{"id":951,"date":"2016-09-03T07:00:21","date_gmt":"2016-09-03T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/?p=951"},"modified":"2017-03-11T10:30:27","modified_gmt":"2017-03-11T16:30:27","slug":"september-2016-the-story-thus-far-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/?p=951","title":{"rendered":"September 2016: The Story Thus Far (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Crevasse_Showcase_Banner_700x350-2\"<\/a>Continued from Part 1<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

With SHOWCASE #11<\/strong>, we cut over to the \u201cCrevasse\u201d site design. It seemed like a great idea at the time. The original SHOWCASE site was, to be blunt, old<\/em>, and very much a product of old-school browser-based desktop-oriented thinking. As outlined in \u201cShow Your Work\u201d<\/a><\/span>, by late 2013 I\u2019d concluded that in the not-too-distant future, people would be doing most of their ephemeral reading on their phones, and whatever other virtues the original SHOWCASE site design may have possessed, it looked terrible<\/em> on a phone. So beginning with #11, we switched over to the \u201cCrevasse\u201d design.<\/p>\n

Why do I keep calling it that? Because a.) in its original form, it was very cold, bleak, and white, and b.) all the stories that were published on SHOWCASE during this period seemed to fall into one. It was only after we\u2019d been using the design for a while that we discovered that the embedded JavaScript and ActiveX elements were causing some of the more nervous anti-virus and anti-malware programs to block the SHOWCASE site entirely.<\/p>\n

Ergo, be advised that some of the following links may not work for you.<\/p>\n

One of the major design points of the new site was that instead of discrete \u201cissues,\u201d SHOWCASE content would become one continuous flow, and going back to older content would become simply a matter of scrolling down. Curiously enough, though, I must have lacked faith in this concept, as while they weren\u2019t made publicly visible, I did take the time and trouble to create front pages for issues #12 and #13.<\/p>\n

The original \u201cCrevasse\u201d front end was overwritten when we installed WordPress and is now lost in the mists of time. This is not altogether a bad thing.<\/p>\n

\n

SHOWCASE #12<\/strong> featured:<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecial Delivery,\u201d by Peter Wood<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A tale of time, space, beauty, and post office clerks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cubes,\u201d by Taylor Vaughan<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Even at relativistic speeds, it took years to travel between stars, and oftentimes shipments weren\u2019t wanted when they finally arrived. No one knew exactly how long the old crate had been sitting down in the depths of the ship\u2019s cargo hold, waiting…<\/p>\n

\u201cRheum,\u201d by Parker Lee<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Morpheus Stamos was a master thief who specialized in stealing rare artifacts to order. But what he stole in the library that night was nothing he had ever<\/em> expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaveat Emptor,\u201d by Steve Coate<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes a great bargain is just too good to be true…<\/p>\n

Badger & Vole Review: Junk Food Cinema<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Badger & Vole phone it in one last time.<\/p>\n

Editorial: \u201c2013: The Year in Pre-Review\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A sadly ironic editorial on everything that went wrong in 2013 and how we were going to fix it in 2014. Had I but known\u2026<\/p>\n

As a personal aside: I\u2019m occasionally criticized for being unreasonably optimistic. The truth is that I must<\/em> be unreasonably optimistic. Sometimes unreasonable optimism is the only thing that keeps me going.<\/p>\n

\n

SHOWCASE #13<\/strong> featured:<\/p>\n

\u201cCold Beyond White,\u201d by Beth Cato<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Hurry<\/em>, his mother had said. The gwella, they come, their pelts thick and maws wide.<\/em> And now every life in the village depended on him…<\/p>\n

\u201cAbove the Ice,\u201d by Matthew Timmins<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

ChaaSooNiik had never been this far above her home vents before, but the scientists were certain: there was something<\/em> on the other side of the ceiling of the world…<\/p>\n

\u201cSearching for Home,\u201d by Lance J. Mushung<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Stranded on a nameless, frozen, and barren world, the survivors of the starship crash had just one chance of getting out of this alive…<\/p>\n

\u201cThe End\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

What can survive the death of the universe?<\/p>\n

Editorial: \u201c2014: The Changes Ahead\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Another unintentionally ironic editorial, to be filed under The Best Laid Plans of Mice…<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

After #13, we dropped all pretense of doing issues and switched to releasing individual stories. Unfortunately whatever teasers may have appeared on the front page were lost along with the original \u201cCrevasse\u201d front end, so I\u2019m just going to improvise now.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdvances,\u201d by Liz Colter<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Zane had almost finished his second beer when she walked in. The mauve hair highlighted with metallic gold was the same as her profile picture, but the rest of her was more than he\u2019d expected. He\u2019d sent a \u201cWant to meet?\u201d prompt to an attractive woman on the singles site, but the person in the doorway looked more like a supermodel. Zane wondered if he should have slammed three beers instead of two. It was a delicate tipping point between settling his nerves enough not to make a fool of himself and not getting so buzzed that he made a fool of himself anyway…<\/p>\n

\u201cHow Love Works,\u201d by Jamie Lackey<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Carl clutched the cool seed to his chest. He\u2019d lost everything else, but at least he still had what he\u2019d come for. It was as big as his fist, and heavy. He\u2019d almost dropped it when the shaman handed it to him.<\/p>\n

His bright yellow life-raft drifted aimlessly. The crash\u2014if there had even been a crash\u2014was an empty space in Carl\u2019s mind. He didn\u2019t know what that meant, but as far as his memory was concerned, he had gone straight from the cramped airplane to this sun-baked, half-provisioned raft. There\u2019d been no sign of his luggage, wreckage, or other survivors…<\/p>\n

\u201cStanley P. Strauss, Destroyer of the Universe,\u201d by Samuel Marzioli<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Diary,<\/p>\n

How are you? I am fine. At least as fine as one can expect to be under the circumstances. As of 3 PM yesterday, the Universe as we know it is no more. So, to clarify an earlier point, I\u2019m fine in the sense that every living thing is now dead and gone, and it\u2019s my fault, and I feel pretty damn bad about it, but it could be worse…<\/p>\n

Editorial: \u201cAnd we\u2019re back…again\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Failure is disruptive, that\u2019s obvious. What we really didn\u2019t realize until these past few weeks is that success, if you\u2019re unprepared for it, is even more disruptive.<\/p>\n

When we rolled into January, we thought we finally had things under control. The series of personal and personnel issues that made 2013 such a ghastly soap opera were finally resolved. Our submissions and slush pile processes were finally beaten into, well, submission. Things at last seemed to be flowing smoothly.<\/p>\n

Then the 2014 Campbellian Anthology<\/em><\/strong> hit, like a half-megaton kaiju making landfall. Not only did that book come in at roughly twice the originally projected size; not only did last-minute work on it go right down to the wire; but when the book finally did make it out the door, it went viral. We moved more than 35,000 copies in the first 72 hours alone…<\/p>\n

\u201cBest in Show,\u201d by Robert Lowell Russell<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome back to the 2028 CFA World Cat Spectacular. Bryan, did you ever expect to see such drama in the ballroom dancing event?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not, Stan. Our hopes and prayers are with Potpourri Sparkle Bunny and his handler.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now it\u2019s down to four, four of the most impressive specimens of felinity we\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd here they come…<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the Pond,\u201d by Jake Doyle<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When we first launched Stupefying Stories, it was with the idea that we would ignore genre labels and concentrate simply on publishing great stories.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s no science fiction in this one; no magic. \u201cOn the Pond\u201d is just plain a great story about guy stuff: about life, and friends, and boys becoming men\u2014and hockey. Maybe it\u2019s just an Upper Midwestern thing, but I\u2019ve read this story six times now, and every time I re-read it, I like it more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wiser of Oz,\u201d by Jez Patterson<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When Dorothy was called back to Oz, it was to find the Scarecrow an arrogant, cold academic who huffed down his nostrils and regarded the world through the half-lenses of spindly-limbed spectacles. The Lion was a tattooed bully, pumped up on testosterone with swollen veins snaking down his forearms and up his neck, like he was cut from some huge alien brain. The Tin Man was an emotional wreck, jumping from therapist to therapist, suffering anxiety attacks and depression and in constant mourning for the cruelty of the world he lived in.<\/p>\n

A trip to the Wizard was in order. The Scarecrow to find Humility, the Lion to find Gentleness, the Tin Man Control over his emotions…<\/p>\n

\u201cFour Corners of the Earth,\u201d by Sandi Reed-Chan<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Swept out to sea, the whole colony struggled to survive. After the earthquake their instincts had sent them to higher ground, but the highest point on their hidden island wasn\u2019t high enough. The resulting tsunami had destroyed their ancient habitat in seconds.<\/p>\n

Battered and beaten by back-to-back storms, all of them were exhausted. Although they were comfortable in water, they still needed air to survive. Sadly, most of the colony was lost.<\/p>\n

A mated pair followed the racial memories of their species and swam toward a place where their kind had lived before. Several cycles later, they made landfall and the male dug a hole just past the wet sand. Gently, he buried the female\u2019s dozen eggs before they both collapsed onto the beach.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly where a fourteen-year-old girl named Winona found the pair of dinosaurs…<\/p>\n

Editorial: \u201cA Quick Progress Report\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing remarkable here.<\/p>\n

\n

At this time the site mutated again, to become XHTML-based, as we continued to pursue the mythical \u201csingle source\u201d concept that would enable us to build ebooks, print books, and SHOWCASE posts from a single set of source files. We first used this technology to print a series of teasers for the March 2014 issue of Stupefying Stories<\/em>, which are reproduced here, in hopes that we might con<\/del> entice a few more readers into taking a look at the March 2014 issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the Editor\u2019s Desk\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n \u201cAnachronic Order,\u201d by Christopher Lee Kneram<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n \u201cDried Skins Unshed,\u201d by Julie Day<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n \u201cA Nun\u2019s Tale,\u201d by Pete McArdle<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n \u201cThey Followed Me,\u201d by Carol Holland March<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n \u201cInterregnum,\u201d by John J. Brady<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n \u201cFull Fathom Five,\u201d by Judith Field<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n \u201cBone Mother,\u201d by Torah Cottrill<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n \u201cAleph,\u201d by Brandon Nolta<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n \u201cAlien Treaties,\u201d by Randal Doering<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

After this, SHOWCASE staggered on a while longer, publishing:<\/p>\n

\u201cDeath Bites,\u201d by Bill Bibo, Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n \u201cSport of Kings,\u201d by Judith Field <\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n \u201cBlind Spot,\u201d by S. R. Mastrantone<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n \u201cMy Dead Uncle Rob,\u201d by Stephen A. Dickson<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But despite the brave words of, \u201cAnother Quick Progress Report,\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/span> SHOWCASE was reeling. More importantly, it was not serving the purpose for which we\u2019d created it, and I had some enormous Other Things contending for my time. So in April 2014 I put SHOWCASE on hiatus, while I went off to deal with those Other Things.<\/p>\n

And believe me, I had no shortage of Other Things with which to deal. If 2013 was the year that was consumed by my mother’s final illness and death, then 2014 was The Year of\u00a0 The Executor (sounds like a Gene Wolfe novel, doesn’t it?), and my time was not merely consumed by the business of settling her estate, it was subsequently regurgitated, reconsumed, digested, aged slowly in the rumen, and ultimately excreted in sudden, urgent, painful bouts of legal and financial diarrhea.<\/p>\n

(To be continued…<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part 1 With SHOWCASE #11, we cut over to the \u201cCrevasse\u201d site design. It seemed like a great idea at the time. The original SHOWCASE site was, to be blunt, old, and very much a product of old-school browser-based desktop-oriented thinking. As outlined in \u201cShow Your Work\u201d, by late 2013 I\u2019d concluded<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,3,10,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=951"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":972,"href":"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions\/972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}