“Jimi Plays Dead” • by Bruce Bethke

 

Remember 45 r.p.m. records? 

Remember how when you bought one, it was like rolling the dice? Sure, the “A” side was always the hit single you wanted, but the “B” side… who knew?

Here now for your entertainment are two stories by award-winning science fiction writer Bruce Bethke, packaged back-to-back together in a special “hit single” ebook. The “A” side is Jimi Plays Dead, Bethke’s much-loved and Nebula-nominated story of the obsessed guitarist who will do anything to sound just exactly like Jimi Hendrix.

The “B” side, though—here’s where you’re taking a chance. Buck Turner and The Spud from Space is Bethke’s published but forgotten tale of airports, garage bands, kids with dreams of making it big, and of an alien who comes to Earth seeking intelligent life but through an unfortunate miscalculation ends up in Hollywood. It is also, according to Bethke, who spent a decade in the music industry before he switched to writing fiction, at least partially absolutely true in places.

So the “A” side, Jimi Plays Dead: guaranteed smash hit, you’ll love it. But the “B” side, Buck Turner and The Spud from Space: is it brilliant? Is it daft? Is it just begging to be optioned and turned into a low-budget movie? (Bruce thinks so.)

Read it now and find out!

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Congratulations, Henry Vogel!

 

CONGRATULATIONS to our very own Henry Vogel. His most recent novel, The Hostage in Hiding, is a finalist for this year’s Imadjinn Award!

The winners will be announced at the Imaginarium Convention in Louisville, KY, the weekend of July 15th, so we have three more months to go before we can say anything more than “It’s an honor just to be nominated.” Still The Hostage in Hiding is going up against a big-budget novel co-written by a pair NY Times and USA Today best-selling authors and published by a major publishing house, so am I feeling pumped about this? Oh, maybe just a little bit. 

In the meantime, why don’t you check out the book? It’s now out in hardcover, paperback, or on pretty much every e-book platform there is. Here’s the link to the Amazon page:

https://www.amazon.com/Hostage-Hiding-Henry-Vogel/dp/1958333018

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BUY THIS RIGHT NOW!

THE MIDNIGHT GROUND
by Eric Dontigney

If you like Harry Dresden…

If you like John Constantine…

If you like our very own Eric Dontigney and all the entertaining and weird stuff he finds for the Stupefying Stories facebook page…

BUY THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW!

Because, what the heck, today is Eric’s birthday, and you want Eric to have a happy birthday, don’t you?

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BUY THIS RIGHT NOW!

 

Meet Jacob Rhys: scoundrel, brawler, gambler, drunk, and licensed privateer working for the Free Mars State—until the authorities on Ceres seized his ship…

When shipyard engineer Valerie Morton found him a week later, face-down in a bar, she showed him the official report on what was discovered in his ship’s cargo hold. As Rhys read the report he began tapping nervously on the grip of his sidearm. Then he suddenly stopped tapping and looked up at her.

“I’m getting my command crew back together,” he said. “We are, handily, short an engineer. Do you have strong aversions to petty or grand larceny, extortion, card cheating, recreational and spiritual drug use, sexual practices that may involve recreational and spiritual drug use, and ubiquitous, often unnecessary violence?”

After a slight hesitation, Morton shook her head.

Rhys smiled. “Good. Welcome to my crew.”

What happens next? Join Rhys and rest of his slippery crew and begin the dark and dirty adventure of tomorrow today! If you liked COWBOY BEBOP, you’ll love PRIVATEERS OF MARS!

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Readers say:

If you like the words “space” and “pirate” and like those words better together, this book is for you. The character- and world-building is top notch, and the writing is just overall FUN! Eagerly seeing where this compelling and crass, but somehow lovable, crew is off to next.

Buy the book!

Do you miss Firefly? Do you like The Expanse? If so, then Privateers of Mars is exactly what you need. Castleman combines the down-on-their-luck-crew feel and humor of Firefly with the kind of near system space travel and background politics that drive The Expanse. Structured as three loosely interconnected short stories, it reads like three episodes of a great science fiction show that you wish someone would make.

Buy the book!

Are you looking for a fun relaxing read? Do you enjoy Space, pirates, sci-fi, or any combination of those? Then this book is for you. I really really enjoyed reading this and absolutely hope that there will be more to come.

Buy the book!

This was a perfect before-bed page turner. Hilarious and witty, it got me laughing aloud multiple times which is sorely needed right now. Great little sci-fi adventure with action and intrigue! I especially loved the spectrum of diverse characters. Enbys in spaaaaace!

BUY THE BOOK!

What a delightful action-adventure/sci-fi romp. Castleman combines buoyant humor with a carefully curated set of favorite science fiction tropes, building a compelling world inhabited a lovable cast of rogues that you can't help but root for. The three stories in this volume suggest a much broader universe, which, as a reader, I can only hope Castleman will populate with these misfits and their antics. A strong visual component, especially to the fight scenes, and whip-smart, TV-ready dialogue make this a cousin to shows like Firefly and The Expanse as much as to similar fiction. On the whole, well-crafted, highly recommended escapism!

SERIOUSLY, BUY THE BOOK!

Great read. The story flows really well and never lets up on the action. Great characters and witty dialog throughout.

Must I say it one more time?

This was so much fun to read! The worlds the characters travel to are each exciting and creative, as is each character. I seriously could not decide which character I liked the best (side bonus: no sexist tropes of female characters!) and the end twist was super unexpected. I’m not the biggest fan of sci-fi as a book genre, but this blends genres into an adventure that I think everyone would enjoy. Great for all ages too!

Just buy the #(@*$&!!! book already, okay? 

Seriously, I’d like to publish more books like this one, but first I’d like to feel confident that people want to read more books like this one.

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BUY THIS RIGHT NOW!

 

Remember 45 r.p.m. records? Remember how when you bought one, it was like rolling the dice? Sure, the “A” side was always the hit single you wanted, but the “B” side... who knew?

Here now for your entertainment are two stories by award-winning science fiction writer Bruce Bethke, packaged back-to-back together in a special “hit single” ebook. The “A” side is Jimi Plays Dead, Bethke’s much-loved and Nebula-nominated story of the obsessed guitarist who will do anything to sound just exactly like Jimi Hendrix.

The “B” side, though—here’s where you’re taking a chance. Buck Turner and The Spud from Space is Bethke’s published but forgotten tale of airports, garage bands, kids with dreams of making it big, and of an alien who comes to Earth seeking intelligent life but through an unfortunate miscalculation makes the mistake of landing near Hollywood. It is also, according to Bethke, who spent a decade in the music industry before he switched to writing fiction, at least partially absolutely true in places.

So the “A” side, Jimi Plays Dead: guaranteed smash hit, you’ll love it. But the “B” side, Buck Turner and The Spud from Space: is it brilliant? Is it daft? Is it just begging to be optioned and turned into a direct-to-Netflix movie?

Read it now and find out!

__________________

In science fiction circles Bruce Bethke is best known either for his 1980 short story, “Cyberpunk,” his Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel, Headcrash, or as the editor and publisher of Stupefying Stories. What very few people inside the SF/F fiction bubble have known until recently is that he spent most of his career in software R&D, doing things that were fascinating to do but are almost impossible to explain. What even fewer people have known is that he actually got his start in the music industry, as a composer, performer, and a member of the design team that developed MIDI, among other things, and he has an enormous repertoire of stories that begin, “This one time, this band I was in…” all of which are far too raunchy to tell in any medium his children might someday read.

Yes, he still has his 50-year-old cherry red Gibson SG with P-90 pickups, as well as his original “Gray Meanie” ARP 2600, and he fully intends to get back to doing music, one of these days…

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Congrats, Barbara V. Evers!

Just a quick shout-out to congratulate Stupefying Stories alum (and former slush pile reader) Barbara V. Evers for winning the Best Fantasy Novel award at the 2021 Imadjinn Awards! 

 

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Congrats, Bo Balder!

 

Just a quick shout-out to congratulate Stupefying Stories alum Bo Balder (“Alien Whispering,” in the now out-of-print SS#20), for making the cover of the latest issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction! 

And watch for her story, “There Is Another Sky,” coming soon in Stupefying Stories #24.

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Upcoming Releases

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We have a lot of projects in development right now, and I probably should talk more about what’s going on behind the scenes here at Rampant Loon Press, but having done so before, I have a profound fear of jinxing books by talking about them too soon.

HENRY VOGEL has no such fear, though. In fact, he’s developed the remarkable habit of writing his books online and posting the first drafts of his novels-in-progress while he’s writing them. If you enjoyed his SCOUT’S HONOR series, you really owe it to yourself to check out HART’S WAR, which is in development editing right now. The entire rough draft is online—this link will take you straight to Chapter 1—where you’ll notice immediately that we changed the title. This is not exactly the book that we’ll be releasing, as Henry has made quite a few changes as he’s worked through the rewrites and revised the ending, but if you’ve ever wanted to get a look at a novel before it’s released and give the author your personal feedback, comments, suggestions, and support, here’s your opportunity.

» HART’S WAR • Read the rough draft now!

Meanwhile, Henry just posted Chapter 36 of his current work-in-progress, THE WOLFLING WAR, about two hours ago. (Honestly, the guy writes at an unbelievable pace, and I remain amazed by his ability to switch seamlessly between writing a new book while copy-editing another.) Fiction doesn’t get any fresher than this, folks. If you’ve ever wanted to help shape a book before it’s finished, again, here is your chance.

» THE WOLFLING WAR •  “The fate of mankind will rest in the hands of a young man who doesn’t understand what it means to be human and a young woman who doesn’t understand what it means to be young. Their adventure begins now.” 

I wish I could show you the cover art for HART’S WAR and THE WOLFLING WAR, but it’s not even commissioned yet. I can show you the concept sketch for this cover, but can’t say anything more about this book at the moment.

Meanwhile, another piece of cover art I can’t show you because it’s not finalized yet is the cover for our new ERIC DONTIGNEY novel, THE MIDNIGHT GROUND. Rather than babble about that book, though, I’ll just quote the jacket blurb:

“As middleman to the magical community at large, Adrian Hartworth never sticks around. His nomadic lifestyle keeps him a step ahead of friends, enemies, and all too often, law enforcement. Then he saves Abby Simmons and her grandfather, only to find himself unofficially adopted into their unlucky family. Years of experience tell him that the cancer killing Abby is anything but natural. His instincts say flee.

“Driven by the guilt of a past filled with bad choices, Hartworth delves into Abby’s misfortunes and the town’s dark past. What he discovers lands him at the heart of a century-old battle against an evil he knows he cannot defeat. The man who never sticks around will face a choice: take a stand against a power that will crush him, or a leave a young girl to die and damn thousands in the process.”

At this time I would really love to find a few friendly reviewers to read the ARC and give us some promotional quotes. Any volunteers?

Finally, I’m afraid the Thanksgiving-themed Friday Challenge was a complete bust: we received no entries for it. It’s something of a pity, as I’d already paid for the stock art I planned to use with it, but on the other hand, this bit of CGI really does kind of creep me out. I’m not sure why. The upshot of it is, though, that we’re going to retire the Friday Challenge idea for a while, until we have the time to think of a better way to run it.

And speaking of time: it’s time for me to get back to work!

Kind regards,
~brb

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Stupefying Stories Authors on the Move!

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When we first launched Stupefying Stories, the whole point of the thing was to help writers launch their careers. We lose sight of that objective from time to time, but I have to tell you, the best thing about this job is seeing the name of someone who you were the first (or one of the first) to publish show up years later, on the shortlist for some major literary award, on the cover of one of the major pro-market magazines, or in a book release announcement from one of the major publishing house.

With that in mind, here’s some news that came in this week that I’d like to turn around and share with you. If there’s enough interest, we’d like to make Authors on the Move! a weekly feature on this site.

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KEITH ROSSON has just made the preliminary ballot for the 2017 Bram Stoker Award, for his novel, The Mercy of the Tide. Long-time readers of Stupefying Stories will remember Keith for stories like “The Things That Perish Along the Way,” but more recently, he’s been the cover artist who did the terrific cover for Stupefying Stories #16 and the even better cover you’ll be seeing next month on Stupefying Stories #20.

To learn more about the Bram Stoker Award click this link, and to take a closer look at The Mercy of the Tide, click here.

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EVAN DICKEN reports that he has a Warhammer 40K [Oops! ~brb] Age of Sigmar story coming out as a download on the Games Workshop Black Library site next week, and he can’t say anything more about it right now because of the NDA. However, I do know that my son will be first in line to buy it—and no, to my son’s disappointment, Evan does not know Dan Abnett or Aaron Dembski-Bowden personally.

Long-time Stupefying Stories readers will remember Evan for his many contributions to Stupefying Stories and SHOWCASE, beginning with “Dark Illusions” in Stupefying Stories #8, but what I want you to think about is his upcoming chapbook, Second to Last Stop, which is in the final development stages right now and we expect to be releasing on February 8th. Watch for it!

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Do you have some publishing news or a success story you’d like to share? Send it to queries (at) rampantloonmedia.com, and we’ll get it into the queue for this column. Thanks!

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