No one starts a magazine more than two decades into the 21st century.No one!It's only an adled brain that would even toy with the idea. Print publications are on their way out. The few surviors are frightened, huddled, waiting silently for the long night to come.Well, not here at Phenomenal Stories!We never expected to have any readers, so how could we be disappointed?And we're not!OK, OK, there may be one or two readers who, ironically, are reading Phenomenal Stories on their Kindles.Other than that, though, it's safe to say that after the first four issues we are very nearly 100%% reader-free!So why are we doing this?I put it to you as a question: Why wouldn't we be doing this?OK, plenty of reasons, but we're doing it anyway.Come on along!

I have collected many, many pulps over the years, but at the back of my mind, I always hoped to edit one.My first job, as editor of two trade newspapers, deluded me. I created a presentation and went to the publisher. He listened, but he never spoke about it.I worked at many newspapers and magazines, but no one was interested.I founded a few magazines: The Antediluvian Levee, The Game's Afoot, Different Deaths, Ride of the Horsemen, etc. I then tried to start the kind of magazine you hold. It didn't work then, though. I just didn't have time to do it.Finally, in late 2018, I started working on it, pulling writers and artists together, doing some preliminary designs, etc. The first few issues came together so fast that I pressed on. I didn't hesitate, but got the first issue into print as soon as possible.This book is a collection of nearly everything that appeared in the four issues of Phenomenal Stories, Volume 1. There's also a best of collection magazine titled Lost Carcosa available.

Just how many magazines can we create based upon the simple concept of a modern-day speculative fiction pulp magazines? Well, at least this one more. The novels we serialize in Phenomenal Stories are, well, phenomenal, and deserve publication as solo books, which our parent company is doing. In the meantime, though, we just thought it would be quite fun to produce our own novels magazine. And with four other magazines now in print, we certainly aren't over worked, punch drunk, sleep deprived or delusional. Really. So, here we present one of Richard H. Nilsen's first novels, the young adult fantasy story called The Book of Power. It was serialized in Phenomenal Stories between December 2018 and May 2019. And it's a lot of fun, so it's well past time you started reading it, don't you think?

Phenomenal Stories #10 features the first installment of the first Hal Johnson mystery novel, An Old-Fashioned Shooting. Richard H. Nilsen takes great joy in his easy-going P.I., makes the reader feel right at home with Hallum Johnson in the Adirondacks. To compliment An Old-Fashioned Shooting, Nilsen's column, The Write Stuff, this month focuses upon writing a mystery story, talks about some inspirations and gives some insight into Nilsen's writing method. The editor, too, stays focused upon writing and considers character development in stories. Dunces & Dragons sees columnist "Intrepid" stopping back at the office before moving on to his next assignment. This glimpse into the inner workings of the pan-dimensional, hyper-reality publishing house, perhaps, finally explains some of the situations J.D. Hayes Canell gets his alter ego into. Phenomenal Stories is a modern-day tribute to the science fiction/horror/fantasy/speculative pulp magazines of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s

"In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff - gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. And all manner of players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate."--Publisher.

In "The Yellow Sign", a painter and his model become ensnared in a series of eerie events linked to a mysterious, unsettling symbol. As they uncover more about The King in Yellow, an enigmatic play that drives people to madness, their lives spiral into paranoia and terror. The story explores themes of fate, madness, and the supernatural as they face a grotesque figure from the artist's nightmares.

"A deftly-plotted tale about ambition and belonging, Bright Ruined Things takes Shakespeare’s The Tempest and brilliantly reimagines its themes of family and love. Cohoe writes with a magic that dazzles and cuts right to the core." - Chloe Gong, New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights Forbidden magic, a family secret, and a night to reveal it all... The only life Mae has ever known is on the island, living on the charity of the wealthy Prosper family who control the island’s magic and its spirits. Mae longs for magic of her own and to have a place among the Prosper family, where her best friend, Coco, will see her as an equal, and her crush, Miles, will finally see her. But tonight is First Night, when the Prospers and their high-society friends celebrate the night Lord Prosper first harnessed the island’s magic and started producing aether – a magical fuel source that has revolutionized the world. With everyone returning to the island, Mae finally has the chance to go after what she’s always wanted. When the spirits start inexplicably dying, Mae realizes that things aren’t what they seem. And Ivo, the reclusive, mysterious heir to the Prosper magic, may hold all the answers – including a secret about Mae’s past. As Mae and her friends unravel the mysteries of the island, and the Prospers’ magic, Mae starts to question the truth of what her world was built on. In this YA fantasy, Samantha Cohoe wonderfully mixes magic and an atmospheric setting into a fantastically immersive world, with characters you won’t be able to forget.