Hi, Loyal Readers -

Loyal readers because you have had the patience to stick around for "Short Short Story Issue 3".

For this issue we have a couple of firsts: some of the stories are over our usual limit of 1000 words and two of the stories are translated from other languages, namely Spanish and Japanese.

First, the increased story length: we had some stories whose only fault was that they were too long for a Short Short Story issue, but we used them anyway. I think you will agree their length does not detract from their merit.

The two stories translated from their native language to English, while appearing normal to the reader, took special treatment on the part of the translators who translated them and the editors who edited the translated versions. Hopefully, we will see more translated stories by the same authors in "4 Star Stories".

For your reading enjoyment we have a variation of the classic "The Cold Equations" called the "The Thinning Equations". Also we we have "Endless Inn", recalling the old song "You can check out..., but you can never leave."

"Infected" explores a future where a global catastrophe creates a division of humankind into two disparate groups.

In "Going with the Flow" a routine time-travel mission takes an embarrassing turn.
"A Final Checkmate" proves once again that married couples make the most vicious adversaries.

Finally, what would any science fiction magazine short or otherwise be without aliens? We have a couple of those as well. In "The Games Aliens Play" it pays to read the fine print when accepting an alien race's hospitality. In "Abduction" alien plans to conquer the universe are threatened by a... human baby.

Altogether we have seven stories to nourish the spirit and delight the mind. So, get comfortable, relax and enjoy from those wonderful folks who brought you "4 Star Stories", "Short Short Story Issue 3".