Welcome to The Week in Review, our regularly scheduled Sunday wrap-up for those too busy to follow Stupefying Stories on a daily basis. Before we get to
the stories and such, we have some important announcements.
Pete Wood Challenge #36
Pete Wood Challenge #36, “Pick Two,” is now closed. The winners have been chosen and we will be publishing them this coming week. Watch for seven all-new stories from some of your favorite authors, beginning with:
Monday, 12/16:
“The Most Dangerous Game,” by Gustavo Bondoni
“Bitter Return,” by Pauline Barmby
Tuesday, 12/17:
“Talking Turkey with Tom,” by Richard Zwicker
“Hunters,” by Jason Burnham
Wednesday, 12/18:
“Outside,” by Crystal Sidell
Thursday, 12/19:
“Anders in Exile,” by Andrew Jensen
Friday, 12/20:
“When the Wind Changes,” by Tobias Backman
Pete Wood Challenge #37
Pete Wood Challenge #37, “Out of Gas,” is now open for submissions. The deadline is 7AM, Tuesday, January 21st, 2025. This time the challenge is to write a story of up to 150 words in length that includes the phrase, “out of gas.” Any genre is fine.
Prizes:
1st place $20.00 USD, 2nd place $15.00, 3rd place, $10.00, Honorable
Mention(s), (1-4) $5.00. The winning entries will be published online by
Stupefying Stories.
Who can enter: The contest is open to both Codexians and the general public.
How to enter: Send your entry in the body of an email to:
southernfriedsfwriter@gmail.com
If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at writing flash fiction, this is a great way to start. As an author, Pete has written and sold—actually, I don’t know how many stories, but as an editor, he’s read and published hundreds of flash fiction stories. He knows his stuff.
For more information on the Pete Wood Challenge, mash this somewhat button-like image:
Reminder: Twitter, Bluesky, and all that
When the Great Migration to Bluesky began I wasn’t too excited, as we get so few new readers coming in from social media that it seemed an unproductive use of time. Then I was advised to get a Bluesky account simply to protect my name and keep some squatter from getting an account in my name and pretending to be me, which apparently is a thing these days. Therefore, Bruce Bethke® is now on Bluesky, @brucebethke.bsky.social.
The StupefyingSF
account remains on X/Twitter. I don’t expect my Bluesky account to be any more active than the StupefyingSF account, but I’m out there, if you’d like to connect.
Reminder: I’m probably going to regret this, but…
I’ve resumed writing the “Ask Dr. Cyberpunk” columns, and added a dedicated email address just for cyberpunk-related correspondence. What is this email address? Read the columns to find out.
With that said, here’s what we’ve published lately.
“Honour’s New Job,” by Angelique Fawns
You think your job is awful? Consider yourself lucky.
“A Contract for Meyerowitz,” by Bruce Bethke
It took ten minutes of standing in the shadows,
hand on the gun in his pocket, before Eddie felt
ready to cross the street and go in…
“A Contract for Meyerowitz” never should have sold,
much less to a pro magazine. Here’s how it did, and
why it shouldn’t have.
“…and Ten Others,” by Bruce Bethke
I’ll confess, that’s a gag. The first time one of my
mystery stories got picked up for a reprint anthology,
I was really excited… Until my author’s copies arrived.
On the cover there was an impressive list of famous big
names, and then down at the bottom, in smaller type,
the words, “and Ten Others.” So I started telling people
that was my new pseudonym, only they’d misspelled it,
and it was supposed to be “Tenn Others.”
Okay, it was funny the first time. A little.
“The Mysterious Mr. Smith Returns,” by Bruce Bethke
Pete Wood kept nagging me to write a sequel to
“A Contract for Meyerowitz,” until finally, I caved.
This is a partial first draft of a work in progress.
Would you like to see more?
Ask Dr. Cyberpunk, Part 3: the career-crippling 1989 novel
In the words of Steve McQueen in The Sand Pebbles,
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!
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