Welcome to this week’s installment of The Never-ending FAQ, the constantly evolving adjunct to our Submission Guidelines and general-purpose unfocused Q&A session. 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 received will be
read and considered.
Q: What’s with the flowers?
A: Those are bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). I’m always happy to see them because they’re one of the first flowers of spring around here, and an indicator species. The native pollinators love them. Yesterday they were just little green nubs poking up out of the ground. This morning they were in full bloom and swarming with bees. By the weekend, they’ll be gone. They don’t last very long, but they sure do make me happy when they show up.
Q: I’m thoroughly confused. I thought you were closing up shop, yet here you are publishing new stories like “Walls Have Ears” and “Visionary.” Are you open or not?
A: We are not open to unsolicited submissions at this time, if that’s your concern.
Stupefying Stories SHOWCASE, as an online daily free fiction feature, is going away. After a few years of trying to make it work, we’ve reached the same conclusion that the people who ran Daily Science Fiction and Page & Spine must also have reached; that it’s an unsustainable business model. As measured by the number of people who read the stories in SHOWCASE vs. the number of people who actually threw a few bucks in the tip jar once in a while, reader support never exceeded 5%. Further, there was no detectable crossover from the people who read the stories in SHOWCASE to the people who bought our books.
The original plan was to shutter SHOWCASE and cut over to a new web site a few weeks ago, but that plan was totally buggered by the “minimally invasive, three days tops” remodeling project that ended up making my office unusable for more than two months.
Hmm. Well, adapt, improvise, overcome. We remain committed to publishing every story we have under contract, but will be winding down SHOWCASE in a slower and more gradual fashion than initially planned through the spring and summer months. So yes, we will continue to publish new stories and non-fiction pieces… Until such time as we run out of new web content to publish.
Q: I saw your announcement yesterday of your new Writing 101 series. Two new posts weekly, every Tuesday and Thursday, for the next twelve weeks? Given that you’re winding down SHOWCASE, isn’t that a little ambitious?
A: No, it’s ludicrously ambitious.
It’s an old Jedi mind trick. I’m trying to redevelop the habit of writing daily. By setting myself the goal of publishing two new posts weekly; well, that forces me to focus on topics and be succinct. By laying out a twelve-week schedule; okay, that means there is an end out there, right after the 4th of July, so I have a deadline and can gauge my progress towards it.
I’ve been writing fiction for professional publication for 45 years. I’ve been running Stupefying Stories for 15 years. In the latter role I have read untold thousands of slush pile submissions—literally, I stopped counting at 5,000 submissions, and that was years ago.
It’s time someone else benefited from what I’ve learned.
Q: But, a writing workshop? At this late date?
A: This is where we began: with an ad hoc writing workshop call The Friday Challenge, and the notion that maybe we could help people to become better writers and find publication success.
When we first announced that we were shutting down SHOWCASE, we got quite a bit of email from people expressing sadness that we were ending the writing community they’d found here. Well, consider Writing 101 an effort to return to our roots, and to refocus on building a writing community.
Do I think it will work? Ask me again in 12 weeks.
Q: Why do you keep doing this? Why not just flip the sign to “Closed,” shut and lock the shop door, and walk away?
A: For moments like this. Rick Danforth, whose name you should recognize from his SHOWCASE stories “Patient Diplomacy,” “Thanks for the Memory,” “Purest Distilled Spirit,” “Take a Chance on Me,” and “All We Have Are Memories,” has just won the 2024 BSFA award for Best Audio Fiction, for his story, “The Personal Touch.”
This is why we started Stupefying Stories: to give a hand up to younger writers, in honor of all the people who gave us a hand up when we were just starting out.
Q: Speaking of workshops and writing communities and all that jazz, what’s going on with The Pete Wood Challenge?
A: I’m glad you asked! Read this!
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Pete Wood Challenge #38, “Happy Trails,” is now open for entries!
The Challenge: Write a story of up to 150 words in length using the prompt, “happy trails.” The prompt does not need to appear in the story. Any genre is fine.
Prizes:
1st place $20.00 USD, 2nd place $15.00, 3rd place, $10.00, Honorable
Mentions, (1-2) $5.00. The winning entries will be published online by
Stupefying Stories in June of 2025.
Who can enter: The contest is open to both Codexians and the general public. One entry per writer, please.
How to enter: Send your entry in the body of an email to:
southernfriedsfwriter@gmail.com
Include
the words “Happy Trails” in the subject line. It wouldn’t hurt to include
“Pete Wood Challenge 38” or “PWC 38” in your email, too.
Deadline: 7AM EST, May 15, 2025
Now get writing!
2 comments:
Wild horses could keep my bated breath from my riveted eyes.
That comment reminds me of the cat who ate some cheese and waited by the mouse hole with baited breath.
Post a Comment