*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

When a Mother's children across the Grid begin to suffer harmful effects from Her illness, one child in Chad Gayle's "Mother May I" decides to take action against it. "Like you, I grew up in the shadow of Mother’s illness..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/05/04/i....

The Dome protects the village. The Maintainers take care of the Dome. But how the Dome works and why it is there is a mystery to everyone in Matt Flintoff's "Maintainer" (Sci-Fi). Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/05/01/i....

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....

Octopus-ostrich aliens and multitudes of mysterious passengers make first contact on Earth in Trenton White's "The Passengers". But why bring passengers? "It was dawn when the first ship touched down. Spiraling lights... " Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/04/06/i....

One cold, dark night a struggling musician in S.L. Newton's "Leave a Message" must confront more than meager funds & aging vocals as she drives home alone. "Amber echoes of neon filled all the puddles in the parking lot. ..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/04/03/i....

From blinding summer day to icy nighttime, Oliver Smith's "Swimming the Unseelie River" is an adventure through the nature and unnatural. "I swam daylight-blinded out of summer, followed the lazy meander of the river, ..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/03/30/i....

At first, nobody paid the them much mind... The sinkholes, that is, in H.J. Dutton's story of the same name. But the more disappearances, the more people began to wonder, who's next? "when one beneath the road opened up...." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/03/27/i....

Simina Lungu's "The Caves Towards Forever" puts an impossible choice on the shoulders of a teenage princess. What will she choose? "Isabella knelt in front of the Witch of Eternity, trembling under a gaze that was as old..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2026/03/23/i....

Happy spring equinox (yes, we know it was yesterday). More importantly, happy Issue #2 release date! Go explore our off-the-press-new chilling stories. Find Issue #2 on Amazon: www.amazon.com/Cryptic-Frog... If you'd rather wait, the stories will also drop twice a week for free on our website.

Thank you, to all of our Issue #1 authors, for helping us enter the magical, mystical, imaginative world of magazine publishing. It's truly been a joy to work with you all. We're excited to continue to drift along this thrilling journey with Issue #2 coming in print and digital formats next month!

Obscured but emotional, Lance Mazmanian's poem "Canyons Untitled" communicates a sort of melancholy attached to grief and loss, between fog and light. "Fog, but light. Canyons. Reflection between rain . . . " Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/i....

In editor Caleb Call's "A Question for the Dragons" a toddler's question prods teetering human-dragon political relations into a new age. "Lili was on her way to meet the dragons. Of course, the dragons didn’t know that...." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/i....

If the aged of different worlds gathered in one place for rest and care, what kind of place would it be? John Grey's "On a Planet for the Aged" (Sci-Fi) is the answer: "In green air, lorbals flutter their purple foliage ..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/i....

In Conner Martin's "Zeralore: Fallen Realm Expansion", Nora has an impossible quest: find a small (magical?) object in a world she hardly understands. Is it worth it? "Nora scrambled across ladders laid flat on moonlit..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/i....

Rhythmic, stylistic, and colorful, Nicholas De Marino's poem "No Fly List" (sci-fi) takes anti gravity boots for a spin in the unlikeliest of places. "My tiny alien green anti gravity boots fizz and fume as I ... " Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/i....

In a place so personified it loses its grip on reality, Mario Senzale's "Cleveland, Ohio." (horror) paints a picture of discomfort. "Ahead was the structure. It rose in a series of sterile plateaus, a ziggurat of decay..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/i....

For all heroes who fell for a beautiful song, @blackcattales.bsky.social's "Siren" (fantasy/horror) is a twist on the monster of myth. "Bless me, lover, for I have swallowed deep and drowned in the whole of you, felt..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/i....

@therrien.bsky.social's "Miniature Sandworm" (sci-fi/fantasy) explores what a divorced parent would pay for a relationship with his kid. "I followed my son’s lead through The Bizarre’s endless tables. The ChopWow sat next..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/i....

Simon MacCulloch's poem "What the Stork Brought" (fantasy) playfully asks, what if the baby was born with wings? "New babies sometimes come with funny things A tiny stub of tail, an extra eye ..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/i....

Cozy—if not slightly unsettling—Pamela Jean Herber's "Seen" (fantasy) is a flash story about seeing a familiar face. "They don’t seem to register that you don’t have a mouth, or ears. ..." Continue reading at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/.../issue1-s....

In a world where no one sleeps, an idyllic life can decline quite suddenly. "Tyler Sands gritted his teeth in frustration. The last thing he had wanted to hear after an eighteen hour flight was that his bags had disappeared..." Read Retnahin at crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/i....

Good news! Cryptic Frog #1 is available in print and digital formats on Amazon! Click the link below to check it out. a.co/d/1zrbTN5

The wait is over: Issue 1 of Cryptic Frog Quarterly is here! Click the link to find four short stories, two flash fictions, and five poems full of speculative goodness. We are confident that these works will entertain, entrance, and enlighten you. crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/cryptic-frog...

Stay tuned for our inaugural issue, coming December 21, 2025! crypticfrogpublishing.wordpress.com/issues/