanged email with Wilander, and he seems like a decent and knowledgeable sort, and two chapters into the book he seems to know what he’s writing about, so I am cautiously optimistic that this will be a worthwhile read.

Hope springs eternal, you know.

 

And with all this said, remember: likes and hearts are nice, but shares and retweets boost the signal!

 


  

 

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

The Odin Chronicles • Episode 48: “Night Walk” • by Eric Fomley


The stars were Shelley’s favorite part about living on Odin III. 

The night sky was brilliantly studded with countless twinkling orbs that swept over the horizon. She loved night walks along the edge of town in the cool air, especially on nights like tonight, when she and her fiancé, Father Luigi, were fighting again.

This time, the argument was prompted when he canceled date night. Another dinner lost to his obligations at work. She knew his position in the church demanded a certain level of commitment to the congregation, and she was okay when they spent time apart because of work requirements, but he’d made an obligation to her as well. She was important, too, and yet he always put her last on the priority list.

Shelley snatched a rock up from the dusty path and turned it over in her hand, brushing the sand free. She gripped the rock hard enough for it to feel the way she felt in her gut when she lost time with her fiancé. Constricted—that was a good word for it. She threw the rock hard into the night.

Her biggest issue with the whole thing had been the way he handled it. Instead of apologizing and making her feel like he actually wanted the time together, he gave her a pitiful shrug and left! Why couldn’t he just set some boundaries? Was it that hard? If this was what it was going to be like, Shelley wondered if there was any point in getting married. He just made her so angry.

The ground crunched beneath her shoes as she walked slowly along the path. She paused again to look at the sky when she heard the shuffle of blowing sand on the path behind her.

She turned and looked. The light of the stars dimly illuminated the path, but she didn’t see anything. The shifting stopped.

Shelley’s pulse quickened. Was it a night razor, or some sort of unknown predator everyone in town was always talking about? She’d never had a run-in with anything this close to town. Her walks had always been peaceful things.

She continued down the path, faster this time, hoping to put some distance between her and whatever it was.

The shifting sound continued, louder. It came closer, closer, until she felt stinging grit on the back of her legs. Whatever it was pounded the ground with loud thuds. A gurgling sound erupted like a burp right behind her.

Shelley ran toward town, her heart hammered in a frenzy. It had been forever since she’d run anywhere, but no matter how hard she pushed her legs, the town only seemed to get farther away.

No, no, no, not this. Not now, she screamed inside her head. Odin III had so many peculiarities to it, anomalies that disrupted the flow of reality. She needed to get away. Fast.

The sounds behind her stopped.

She risked a glance behind her and only saw an empty path. She stopped running, sucked heavy breaths into her burning lungs. The path was empty, and she didn’t see anything around her in any direction. She knew she didn’t imagine it, though. The sounds, the feeling of sand blowing on her legs. It had all been so real.

Shelley wiped the dust from her face with trembling fingers. She took long, slow breaths to slow her stammering heart.

The shuffling sound started again.

This time Shelley could see the swirl of sand down the path. A man-shaped shadow. It spun the grit into a cloud. At the center was darkness. A void that seemed immune to the starry night.

“Hello?” she called. “Who’s there?”

It ran towards her.

Shelley’s heart leapt into her throat. Every nerve and goose bump pin-pricked into all out panic. She turned to sprint away again but tripped over a wild shrub, stumbling into the rough sand. She felt a rock beneath her hand and gripped it hard, teeth grinding, angry, for she wasn’t going down like this. She prepared to strike out at whatever was going to attack her.

It never did.

She looked around and was shocked. Somehow, despite taking the path away from her apartment, and running from the creature, she’d wound up back the way she came. Her workplace, and her little bedroom above it, was only a short walk away. She could make out the lights of the deli.

She stood and brushed off her knees. They felt tender and she was sure there would be a rash from digging them hard into the sand. She closed her eyes and tried her best to collect herself. When she opened them, she looked around again.

Still nothing.

She knew she hadn’t imagined it. Stories went around town. Tales of other strange happenings that added to the mystery of Odin III. This was the first time she’d had a brush with something out of place.

Shelley shuddered as she thought again of the man-shaped void. Her pulse still thrummed behind her eyes. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so afraid. Or so angry.

She closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath of cool air. She risked one final glance over her shoulder at the empty path. The creature wasn’t there. She walked toward her apartment, ready to be indoors and away from that thing. She’d face it if she had to, but she’d rather settle down behind a locked door.

Something she was certain of as she walked, was in that moment when she feared for her life and was ready to defend herself, she’d thought of Luigi. And if that wasn’t a sign that he was the one, then she wasn’t sure what was.

But it was complicated. She loved the man, but she couldn’t let him steamroll over her, even if he never knew he did it. Poor, clueless Luigi. Still, she adored that innocence.

He had a kindness inside of him that she loved. He’d made Odin feel like home to her. And she had an ability to organize and get tasks done that he could use in his life. She’d stop being afraid to tell him what she thought. He needed to set boundaries with work, but that was something she could help him with. She wanted, needed, more time with her fiancé. Shelley looked at the rock she still held in her hand. She wasn’t one to give up. She was a fighter, just like she’d fought against…whatever that thing was. She would fight for this relationship because despite everything, she loved him.

She was going to help him set those boundaries and was going to marry him. She was sure of that now.





New to Odin III? Find out what you’ve been missing!
Check out The Complete Episode Guide

Coming Saturday: Episode 49, “The Show Must Go On,” by Gustavo Bondoni




Eric Fomley's stories have appeared in Clarkesworld, Daily Science Fiction, Galaxy's Edge Magazine, and many other places including, of course, here on Stupefying Stories, where he’s been a fairly regular contributor since 2021. (We’re particularly fond of “Getting Sponsored.”) You can find more of his stories on his website, ericfomley.com, or in his Portals or Flash Futures collections. 

You might also want to check out our mini-interview with him, “Six Questions for...”, which ran last August.

Monday, July 29, 2024

“Sir Gregory and Sir Robert” • by Kai Delmas


The sword lashed out at Gregory’s head. 

He parried the blow with his own blade, following up with a slash across his foe’s chest. The soldier stumbled backward, legs buckling. A final thrust made him drop into the muck.

Swords clashed, scraped against armor, hacked into shields. Heavy black smoke wafted over the vibrant blue of the sky, bringing the smell of burning pitch to his senses.

Gregory listened to the screaming and shouting of men on the battlefield and relished the moment.

A man with an axe in hand materialized out of nowhere, charging toward him.

Gregory’s shield, which had already taken more blows than he could count, blocked the incoming axe. With the weapon wedged deep into the oak, Gregory twisted to tear it from the man’s hands. Startled, his foe grasped for the lost axe but was met by a sword through chainmail and heart.

A distinct shout could be heard over the din of battle. Sir Robert was in trouble. Rushing through allies and enemies alike, Gregory managed to find his close friend bloodied in the mud. A hulking knight stood over him, a greatsword raised menacingly in his hands.

Gregory did not hesitate, ramming his sword through the man’s shoulder blades.

A cry of pain, followed by a short struggle, brought the knight to the ground, gasping his last breath. Gregory tore his sword from the body and offered his hand to Sir Robert.

“Thank God, you got here in time.” Though wounded, Sir Robert grasped Gregory’s hand with strength.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got your back.”

Robert’s eyes widened. “Sir Gregory, behind you!”

Before he knew it, a sword pierced through his back. Steel, shining a bright crimson, sprouted from his chest. He felt no pain, just shock.

Then he was torn back to reality.

§

“Greg Dawson and Rob Simmons, what do you think you’re doing?”

Greg let his head drop in resignation. He took a moment before removing his VR goggles and winced at the harsh light of the classroom. His teacher, Mr. Hendricks, had his own Virtual Reality cap on, goggles still over his eyes. Greg looked to Rob, sitting next to him, who was resignedly removing the thought-processing pads from his temples.

“Sorry, Mr. Hendricks. We got caught up in the moment.”

“Is that what you call it.” Mr. Hendricks frowned. “You were in the thirteen hundreds while the rest of the class had moved on to the Elizabethan era. You know the drill. Take off your VR gear.”

Greg, stifling a sigh, removed his own pads and pulled the VR cap off his head. While Mr. Hendricks resumed talking with the rest of the class, Greg leaned over and whispered to Rob.

“What happened? You were supposed to keep an eye out for him.”

“Sorry, man. I got beat by that NPC and Hendricks just showed up behind you. He got me right after.”

Greg huffed and they both strode over to the cupboard in the corner of the classroom. Greg reached out to open it and was welcomed by a cloud of dust. Coughing, he took out “their” two front copies of the old books, which were less dusty than the rest.

Back in their seats, Mr. Hendricks stepped up to the students removing his goggles.

“Now boys, how often are we going to have to go through this? You know you’re not allowed to play around with school property.” Obviously, Mr. Hendricks did his best to be authoritative, but then his stern expression mellowed slightly.

“I know how it can be… I enjoy playing Medieval Battleground just as much as the next guy, but if you’re going to do it, do it at home. Not in school. VRs are fun, but they’re not there to forget what’s real. So, go on. Open those books to chapter 4 and read about what actually happened, instead of playing around in your own make-believe worlds.”

Greg and Rob started reading, without 3D imaging, telepathic audio, or any other gadgets. It was a harsh punishment.

 


Kai Delmas loves creating worlds and magic systems. He is a slush reader for Apex Magazine and The Cosmic Background. His fiction can be found in  Zooscape, Martian, Crepuscular, and several Shacklebound anthologies. His debut drabble collection, Darkness Rises, Hope Remains, was published by Shacklebound Books. If you like his work you can support him at patreon.com/kaidelmas and find him on Twitter @KaiDelmas or Bluesky @kaidelmas.bsky.social

If you enjoyed this story, you might also like these other stories by Kai:

“The Last Guardian of Tarugal”

“The Box™”

“Salt is Life, Sand is Eternal”

“Ice Hearts”

“To Hell and Back”





Check out the entire series!

Sunday, July 28, 2024

The Week in Review • 28 July 2024

Welcome to The Week in Review, our Sunday wrap-up for those too busy to follow Stupefying Stories on a daily basis. Before we get to the latest news, we’d like to direct you to three reminders.

The Year in Review (so far)

Four weeks ago we published The Year in Review (so far), a high-level overview of everything we’ve done thus far this year. Book releases; audio book releases; and links to more than one hundred short stories. Check it out!

The Odin Chronicles: The Complete Episode Guide

If you haven’t been following The Odin Chronicles, our shared-world multi-author serial, here’s the place to start: with a high-level overview of the world of Odin III and synopses of all the story threads thus far. Find out what you’ve been missing!

Calling all Friends of Stupefying Stories

In the July 10th Never-Ending FAQ we announced the F.O.S.S.—the new Friends of Stupefying Stories section we’re adding to our online bookshop. This goes live on July 31st, so if you have an indie- or self-published book you’d like to promote, let us know about it! 


 

And now, picking up from where we left off with the July 14th Week in Review, here’s what we’ve been up to lately.

“Take Aim,” by Eric Farrell

It was the family vacation he’d never forget—until he needed the money, and decided to sell the memory.

Published 7/15/24

The Odin Chronicles: Episode 44
“Details,” by Pete Wood

On a world like Odin III, what’s the point of a prison? It’s just a waste of people who could be doing work robots are too valuable to do. People like Rauno.

Published 7/16/24

No Never-Ending FAQ on 7/17/24

We actually queue these stories up days in advance, which is why, when we got absolutely clobbered by a violent hailstorm in the wee hours of 7/14, it took until 7/17 for it to affect our posting schedule. On the positive side, I’m getting a new roof.


“Without My Flaws,” by Devan Barlow

Every now and then we publish a story for which I can’t write an adequate teaser, I can only say, “You should read this one.”

You should read this one.

Published 7/18/24

“Spacefront Property,” by Galen T. Pickett

Such a beautiful view, and what a wonderful place to raise children! I’ll take it!

Published 7/19/24


 

The Odin Chronicles: Episode 45
“Love and Mushrooms,” by Kimberly Ann Smiley

Since her shuttle crash on Odin II [Episode 20], Mazaa has had a lot of time to think about how empty her life has become—until a flash fire in the hangar changes everything.

Published 7/20/24

No Week in Review on 7/21/24

No, we weren’t affected by the CrowdStrike kerfluffle (that we know of), but for reasons unknown we were unable to post new stories for a few days. Fortunately, the problem has since resolved itself—again, for reasons unknown.
 

“Take a Chance on Me,” by Rick Danforth

Fan favorite Rick Danforth returns with a little tale of love, casinos, and irresistible compulsions.

Published 7/22/24


 

The Odin Chronicles: Episode 46
“Token of Affection,” by Gustavo Bondoni

Every day, life on Odin III finds a new way to be weird. Teleporting slugs? Father Luigi helps Dr. Nina cope with living on a world where even the most basic rules of science don’t seem to apply.

Published 7/23/24

No Never-Ending FAQ on 7/24/24

Still cleaning up the mess after the storm. On the positive side, I’m getting a new roof. On the negative side, the insurance company wants to declare my car a total loss.

 

“The Big Bad,” by Richard J. Dowling

Fan-favorite and frequent contributor Richard J. Dowling returns with a futuristic spin on an old, old tale.

Published 7/25/24

“Dust Bunnies,” by Vaughan Stanger

An unintentionally timely story, considering the global CrowdStrike fiasco. Vaughan Stanger explains why you should be very careful about enabling automatic updates.

Published 7/26/24

TOP 10: The 2024 Best of Stupefying Stories Showcase (so far)

Out of curiosity, I decided to see which stories drew the most readers. This wasn’t meant to be a competition, but seems to be turning into one anyway. Who wants to be on the rules reform committee?

The Odin Chronicles: Episode 47
“A Spark in the Dark,” by Travis Burnham

After losing her arm in an accident and getting a robotic prosthesis, Eva discovers she has a special affinity for broken and discarded robots. 

Published 7/27/24 

“Sir Gregory and Sir Robert,” by Kai Delmas

Link goes live at 6 AM North American Central Time, on Monday, 7/29/24

 



 

Saturday, July 27, 2024

The Odin Chronicles • Episode 47: “A Spark in the Dark” • by Travis Burnham

By the time Eva ‘Spark’ Rodriguez turned twenty-three, she’d lived on a string of mining planets. When she was young, a hover-transport had jackknifed in front of the family hovercar and, though she’d lost an arm—the doctors replaced it with a robotic limb—they couldn’t replace her parents. The robotic arm had gained her a special affinity for mechanical things and there was no lack of machines on mining colonies.

As she nursed a Valkyrie Lager in Weber’s Place on the most remote colony of them all, Odin III, Eva thought of how, whichever planet she visited, there was always something missing.

That morning, however, Eva woke up to find something written in one of her discrete online forums that might be curious to others, but was foundation-shaking for her: some robots on Odin III were gaining sentience after sustaining some kind of damage. She was particularly struck by a young girl, Vivi, who’d rescued a damaged grocery bot from the scrap heap.

____________

Hearing a whirring sound, nine-year-old Eva looked into a dumpster to find a worn and broken robotic dog. Unable to deal with the whole orphan thing and the group home bullies, she’d taken to fixing things—toasters, thermostats, washers—instead of herself. So she fixed the robotic pup as best she could.

“I’ll name you Art3mis, after that book character I loved.”

Eva found solace in elaborate, imaginary adventures. She reclaimed the name the bullies called her and dubbed herself Spark, the robot girl. Eva/Spark and Art3mis went on hundreds of imagined adventures, and she imagined the pup speaking.

Rescuing princes from Cjipean aliens: “Lazy royals. They should have rescued themselves.”

Riding migratory pterodactyls over the Drakensberg Mountains: “Where are the motion sickness bags?”

Capturing the dread outlaw, Black Pete for a handsome reward. “Maybe we should keep him as a pet.”

Whenever Spark told Art3mis, “I love you,”—most often at the end of an adventure—the small robotic dog would always reply, “And I you, to the moon and back.” An imagined response, but it felt so real.
____________

Eva finished both her lager and the last post on the forums. Her first stop would be a visit to Sloane-51, who lived with Eva’s friend and local machinist, Daraja. Sloane-51 had been a semi-autonomous repair drone when a solar burst had blindsided her, simultaneously wreaking havoc and setting her free.

When Eva knocked on Daraja’s door, he immediately ushered her in—he was always welcoming, and they’d collaborated on a number of repair projects around the colony.

Pleasantries dispensed, Eva asked, “Is Sloane-51 in?”

Daraja nodded. “Sloane? Eva is here.”

Eva started, “So I have this friend…” Before she knew it, she was telling the whole story of Spark and Art3mis

“So you haven’t found out why you gained sentience?” Eva asked afterwards.

“Not yet,” Sloane-51 replied. “But you’re welcome to copy my notes.”

____________

Spark and Art3mis arrived at the beach for the group home field trip, but the real adventure for them was to liberate a chest of Spanish doubloons from the Pirate King. Spark held a rapier with her robotic arm, while Art3mis circled behind the King.

“Give it up, Pirate King. You don’t have a chance,” Spark said.

“Pirate King?” Art3mis snorted. “You look like a four-year-old in a bad Halloween costume.”

Suddenly a rogue wave crashed into them. Art3mis was pulled from Spark’s hands and Spark could feel the little robotic dog underwater, bumping off her hip, tumbling down her legs, and then sucked away from her. After a frantic search through the white foam waves, Spark found Art3mis after what felt like hours, but the sand and salt water had destroyed Art3mis' circuitry.

“I love you, Art3mis.” Spark cradled the little dog. “I love you.”

But Art3mis was silent. Not even an imagined response.

“I love you,” Spark whispered.

Eva didn’t speak again for three weeks, and her Spark persona slowly faded away.
____________


Eva spent every moment she could working on the sentience enigma. She interviewed the other sentient robots: a coffee maker who had maybe gained sentience by watching soap operas with an old prospector, and a hulking but gentle grocery bot.

Eva studied everything about Odin III—its mass and size, atmospheric composition, and magnetic fields. Its rotation period, orbital eccentricity, and axial tilt. She even studied its orbital resonance, stellar metallicity, and eccentricity of orbit. But for every Odin III characteristic she studied, there was another planet in the known worlds that shared that characteristic. And on none of those planets had robots gaining sentience.

Like Sloane-51, Eva couldn’t unravel the sentience mystery.

One evening, Eva was watching Daraja and Sloane play chess. Between moves, Daraja told Eva, “Even though we live in a mining colony, maybe you don’t always have to dig deeper. Sometimes what you’re looking for is right in front of you.”

She’d been approaching her problem like an engineer. But maybe she didn’t have to solve the problem. She’d simply recreate the conditions—find the truth in front of her. Maybe she didn’t have to understand.

“Daraja, you two are the absolute best!”

So Eva started charging Art3mis every night, but maybe more importantly, she brought Art3mis everywhere. In the mines, while fixing longwall shearers and armored face conveyors. They ate lunch with miners and engineers. At Weber’s Place, she talked with people she’d previously only nodded at. Even walking around town, she began conversations with people she’d seen a hundred times, but never spoken to.

It dawned on her how much hope she’d invested into the whole hopeless endeavor. She also realized how truly lonely she’d been.

One morning Eva woke up to see Art3mis’s dead eyes pinning her. The blue charge light showed full charge, but still nothing from Art3mis.

The quest to bring back Art3mis had started as days that had turned into weeks, then months. She’d made some friends along the way, but it was still more than Eva could take. She cracked. She hadn’t cried since before the accident when she’d lost her parents. The tears came hard with ugly jagged sobs. All the pain of bullying at the group home and of losing her parents—and of losing Art3mis.

A shaft of morning sun burned through a slit in the apartment’s blinds and fell across Art3mis.

Then, through a haze of tears, Eva saw Art3mis blink.

And then again.

“Heya, Spark,” Art3mis said. “The last thing I remember was the ocean and the Pirate King, but judging from the wifi signals, it’s been a long time since then.” This time, it wasn’t a phrase that Eva had created. It was a statement Art3mis spoke aloud—it was something a sentient Art3mis would say.

And at that moment, Eva was a child again. She was Spark. “I missed you so, so much, Art3mis,” she said. “I love you.”

“And I you,” Art3mis replied, “to the moon and back.”

And Spark knew it was true. But she also realized that maybe it was okay to let others in. Maybe Art3mis, in the end, had taught her the biggest lesson of all.

“Art3mis? Would you like to meet a couple other friends of mine?”





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Travis Burnham is an SF&F writer and science teacher. His work has or will soon appear in Far Fetched Fables, Hypnos Magazine, South85 Journal, Dream of Shadows, and Stupefying Stories, among other places. His most recent previous story for us was “10 Ways to Survive an SF Story.” If you have not read it, you should check it out.

Originally from New England, he’s lived in Japan, Colombia, Portugal, and the Marianas Islands, and currently teaches science at an international school in Malta. He’s a bit of a thrill seeker, having bungee-jumped in New Zealand, hiked portions of the Great Wall of China, and gone scuba diving in Bali. He’s got some novels currently looking for homes and can be found online at travisburnham.blogspot.com, or infrequently on twitter @Darwins_Finch

 

Friday, July 26, 2024

TOP 10: The 2024 Best of Stupefying Stories Showcase (so far)


Looking at the sales and readership numbers this morning, I became curious. What are the Top 10 stories we’ve published in SHOWCASE so far in 2024, and what if anything do they have in common? Ideally this list should be weighted in some way to account for older stories having had longer to rack up readership numbers, but going strictly by the total readership counts, our TOP 10 Most-read Stories so far this year are:

1. “gastronomic,” by Richard J. Dowling

 

 2. “Broken,” by Karin Terebessy

 

3. “The Six Stages of Grief,” by Christopher Degni

4. “They Tire of Waiting,” by Roni Stinger













Narrowly missing landing on the Top 10 list, in many cases by fewer than ten readers, were the following stories. Stories 15, 16, and 17 were tied, so I ranked them by publication date, as the more-recently published stories have had less time to hit the same readership number. Likewise, stories 19 and 20 were also tied and ranked the same way.  















18. “Feedback,” by Guy Stewart


20. “Getting Sponsored,” by Eric Fomley


Just missing landing in the Top 20 by one reader was—



Which seems odd, as going by the X/Twitter chatter about the story, it was one of the most popular stories we’ve published so far this year, but going by the number of people who actually read the story…

Well, I’m sure this all reveals something very profound about the stories we publish and the people who read them, but what that something is remains to be determined. In the meantime, I suppose we’d better start thinking about some kind of award to give the writers whose stories landed in the Top 10.

~brb