The Anthology “Fantastic Schools, Volume 13” is Out Now!

The latest Wisecraft Publishing anthology Fantastic Schools, Volume 13 just popped into availability yesterday, August 19th and features my fantasy short story The Battle of New Satins Castle (having nothing to do with stains).

The story has an interesting history. It was originally written for another Fantastic Schools anthology but didn’t quite make the cut (it has a “soft acceptance”). The publisher liked it but needed to find a place for it to live.

Time passed and I figured it had dropped through the cracks. Then indeed, this “general” anthology in the series (which is growing by leaps and bounds) came along and “New Stains” found a home.

The story is set in what I loosely call my Dragon Wars World. I’ve set other fantasy stories in the same universe but it won’t really take off until I find a publisher who will accept my first novel in that series. Then everything will begin to come together.

By the way, New Stains Castle is (almost) a real place (I changed the name slightly), the ruins of a castle in Scotland. Of course, I’ve highly fictionalized it and added plenty of ghosts and other supernatural beings. Scotland seems the right place for them.

Here’s an excerpt, the very beginning of the story to whet your appetite:

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Afterwards

hotel-frederick

PHOTO PROMPT © Lori Wilson

Glenn trudged up the steps of the old hotel. His overcoat covered most of the signs of battle, a scorched jacket and trousers as well as the blood. His face had a few bruises, but it was late and the light was low in the hotel lobby.

He casually nodded at the young night guy who was glued to his smartphone. Thank God for addictions, at least in this case.

He closed and locked the door to his room behind him and then set up his wards. That he defeated a demon tonight didn’t mean there weren’t others out there.

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Dwindling

nesting cups

PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox

Once I was straight and tall, like an oak tree, like a stone spire. But time has a way with things and with people and I started getting smaller.

It’s okay really. This happens to all of us. That’s why we have children and grandchildren. As we grow smaller, they get bigger. Hopefully, they’ll even become better versions of ourselves but there are no guarantees.

In a way, it’s like what John said about Jesus in the Bible. I must decrease so he can increase. Age has shown me that, too though I wish I would have learned it sooner.

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Peace is a Decision

walkway

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Aidan had almost forgotten this feeling.

For an hour, he surrendered his need to walk as fast as possible, to keep his heart rate elevated. He didn’t have to rush to the gym or keep track of his calories. He especially didn’t have to fret over the news or social media. Sometimes it was nice to be at peace.

“There have always been trials in life and tribulations in the world,” he said to himself. It wasn’t exactly a quote from the Bible, but close enough.

“I’ve so often prayed for peace, but peace is a decision, not a gift.”

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Magic Mushrooms

mushrooms tree

PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

Lin came to harvest another batch of Yun Zhi or what most people called turkey-tail mushrooms from the dead and rotting tree in the field behind her house. Her arthritis had been acting up again and the tea always seemed to help.

“What the…?” She took off her glasses and cleaned them but the wee ones were still there, sitting on the mushrooms or sometimes using them like stairsteps. The little folk each had a pipe and were madly puffing away.

“Contains PCP or don’t you know?” said one with a silver beard.

“They’re all getting high.” Lin’s mouth gaped.

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My “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet” Short Story “A Monolith in the Regolith” is Now Available!

tom corbett on mars

Promotional image for my short story “A Monolith in the Regolith”

As you all (hopefully) know, about a year-and-a-half ago, my novel Our Legacy The Stars: A Tom Corbett Adventure became a reality thanks to the fine folks at Starry Eyed Press. It had started out life as a serialized story (something I’d always wanted to do) on Amazon’s now defunct Vella platform. From there, it went into book form, a full-length tale based on the 1950s television show with the science and locations updated for our current understanding of our solar system and space.

More recently, I had the opportunity to continue Tom’s adventures in the short story A Monolith in the Regolith (the original title was The Monolith of Mars but another story in the anthology had Mars in the title so mine was changed).

The anthology, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet: An Original Short Story Anthology is now available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback formats and my story is pretty much a sequel to Legacy including characters I introduced in my novel.

Here’s a sample of what you can expect (Note: I’m also promoting this on my substack but with a different excerpt featured):

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My Latest Interview and the Secret to Writing Good Adventure Stories

wobble cover held

© James Pyles

Over the weekend, I was interviewed by Jenn and Rob on their podcast MythBehaving about my writing. The main emphasis was my latest YA/Teen boys’ adventure A Wobblegong And His Boy, but we also discussed my science fiction/space opera My Legacy The Stars: A Tom Corbett Adventure.

We had a great time discussing how I see science fiction and writing in general based on my background. I grew up watching shows like the original Star Trek series as well as the original incarnations of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.

Beyond that, my “gateway drugs” into science fiction and fantasy were books like A Princess of Mars, The Time Traders, and The Skylark of Space.

Turns out as I see its, the secret to writing a good adventure novel people want to read resides somewhere in the past.

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Hello, Mom?

mics and junk

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

They say the best way to conceal something is to hide it in plain sight. That’s what Charlie did. To everyone else, it was his cluttered man-cave, but the room held something he couldn’t share.

He knew he shouldn’t, that it was forbidden but once he’d invented the process he couldn’t stop. He’d always had trouble letting go but even he knew this was over the top.

“Screw it.” He flipped on the power switch and adjusted the equipment to her frequency.

“Hello, Mom?” She’d been dead for three years this coming Monday but he could still talk to her.

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What is a “Wobblegong?”

wobble cover held

© James Pyles

My Teen/YA Boys’ adventure novel A Wobblegong And His Boy has been available in both paperback and Kindle formats for nearly four months now. I’ve been on a number of podcasts promoting the book (I record the next one tomorrow) and blanketing social media with promotional material. However, as many of you know, one of the most difficult tasks when you are an indie author and have been published in mainly smaller presses is marketing, that is, getting the word out to the point where a significant number of people buy, read, and especially review your book.

In other words, I need to build a bigger audience.

Raconteur Press has been doing its best in this area and for the novels in their Boy’s Adventure Books line, but as I said, they’re a smaller press with limited resources.

So here I am sending “positive waves” (I just rewatched the 1970 film Kelly’s Heroes if you don’t get the reference) into the universe in the hopes of grabbing someone’s curiosity about why my book would be an absolute GREAT read, especially for boys between the ages of ten and eighteen.

In interviews, one of the questions I’m asked most often is “what is a Wobblegong?”

It’s a very good question and kind of difficult to answer because Wobble’s nature is rather mercurial. It’s in a state of almost constant flux not only in shape but in behavior and half the time, even Remmie, the book’s teenage protagonist, has no idea what Wobble is up to.

I’m posting part of Wobble’s “origin story” (everybody loves a secret origin story) to give current and future readers a handle on where Wobble came from.

Oh, keep reading after the end of the excerpt for links to the three interviews that are already online.

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Cancelled

jail

PHOTO PROMPT © Carol Carr

“Come along, Sam.”

Brodie was the oldest guard in the prison, the one who’d slip you an extra cigarette or talk to you some. Sam was glad it was Brodie walking the last mile with him.

“No pardon, huh?” Sam’s last joke was lame but he was terrified. Six armed guards walked behind them and stood as Brodie strapped Sam into the chair.

The audience was filled with social media influencers all with smartphones ready to video his demise.

“Any last words?” Brodie asked.

Sam screamed, “Bad mouthing that lady President ain’t a capital crime!”

They threw the switch anyway.

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