Cryptic Frog

We're so excited to announce Issue #4 of Cryptic Frog Quarterly! We hope it gives a little seasoning to your spooky season. 👑🎃 Find it on Amazon here: a.co/d/0cwANH1E If you'd rather wait, the stories will also drop twice a week for free on our website.

When a haunted mansion in @maggiedotwrites.bsky.social’s “The Liar” is acquired by a vivacious woman, a timid ghost must decide whether to accept its new role. “You should have known she was a liar the moment she...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/10/19/i...

With a mysterious bug causing upheaval at home, a content writer in @pscavanaugh.com’s “A Bug Screamed at Me, Yet I Must Carry On as Normal” can't focus. “The bug’s antennae twitched and it clicked its mandibles and my...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/10/16/i...

Depending on who you are, things might not end well for you in @sarahgracetuttle.bsky.social’s “I’m Learning from the Moles,” since what exactly does one learn from moles? “how to find my way beneath your world, below the...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/10/12/i...

Zel, among a group of gods in @ljlacey.bsky.social’s “Gods at Work,” struggles to find the right medium with which to create a world. “Zel peered at the empty canvas, trying to see what it needed to become. Could they...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/10/09/i...

It's our birthday! We honestly can't believe it's already been one year of Cryptic Frog 😁 Go read something on our website to celebrate!

Two unreal beings in @cantodjauricco.bsky.social’s “The Dowager and the Seedsnipe” have a conversation on an empty heath outside of reality. “Low clouds scudded above empty crowberry heath, desolation absent the occasional...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/10/05/i...

Desert weeds roll over electric expanse in Brian Duran-Fuentes’s “Estepicursors,” guests in a standoff between a cowboy and his antimatter doppelganger. “The Oxford Dictionary fails to recognize the word ‘Estepicursors’ ...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/10/02/i...

A successful businessman in David McGillveray’s “The Wonders” hones supernatural abilities until success in this world is no longer enough. “On the day of my hundred and second birthday, more than thirty years after I...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/09/28/i...

A loafer picking up odd jobs in Jacob Walters’s “The Old Man’s Watch” starts to notice peculiar qualities in an otherwise unremarkable wristwatch. “Johnny started doing the old man’s yard every other weekend for pocket...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/09/25/i...

The Smart Search List of the Day is: Fee-Free Science Fiction Flash Fiction feat. @thefuturefire.bsky.social @smallwondersmag.com @100footcrow.bsky.social @crypticfrogpub.bsky.social et al. https://duotrope.com...

After a summer of being Carl, can we be Apple now, please? -👑 #frogmememondays

We appreciate the commitment to excellence. Only correct answers here. -👑 #frogmememondays

Actually, we hired him to flag AI submissions, but he prefers a more personal approach. -👑 #FrogMemeMondays

Thank you to all of our Issue #3 authors for your incredible work. You’ve taken us places we never would have dreamed of going! Good luck with your future endeavors, and keep an eye out for the next issue of Cryptic Frog. @jamielackey.bsky.social @deborahldavitt.bsky.social @ajlnoda.bsky.social

Confined to the vicinity of an airport, a spectral observer in DS Camperdown’s “Final Call” watches humanity’s downfall. And must decide when to intervene. “I was en route to Venice, at Gate B35 when I died. There was no...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/08/03/i...

Detective Pra, protagonist in Evan Wellbrock’s “Spokes on the Wheel,” is staunchly religious & prodigiously talented. What happens when everything he believes in is challenged? “Samhet woke to the sound of screaming from...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/07/31/i...

It's all fun and games in Jeff Raderstrong’s “The Secret Internet” (Sci-Fi). But is there more to life than waiting for a screen to appear? “I was trying to make a box within a box the first time the secret internet...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/07/27/i...

There is just one thing the astronaut has to remember in Jacob Bergstresser’s “The Astronaut’s Mantra” (Sci-Fi). Is the mantra going to work? “Don't crash into the sun. Don't crash into the sun. ... ” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/07/24/i...

A feline struggles to survive the long, harsh night in Joe Christopher’s “An Unfathomable Crisis” while the Hind-Walkers ignore its tactics to scrounge food. “Fourteen. “I count fourteen elliptical kernels of...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/07/20/i...

The death of a loved one in Andrew Milliken’s “Nothing in the Box” fills a man with questions. But he may not be prepared for the answers. “Mourners file out, all in black. Why? White’s just as good. Wear black, wear white...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/07/17/i...

A haunting tale, Simon MacCulloch’s poem “The Ghost Who Guards the Gold” tells of a tyrant and his hoard of cursed gold. “At the dark of year, in a town quite near, There’s an eldritch tale that’s told ... ” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/07/13/i...

In Steven Mathes’s “Pursuit of Happiness,” the minimum requirement is happiness. So what do you do when something, anything, goes horribly wrong? “The greatest happiness for the greatest number was a ...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/07/10/i...

An unexpected opportunity in @jamielackey.bsky.social’s “For Want of a Dog-Friendly Workplace" forces Tori to choose between leaving her distressing world forever, and her dog. “Tori checked her purse for the eighth time...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/07/06/i...

Living in his grandfather’s room, a teen in @ajlnoda.bsky.social’s "Opportunity Cost" discovers the destructiveness of a lingering tradition. “I move into Grandfather’s room after Uncle Bill and Aunt Marie get rent-hiked..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/07/03/i...

In @deborahldavitt.bsky.social’s “Balance of Evidence,” an attorney must prove it was actually a doppelganger who killed the bride. “The case had rock-solid evidence, proof; the police thought the young man had done it, ...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/06/29/i...

About Lev Working’s “Dream Halls," you should know adventures are a lot safer if you know how to get back. “Dream Halls... is my favorite Magic: the Gathering card. I’ve decided you haven’t played before, so bear with me. ...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/06/26/i...

You really have to see it to believe it. Gabriel Page's "BIG" is a sci-fi essay on a really big cube and its effects on anyone near it. “BIG is a marathon tall, a marathon deep and a marathon wide. It sits on the border of...” Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/06/22/i...

Today is the day! Issue #3 is here! You may also note that it is the summer solstice and Father's Day.👔👑 We'll let you decide how to celebrate. Find Issue #3 on Amazon here: www.amazon.com/Cryptic-Frog... If you'd rather wait, the stories will also drop twice a week for free on our website.

#frogmememondays -👑

We're excited to be featured on @duotrope.com today!

Let the anticipation begin! Issue #3 of Cryptic Frog is coming in print and digital formats on June 21. BIG Opportunity Cost For Want of a Dog-Friendly Workplace and more... See crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/issues/crypt... if curious about genres, authors, availability, and cover art.

Happy Memorial Day to our friends in the U.S. - 👑 #FrogMemeMondays

*chilling on a leaf* -👑 #FrogMemeMondays

Deep questions and silly side quests. That's our magazine; that's our marriage. New side quest: Frog Meme Mondays, filed under #FrogMemeMondays. It's pretty self-explanatory. Join us as we 1) post memes of frogs 2) on Mondays 3) use our hashtag. Those are the only rules. 👑 #frogmememondays

Thank you to all of our Issue #2 authors for your unforgettable work. Truly, monsters, catastrophes, sociopaths, & eternal consequences will leave a mark. Good luck with your future endeavors, and keep an eye out for the next issue of Cryptic Frog! @flintyflop.bsky.social @chadgayle.bsky.social

What to say? Colleen Anderson's untitled horrorku is a horror + haiku mix. It cannot be previewed. Go read it (at least once!) and let us know when the horror sets in. Enjoy! Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/04/27/i....

In Floyd Largent's "From Hell," a preteen's "grisly hobby" turns into something much worse after a mysterious man attempts to change fate. "J.A. was gilding a badger’s skull when the haggard man appeared in his room. ..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/04/24/i....

If villains are unstoppable, how are they always stopped? Jeff Mach's "Nature's Immutable Laws Of things Going Wrong" makes a case for the answer. "One of Nature’s immutable Laws: All castle guards must have glass jaws. ..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/04/20/i....

In D. Thomas Minton's "Internal Wellness" an employee finds a scrap of meaning in his dead-end job and reacts quickly. "Contrary to what the day-shifters believed, night shift at the Department of Universal Salvage wasn’t..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/04/17/i....

Daniel Stride's "Gilding the Lily" follows a charmer who takes his friends out on his estate—to show off, yes—but also to prove his uncanny abilities. "'Did you know this house once belonged to Robert Whiddon?' I frown, ..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/04/13/i....

There is a pathogen in Christopher Collingwood's poem "Eyes Burn to the Neon Fever"—a disease slowly taking hold. Whatever is lost to this sickness may never be found. "Pathogen in the electric pulse—luminous stage to ..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/04/10/i....