James L. Cambias, whose story "Balancing Accounts" is the cover story of the February 2008 issue of F&SF, said in an interview that the story is about a small-time independent robotic space tug called Annie who is hired by a mysterious client for a voyage between two of Saturn’s moons.  "During the voyage Annie learns the true nature of her cargo and must fight off pursuers determined to capture or destroy what she’s carrying," Cambias said.

"Balancing Accounts" is Cambias’s attempt to update an old space-opera trope: the scruffy, hand-to-mouth space merchant crew. "I tried to make it work without violating physical laws or realistic economics," he said. "That meant it had to be within the Solar System (no faster-than-light drives) and couldn’t involve a human crew."

The protagonist, Annie, is a robot rocket tug who hauls cargo among the moons of Saturn.  "She’s autonomous and ‘incentivized’ — her purpose is to generate income for her owners back on Earth and Mars, and can more or less do whatever she chooses in order to do so," Cambias said. "But Annie has learned that there’s more to life than just earning micrograms of Helium-3; she works just as hard to accumulate ‘non-quantifiable assets’ like the goodwill of her fellow robots, a reputation for honest dealing, and what a human might call friendship."

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James Powell, whose story "The Quest for Creeping Charlie" appears in the January 2008 issue of F&SF, said in an interview that the story is about a man who sets out to find a creature called the megamensalopes. "In the early 1950s in Toronto George Muir, a university student, finds this quotation in a book: ‘When asked to name the smartest of all the animals an ancient wise man replied, "Surely the megamensalopes, because they have avoided discovery by man."’ Then and there Muir decides that he will set out on a quest to find the megamensalopes," Powell said.

Muir joins the Toronto branch of the Explorers Club and pores over maps of the remote corners of the world where he believes the creatures must exist. "Then he has a revelation. Perhaps the creatures needed to live close to man where they could learn from him while, at the same time, avoiding discovery. Perhaps they were right there in Toronto," Powell said. "So he begins his search closer to home, using all his free time to find the creatures. He decides they graze on the common ground ivy Canadians call Creeping Charlie and because ‘megamensalope’ is too much of a mouthful and because we are what we eat he names his quarry ‘Creeping Charlie.’ His search costs him his marriage and his life in more ways that one."

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Ruth Nestvold, whose story “Mars: A Traveler’s Guide” appears in the January 2008 issue of F&SF, said in an interview that the story is about a tourist on Mars who is stranded alone after an accident caused by a major dust storm. "The tour guide [is] dead and the rover damaged," Nestvold said. "The only thing the tourist has that is working is the supposedly ‘intelligent’ computer system to try to help him or her figure out a way to survive."

Like most of her stories, this one was brewing for a long time before it came together. "I think the original seed was a lecture Michael Swanwick gave at a workshop I once attended that he called ‘How to Win a Hugo,’" Nestvold said. "The gist of it was to have a character stranded somewhere in the solar system in a desperate situation with next to no options. The character should then solve the problem using science–so base the story on a combination of a ton of research and whatever hand-waving you need to get past the bumps. Of course, this impressed me, especially given the promise Michael made, and it was in the back of my mind for quite a few years before it came together with the idea of telling a story in a series of database entries."

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Frederic S. Durbin, whose story “The Bone Man” appears in the December 2007 issue of F&SF, said in an interview that his story tells the story of Conlin, a hit man who "rediscovers" the true spirit of Hallowe’en.

"On his way back to Chicago from a hit in tiny Enfield, Illinois, Conlin turns off the interstate for lunch and wanders into a small town among the fields and woods—a town that isn’t on his map," Durbin said. "He quickly discovers that he’s arrived on the day of the annual Hallowe’en parade, apparently a major event for this community; and he is intrigued by references to someone called ‘the Bone Man,’ a dancing skeleton that shows up every year as a kind of Grand Master of the parade."

Conlin’s curiosity is piqued by the locals’ apparent combination of dread and reverence for this figure, and especially by photos he’s shown: photos too old to be digital hoaxes, which indeed seem to depict an animated skeleton, Durbin said. "As he watches the town’s preparations for the evening, Conlin is drawn back into his childhood memories of the season and the sinister holiday for which he’s always had an affinity," he said. "Of course, Conlin, in the midst of the dark revelry, meets the Bone Man; and the specter is very real; and the encounter leaves Conlin forever changed (ominous chuckle)."

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