“Our Legacy, The Stars: A Tom Corbett Adventure” Now Available as a Digital and Paperback Book

tom corbett

Cover art for my book “Our Legacy, The Stars: A Tom Corbett Adventure.”

It’s here!

Once a 16-part serial adventure on Kindle Vella, Our Legacy, The Stars: A Tom Corbett Adventure is now available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback formats (It might still take a couple of days for Amazon to actually link and stock the book in all markets).

Based on the 1950s television show Tom Corbett Space Cadet, the book is updated in terms of our modern understanding of science as well as more nuanced characterizations and plot.

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“I Told You Not To Summon Demons”

kent

PHOTO PROMPT © Kent Bonham

“They were using my books to play D&D again,” groused Mervin. He examined the tome on the big rock in his backyard. The persistent stains were centuries old, but it was due to rain soon. Kenny shouldn’t have left it out.

“Sorry, Grandpa. I was just coming for it.” The twelve-year-old had crept up behind him, a credit to his heritage.

“I told you not to play with my books.”

“They’re so cool, only…”

“Only what?”

“I was reciting the markings like you taught me and…”

“Did any of your friends get eaten? I told you not to summon demons.”

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My New Stories in “Drabbles: First Contact” (2025)

promo

Promotional image for my stories in the anthology “Drabbles: First Contact.”

My first publications for 2025 are now available in the Starry Eyed Press anthology Drabbles: First Contact (Amazon US). Click the following for the global link.

For those of you who don’t know, a “drabble” is a complete story that is exactly 100 words long, no more, no less.

“First Contact” is a reference to humanity’s first encounter with an extraterrestrial species. These contacts can be friendly or terrifying or a lot of other things.

Twenty-six authors contributed a total of over thirty drabbles to this anthology. It is currently available for Kindle but will also be coming out soon in paperback.

Four of my stories made the cut:

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Book Review of “Error Code: 22 Tales of Robots and AI” (2025)

error code

Cover art for the “Error Code” anthology

Yesterday, I finished reading the small anthology Error Code: 22 Tales of Robots and AI by Eric Fomley and Addison Smith.

It was produced by Shacklebound Books which I gather is a small, indie publisher. They’ve got quite a collection of anthologies listed on Amazon.

Each story is quite short and the book is a quick read (130 pages in print, though it’s available only on Kindle as far as I can tell).

Like many such anthologies, the stories fall into three categories:

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The Cure for Cancer

view from train

PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart

I’m dying.

I’ve been riding this train to visit my children, well now, my grandchildren, for over thirty years. My dear wife Jeannie passed away six years ago, bless her. I’m the only one left of my generation and the docs say the cancer is spreading.

It’s spreading across our land as well. That old shantytown used to be a neighborhood sheltering good working men, families, children playing ball in the street.

The world’s falling apart and it doesn’t matter which party promises to bring prosperity. We are no longer represented. I pray I die before the bloodshed of revolution.

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Review of “Dead Beat” (2006), Book Seven in the Dresden Files Series

dead beat

© James Pyles

Yesterday, I finished book seven in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series Dead Beat. Like the rest of the books in this collection, the title is a play on words. This time, Harry Dresden faces the threat of necromancers, users of magic of the dead.

Harry’s life gets increasingly worse with each book and sometimes I marvel that he’s still alive.

Oh, before I go on, since this book was published in 2006, there are spoilers aplenty.

Harry’s detective friend Karrin Murphy goes off to Hawaii on vacation with a man (or being) of great power who Harry doesn’t trust. By now, the readers of this series know that at some point, Harry and Murphy are going to become lovers, but currently, he’s too noble and self-righteous to object to her plans.

He’s contacted by Mavra, his deadly vampire foe, who threatens to reveal certain illegal acts Murphy committed (all performed while helping Harry) and destroy her life if Harry doesn’t find and bring her something called the “Book of Kemmler.”

As it turns out, this book holds the secret to summoning a vast number of the spirits of the dead and focusing the energy in order to turn one necromancer into basically a god.

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Iconic

icon grill

PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz

Time traveling tourist Glinn Tanning staggered into the restaurant dressed in surplus fatigues and dragging a canvas rucksack in his right hand. It contained a couple of canisters of pepper spray and the makings of several Molotov cocktails.

“Where are the protesters?” he complained to the bored looking woman behind the counter.

“We’re closing soon,” she said. “Didn’t you see the sign?”

“Where is everyone? Isn’t this December 1st?”

“It’s the last day in January,” she said. “You’re late.”

He checked his wrist-mounted chromotron. “Damn. Eight years late. I knew I should have had this thing adjusted before I left.

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Podcast Promoting “Shoot the Devil 3: Martyr’s Miitia” This Friday

promo podcast

Promotional image for the “Shoot the Devil: Martyr’s Militia” podcast.

UPDATE – February 1, 2025: Here’s the public link for you to view the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/live/qIGZAddSpk4

I’ve been promoting the anthology Shoot the Devil 3: Martyr’s Militia for a number of weeks now. It features my short story “The Book of Names.”

The anthology is on sale at Amazon through this weekend (February 1 and 2) for only 99 cents. Great time to buy (and read and of course, review).

A nearly-immortal man who is currently known as Griffin has been searching for the letters and syllables that make up the Name, the one word that will banish evil from the Earth and bring a lasting peace.

He is pursued by a seemingly inexhaustible horde of demons known as “Legion” who want to stop him. Along the way, Griffin has collected the Book of Names, which includes the appellations of many demons. To say a demon’s name in its presence will destroy it.

However, on the threshold of achieving the final letters, Griffin is stopped, not only by Legion but by a woman who may hold the secret to completing his quest. Will she help him or aid his enemies, thus dooming all of humankind?

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Eviction Day

beach junk

PHOTO PROMPT © Mr. Binks

Eliab strolled through another collection of junk. It was only a small sample of the enormous task they were facing. They had given so-called “modern humans” 200,000 years to build a civilization harmonious with themselves and their planet.

As predicted, they failed miserably. He was of the majority opinion, but “the Big Guy” kept giving them chances. Finally, the literal weight of evidence against humanity became evident even to Him.

The last of them had been evicted, resettled on thousands of primitive worlds to continue the experiment. Now Eliab’s team would have to spend millennia reclaiming Earth for productive use.

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Book Review: “A Scanner Darkly” (1977) by Philip K. Dick

scanner darkly

© James Pyles

Philip K. Dick’s 1977 novel A Scanner Darkly is about drug addition and the physical, mental, and legal consequences it brings about. The character Bob Arctor/Fred is prey, predator, and victim.

The book is also autobiographical since it (through fiction) chronicles Dick’s own experiences with addiction and the drug culture in the 1970s.

I’m not much of a fan of Dick’s writing. Oh, I’ve read his “big hits” including The Man in The High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but I felt the stories didn’t live up to the hype. I know I’m probably in the minority with that opinion, but so be it.

For my money, “Scanner” is Dick’s best novel. It’s not just the writing or the story. It’s how Dick took a destroyed part of his life and turned it into something, not only useful, but reorganized and creative. I really admire him for that. I think most of us wish we could do that with the parts of our lives we see as “damaged” or (Heaven help us) “destroyed.”

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