Dangerous

sidewalk

PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart

It was a pleasant neighborhood and having time to kill before my next business meeting, I decided to take a walk. I began to think that was a mistake when the lone pedestrian, a woman wearing a baseball cap, saw me coming towards her and slowed down.

She looked scared. Was it because I’m an American, that I’m tall, or just because I’m a man?

We got closer and I smiled and nodded. I didn’t know if that was okay here in China. She looked relieved as we passed each other. I’m sorry if she thought I was a monster.

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Interviewed by Blackbird Publishing

haunted waters interviewMy interview by Blackbird Publishing about my tension-filled story in the “Haunted Waters” anthology. My story is based the actual loss of a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine destroyed in an “unexplained catastrophic event” in 1968 and sank in the Sargasso Sea.

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Freezing My Butt Off In Quebec Again

stairwell

PHOTO PROMPT © Jennifer Pendergast

“Of all the ridiculous…not Quebec again.”

Gerald sat on the steps heedless of melting snow making the rear of his jeans cold and wet. He propped his elbows on his knees and set his forlorn looking face in his hands. His gaze darted around the concrete stairwell. “Le Petit Champlain. I know where I am. A damned quaint, picturesque tourist hole.”

He stared upward as if seeing through the clouds. “Look, I’m trying to find the ultimate evil down here. Get your bloody coordinates straight for once.”

“Sorry,” said the chagrined voice in his ear. “We’re still experiencing technical difficulties.”

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Grandpa’s Hippie Birthday Cake

hippie

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

“What about this one, Grandpa?” Ten-year-old Mia pulled on Tom’s arm dragging him through the bakery section of the party emporium.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding,” he said exaggerating his frown. “I can feel myself becoming diabetic just looking at that awful thing.

“But you were a hippie a long time ago, right?” she giggled.

“Not exactly,” he mused. “Sure, I’m old, but I don’t remember eating anything like that.

Tom looked at her smiling face and lamented the world she was growing up in. Sure, the world of his childhood was far from perfect, but it had hope.

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Review of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (2025)

ff movie

© James Pyles

When I saw the DVD of The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) at the library this morning, I was really excited and grabbed it immediately. That’s not because I thought it was going to be a great film and I was looking forward to seeing it. Actually, from everything I’d heard, it was a terrible film and I wanted to watch it so I could pan it.

I know. That’s a horrible attitude to have if you’re going to review a film, but that’s what popped into my head.

Actually, the film did have little moments that I liked. Little ones.

Spoiler Alert! This review is full of them. You have been warned.

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The Anthology “Haunted Waters” Is Now For Sale!

haunted waters

Cover art for the anthology “Haunted Waters.”

Almost sixty years ago, the American nuclear submarine USS Hollander sank in the Sargasso Sea to a depth of 3,000 meters under mysterious circumstances. Today, pirates operating the deep-sea submersible Thetis led by notorious weapons merchant Simon Harris are attempting to recover her nuclear arsenal. However when they find the Hollander, someone or something is still on board.

That’s just a taste of my short story “The Wreck of the USS Hollander” featured in the brand new ghost story anthology Haunted Waters edited by Jamie Ferguson.

My story  was inspired by a couple of television shows I saw as a kid that I don’t remember much about now. I do remember something about a submarine that had sunk years before, where there was no possibility of life, still sending out an S.O.S.

I also remember that it totally creeped me out.

Here’s some more:

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Terry’s Day At The Amusement Park

amused

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

Doctors would have called him neurodivergent if they had been able to submit him to various standardized tests. In truth, Terry (he liked the name for some reason so gave it to himself) was far more alien than that.

He thought he may have started out life as a normal boy, but as he grew older, his parents became afraid, especially after the neighborhood pets started messily dying.

The amusement park amused him, but the sign “Maximum 50” was being flaunted. There were a lot more than fifty people in that park. Terry decided to do something about the excess.

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Has Social Media Made “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” Seem Worse Than It Is?

sfa banner

Promotional art for the Paramount Plus show “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.”

I’ve read that episodes 1 and 2 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy were available to watch for free on YouTube, but I could only find episode 1, Kids These Days. So be it. I watched the thing.

But why?

I mean, everything I’ve heard, well almost everything, about the show says it stinks. It’s awful. It’s horrible. It makes no sense.

I’d watched at least some of the Starfleet Academy Red Carpet video hosted by Celia Rose Gooding who played Uhura in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Between her and the junior (by age) cast members of SFA, it was like watching a bunch of undisciplined, uneducated, and spoiled teenagers with rich Mommies and Daddies prance around being impressed with themselves in their designer clothes that they didn’t have to pay for.

It was terrible. I could hardly stand it. I wonder how Robert Picardo, who is at least an adult, could stand it?

That doesn’t tell you why I forced myself to watch SFA.

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Looking Up

archways

PHOTO PROMPT © Jennifer Pendergast

This was supposed to be a movie set but in spite of the traditional harsh and hot lighting, the details were too exact.

“Hello?” Where had the crew gone? Was it lunch yet?

He tried to look back at the doors. He swore he left them open but he couldn’t hear the noises from outside the studio and it was getting warmer.

Then his neck started hurting, but he couldn’t stop looking up. Oddly, it wasn’t the colorful stained-glass windows that attracted him but the stone faces instead.

They became animated and sang as one, “Welcome to the afterlife, Scott.”

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The Backyard Pond at Dad’s House

ice pond

PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

“Oh, crap.”

Jeremy had been surprised when he was given Dad’s house in his will. They hadn’t even talked in ten years. Then he visited the property and found out why.

“You died on Christmas and are making me deal with your junky place for New Years,” he said.

The backyard pond was not only filled with trash and frozen over, but something was strange.

“What is that, plastic mesh?”

He kicked at it with his shoe and it grabbed back.

“No! What?” Jeremy was pulled off his feet as something cold and hungry sucked him into the small abyss.

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