Ask Dr. Cyberpunk: with your host, Bruce Bethke • from initial concept to published story

Here’s one of the little secrets of science fiction.  While we sci-fi writers routinely set our stories in the future, no writer I know—at least, no sane writer—seriously believes they can predict the future. We’re entertainers, not prophets. The entire point of beginning a story with “Once upon a time,” or “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” or “Sometime in...

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BLACK FRIDAY SALE!!!

Because what the heck, everyone else is doing one. TODAY ONLY, these two paragons of modern literature, SHOWCASE #1 and Jimi Plays Dead, are absolutely FREE on Kindle!SHOWCASE #1, called that because we didn’t realize it was going to be SHOWCASE ONLY, was our experimental attempt to recast Stupefying Stories SHOWCASE as an e-pub chapbook with fewer but much longer stories,...

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Happy Thanksgiving!

While searching the RLP stock art library for an illo to use with today’s post, I came across this one, which I share with you now. I’m not sure exactly why this bit of CGI really creeps me out—maybe it’s the lit-from-the-underside face, or maybe it’s the lifeless doll’s eyes—but when I look at this picture, I hear an eerie female voice, superficially soft and sweet but...

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The Never-ending FAQ • 27 November 2024

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve done one of these, but the weather has taken a sharp turn towards winter, so this seems a good day to stay inside and try to get caught up on correspondence. If you’ve been awaiting my reply to one query or another, seriously, it’s not you, it’s me. I’ve been extremely busy lately with things that must be done before the snow flies—oops, too...

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“Stopping” • by Jake Stein

 …and yet, one goes on. One must. Even when the legs scream in pain. Or is that the howling of the wind? No matter. Push on, faster. Bald sneakers smack hot pavement as a city flies past, a blur of heat and noise. Running through an intersection, through a red light, I ignore the honking and screech of tires, hearing only the slap-slap of shoes on concrete. Now a...

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“Jackie, We Hardly Knew Ye” • by Carly Berg

Jackie oughtn’t watch.  Yet she waited, heart in wild rhythm, for The Kennedy Conspiracy Theories to begin. Anniversaries of the incident were hard, the ten years intervening barely helped. She would finally watch. Jackie set aside the stack of papers from her latest volunteer committee. She made her way across the plush aquamarine carpet and pushed the intercom...

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Six Questions for… Carol Scheina

Carol Scheina is a deaf speculative author whose stories have appeared in publications such as Flash Fiction Online, Escape Pod, Diabolical Plots, Stupefying Stories, and others. Her writing has been recognized on the Wigleaf Top 50 Short Fiction Longlist, and she has become a fan favorite here for her finely crafted flash fiction pieces on the Stupefying Stories website....

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MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 15: IS NASA Doing It???

Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…HOWEVER, as time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me…In a recent video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvCSZHfjmZ4,...

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Six Questions for… Gretchen Tessmer

Gretchen Tessmer lives in the deep woods of the U.S./Canadian borderlands. Her short stories and poems have been published in many places, including Nature, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Bourbon Penn, and Fantasy & Science Fiction (and Stupefying Stories, of course!). Gretchen’s poetry has been nominated for Rhysling, Dwarf Stars, Best of the Net and Pushcart prizes, and she...

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“Monkey See” • by Chana Kohl

You do not fear what you can not see, so I shut my eyes and see no evil. In my mind’s field of vision instead: a single, coral rose, remarkably bright against the darkness. The petals undulate in an endless spiral, inviting me to delve in its perfect asymmetry. Not physically in front of me, fragrance fills my mind with suggestion. A field of meadow honey, damp moss, green...

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