Following up on the 9 July Never-ending FAQ post…
Q: Pete Wood asks: “How come there are no questions in the FAQ?”
A: Because I’m really busy right now and trying to get a lot done in a very short amount of time, and something had to give. I got the three most important items out in Wednesday’s post: that I want people to look at the candidates for The Very Best of The Pete Wood Challenge, I want people to know that The Day We Said Goodbye to the Birds is now out in print and ebook, and that the author, Allan Dyen-Shapiro, will be at Readercon 34 next weekend with books to sign.
That, and a lot of the questions that have come in lately have been on the order of this one:
Q: An anonymous commenter asks: [question redacted]
A: Never mind. I will not repeat the comment, nor will I send a private reply. I will only say this: “Trust me, pal, the world will seem like a much better place to you if you just keep taking your Lexapro as prescribed.”
Geez, I wish I’d used a pseudonym for everything I’d ever written for public consumption. Everything.
Q: Another commenter asks: I tried to comment on a story for The Very Best of The Pete Wood Challenge, but my comment never showed up. What happened?
A: To repeat: we had to impose strict moderation on comments made on older posts, because of the aggressive commenting by A.I. spambots. Comments made on older posts go into the moderation queue, and we do see them—eventually—but if you want to recommend a story for The Very Best of The Pete Wood Challenge, please do so either in the comments section of the index post or in an email to our submissions address. Comments and recommendations made anywhere else—on Twitter/X, Bluesky, or the Stupefying Stories facebook page—will very likely be lost.
Q: Oh, come on. Is the spam commenting problem really that bad?
A: Yes.
It’s a pity. When we began, the comments section of this web page was a good place to have an intelligent conversation with writers and readers. Now, between the A.I. spambots and the certifiable lunatics, it’s a moderation nightmare.
Q: How long are the Pete Wood Challenge stories going to remain readable by the public?
A: Until September 30, 2025. We are in the process of selectively unpublishing other content now, to discourage A.I. bots and content trawlers. All of the Pete Wood Challenge stories will be removed from this site after September 30.
The plan is to cut over to a new web site on October 1st. The exact nature of the new site is still being determined. It might be behind a paywall, or require registration to comment. It might not allow commenting at all.
Q: That’s the plan, huh?
A: Yes. I have become wary of announcing our plans as they have a way of becoming recipreversexclusons. Whenever we announce plans, the universe seems intent on dreaming up some new way to thwart them. (Last summer’s oak tree limb through the roof of the house was pretty impressive, as thwarting goes.)
At the risk of drawing the attention of some capricious and malign Fate, the plan is still to get four more issues of Stupefying Stories out this year. This being mid-July already, though, doing so will require some creative thinking.
Q: Does this mean you’ll be reopening to submissions?
A: Not before mid-September at the earliest. It may be a limited or “by invitation only” submission window. Our first priority is to honor the contracts we have signed and publish the stories we already have in-hand. Whether we will need more stories to complete the books we have in mind remains to be determined.
Q: What’s going on with Writing 101?
A: I’ve had to rethink that. My original idea for the column was twofold:
1.) To force myself to get back into the habit of writing daily.
2.) To begin a conversation on what makes for good writing, and how to do it.
It was never my intention to do a series of lectures. I don’t do lectures. (Here in my mind’s eye I see my daughter rolling her eyes.) I was more interested in having a Socratic dialogue in which we could discover the answers together.
Since I began, though, two things have become apparent. The first is that I can either be a writer or an editor/publisher, but have a lot of trouble trying to be both at the same time. The second is that the comments section of a blogspot site is a really lousy place to try to have an intelligent dialogue. Maybe as well be trying to do so in a St. Paul Skyway food court while the crazy shouting homeless people are on the loose.
Writing 101 may return, in some new form, but again, not before September.
And once again, time’s up. See you next week.
~Bruce Bethke
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