Welcome to The Week in Review, our regularly scheduled Sunday wrap-up for those too busy to follow Stupefying Stories on a daily basis. As threatened promised in last Sunday’s Week in Review, today’s gratuitously cute photo is of a young boy with a kitten.
Actually, it’s not a photo, it’s an AI-generated image. We tried to find an actual photo of a living boy with a real kitten in a suitably adorable seasonal setting, but unlike dogs, the cats were not cooperating. Instead, we found a lot of photos like this one.
In which you can practically read the cat’s mind. It’s thinking, “If I was just a little larger, monkey boy, I’d bite that smile right off your face. Like this!”
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Moving right along, this was another Pete Wood Challenge Week, so all the publication slots this week were filled with the winners of Challenge #35, “The Offseason.” In order of publication, from Honorable Mention to the Gold Medal winner, the stories are as follows.
And then, because Pete couldn’t resist the temptation to write a story for his own challenge, we published one more.
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November 04, 2024
The air still smelled of salt and the waves still crashed in rhythmic
succession. But the boardwalk was empty and the beachgoers had all but
disappeared.
It had been a long journey. Nothing had gone as planned, the trip itself
having been one of last resort.
Finally, he could have some peace now. He set out across the sand,
leaving behind footprints that would...
November 04, 2024
“It’ll be the offseason soon,” Pop announces.
Badger’s Bend has one every thirteen years. Winter recedes in February
and the ground thaws. Things we plant grow differently—taller, thicker,
more nutritious.
“Behave yourself,” Mamma says when the time comes and they head for the
gardens. “We’ll be home by sundown.”
Left unsupervised, I consider my favorite doll. “Maybe you...
November 05, 2024
We
hated the off-season.
Cold, pickled fish, salted meats, hardtack. Fumbling in a year-long
frigid night. Fearing what lurked in the dark.
Until, like a drop of viscid honey, our planet’s Sun slowly rotated into
view. At on-season’s dawn, we threw aside furs. Iridescent flower’s
perfumes exploded. Seed pods popped and sweet, pungent fruits hung from
every tree. Fresh juices...
November 05, 2024
Mrs. C’s newest passion? A.I. data analysis.
First, she tackled elf toy-production workflows. The warehouses were
filled by Labor Day. Santa grumbled.
“More time to spend with me, dear,” she said. Next came reindeer
breeding and reindeer game reorganization. The team was selected by
Halloween. Santa fumed.Nice/naughty discrimination was done in a jiffy,
lists double-checked...
November 06, 2024
“I
wouldn’t visit Wonderland in the off season. Why not try somewhere less
unstable instead?” says the travel agent, sliding a Visit Mordor
brochure towards me across the desk. “It’s changed a lot since they
abolished heirloom-jewellery-based governance…”
I will not be persuaded. If people only stuck to what was safe, what
would be the point of even leaving the house? Most...
November 07, 2024
The
ghosts only come out on Carnival-by-the-Sea during the offseason, when
the beach is covered in the fine silt of the first snow of the year, and
the sea, choppy and drear, reflects the silent dullity of the rolling
winter clouds.
The carousel, its central column faded and chipped, lies still; in the
magician’s hall, the mirrors reflect only one another in infinite
dark...
November 08, 2024
How
many times do you get up to pee in the night? Even if it’s just once,
you’ve seen them.
The Offs.
In the season twixt November and death, they hang on bathroom doors in
the grayness.
An old crushed hat with shades of straw and brown. Your favorite aunt’s
gossamer scarf with pink and lavender swirls. They seem familiar but not
quite visible.
There’s no door hook where...
November 09, 2024
Tara’s stomach lurched. The chili’s seasoning felt off. Acidy. Sour.
Jeremy, her blind date, smiled. “Well?
“Interesting.”
“It’s the sauerkraut.”
She pushed the vile crock away. He’d picked the Raleigh chili parlor for dinner.
A burly man wearing a Chicago Bears jersey set a platter down. “Limburger Tofu Wings. You staying for Bears trivia, man?”
“You bet.” Jeremy...
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The Pete Wood Challenge is an informal ad hoc story-writing competition. Once a month Pete Wood
spots writers the idea for a story, usually in the form of a phrase or a
few key words, along with some restrictions on what can be submitted,
usually in terms of length. Pete then collects the resulting entries,
determines who has best met the challenge, and sends the winners over to
Bruce Bethke, who arranges for them to be published on the Stupefying Stories web site.
You can find all the previous winners of the Pete Wood Challenge at this link.
For Challenge #35, the objective was to write a flash fiction story of no more than
150 words in length that played off the key phrase:
“the offseason.”
Challenge #36 has been issued! To see what the challenge is this time and how to enter it, click this link.
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