“The Slings and Arrows of Childhood” • by Richard Zwicker

“Last one there is a rotten egg!” said Astrid. On my planet, that was literally true. One moment I was a kid racing my best friend to the swing set, my skinny legs pumping like an awkward machine. The next, after she had beaten me, I was rolling in the dirt, a damp, yucky-smelling egg yolk wearing a cracked shell just because she reached someplace first. I didn’t need the...

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The Week in Review • 29 September 2024

Welcome to The Week in Review, our Sunday wrap-up for those too busy to follow Stupefying Stories on a daily basis. This past week was a busy and complicated week for us, coming as it did at the tail-end of a busy and very complicated month, but we did manage to publish…“The Island of Dolls” • by Sam W. PisciottaPublished: 9/23/2024It’s the place they go at the end, to learn...

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“Making Friends at Twenty Thousand Leagues” • by Addison Smith

“You’re worried about making friends?” My therapist smiles, and I know she is trying to ignore my awkward toe tapping and fidgeting with my tendrils. I hold myself still and look into her eyes. “Why is that?” she asks. “You seem like a nice enough guy.” “I’m clumsy,” I say, and my voice cries in high-pitched shrieks of the dead and undying. I cover my mouth, but my therapist...

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“A Few Minutes in the Life of a Xenosociologist” • by Miriam Thor

Zaira almost smiled at the artwork she’d hung on the wall, but caught herself just in time. Smiling wasn’t something Axorthians did. It was a human mannerism she’d picked up in the year she’d spent on Earth. Truvaxijunio walked up beside her. “Are you sure having that on the wall will help the humans feel more comfortable?” he asked, all three eyes widening in distaste. “I’m...

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Six Questions for… Cameron Cooper

Cameron Cooper is the pen name of bestselling author Tracy Cooper-Posey, and the author of the six-volume Imperial Hammer space opera series, the eight-volume Iron Hammer space opera series, the five-volume Indigo Reports series, the five-volume Ptolemy Lane space opera mystery series (I’m particularly intrigued by The Body in the Zero-Gee Brothel; great title)—And all of...

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Six Questions for… Andrew Jensen

We seem to be publishing a lot of Andrew Jensen’s stories lately, so this seemed like an opportune time to catch up with him. We have been following Andrew since his stories first began to show up in our slush pile in 2018, and all we can say is, Don’t let that soft and fuzzy Ned Flanders-style exterior fool you! He may look like he’s mostly harmless, but underneath that mild...

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“The Island of Dolls” • by Sam W. Pisciotta

Fog drifted off the dark waters around Xochimilco. Fantasma de la tierra, they would say. Ghost of the earth. Bent trees tangled across the island like charcoal smudges scratched into the land.  It was said that lost souls lived in that wood, twisting the trunks and creaking the branches. Maya lay in the leaves beneath just such a tree—cheeks flushed, rose-petal...

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The Week in Review • 22 September 2024

Welcome to The Week in Review, our Sunday wrap-up for those too busy to follow Stupefying Stories on a daily basis. Actually, this is more like The Month in Review, as we were hit by a large disruption in the last week of August and it’s taken us a while to regain our stride. Picking where we left off, then…“Feline” • by M. LegreePublished 8/26/24The beautiful girl in the...

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