Screenshot from Horror Tree.
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Actually slightly less than 48 hours as I write this. The western/fantasy/horror anthology will include my western, steampunk, vampire tale “Blood Trail” featuring Consulting Occult Detective E.E. Durbin and her partner former-Sheriff Bobby Bill Thornton.
Go to the kickstarter page to add your support or just to see how we’re doing.
PHOTO PROMPT ©Dale Rogerson
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Angelique walked with beauty and silence into the alleyway. It was overgrown and filled with lost, neglected, and leftover items. She loved it.
These urban lending libraries were common and had been around so long no one gave them a second thought. Bring a book you want to share, open the door, exchange it for something you want to read, shut the door, and leave. What could be simpler?
Removing a tattered fantasy novel, the witch placed her ages old copy of the Necronomicon inside. Cage had exactly twenty-one minutes to fetch it and start the end of their world.
Cover art or “Ruth’s and Ann’s Guide to Time Travel”
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My science fiction short story “The Joker and the Thief” was just accepted for publication into the anthology “Ruth’s and Ann’s Guide to Time Travel, Volume 2.” As I understand it Gemini Wordsmiths is the parent company for Celestial Echo Press.
I’ve worked with Ann and Ruth before and am gratified that they like my small time travel tale. They received so many quality stories that they had to create a second volume to contain them all.
I’ve wanted to have some version of my story published for a while now. Here’s a small sample:
Cover art for issue 11 of the SciFanSat e-zine
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My flash fiction horror tale “Olivia Comes Home” has been accepted for publication at the SciFanSat monthly e-zine due to be published online on Saturday, June 29th, 2024, in their eleventh issue (the cover for the tenth issue is above).
This is a wee story with a word count of 545 and follows a goth girl named Olivia who is trying to find someplace where she will be accepted.
© James Pyles
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Last night I just finished book seven in Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries series called Fugitive Telemetry. The story is actually set between books five and six, but that doesn’t take anything away from the adventure.
SecUnit, otherwise known as “Murderbot,” is basically a cybernetic being, mostly machine with some organic parts. They (technically SecUnit has no gender but I always think of her as female for some reason) is a Security Unit designed to provide bodyguard and security protection for humans conducting dangerous off world activities. They are property and although capable of independent thought, are forbidden from independent action. There are consequences.
Our SecUnit managed to override their internal governor in the first book becoming an independent entity. Thanks to her former employers, who are from a very egalitarian space station orbiting a planet currently being terraformed, she (I keep saying “she”) has more rights than she knows what to do with.
PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
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“Please don’t struggle,” She gently crooned. “Don’t you see how we’re honoring you?”
“Honor?” Only his face was exposed in the webbing. “You call being eaten an honor? You’re going to kill me, my children, my grandbabies. How is that an honor?”
“Dearest offering.” She stroked his hair lovingly. “You are an atonement for what your ancestors did to us. You will sacrifice your flesh for their sins.”
“That was ages ago. You control everything now.”
“It doesn’t matter. We will always be the oppressed little fly. Nothing appeases our appetite. Consider you and your family a morsel of compensation.”
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I mentioned before how I was going to be interviewed by Superversive SF about my short story The Last Oasis of Mars published at High Tower Magazine.
That happened a little while ago and here is the YouTube video:
Promotional art for “The Last Oasis of Mars.”
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It’s here!
More specifically, my short story The Last Oasis of Mars: From the Tales of the Razzle Dazzle is at High Tower Magazine.
Join (a fictionalized version of) writer Jack London and the Captain and crew of the pirate ship “Razzle Dazzle” or “Dazzler” as she attempts her greatest adventure, raiding the last British outpost on the dying planet Mars.
What is the secret of the “Fire” mines beneath the oasis?
© James Pyles
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Last night I finished reading Michael Crichton’s 1999 novel Timeline. I’ve always been a sucker for a time travel story, and this one is more unusual than most.
First, Crichton, who passed away in 2008, was not only an excellent writer, but well-versed in science, medicine, and history. His character descriptions are particularly good, and he always managed to pack plenty of action in his books as well as accurate (historical in this case) details.
My one complaint was his explanation of time travel. Crichton didn’t so much describe traveling back in time as jumping from one quantum reality to another. But the explanation presupposed that the reality being jumped into runs parallel to our own (since, as the novel states, time travel is impossible). Yet a person trapped in the 14th century manages to write a note among scholarly papers in a French abbey that is found by his coworkers in 1999.
I skipped over that part and just pretended it worked.
PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox
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She was alone in the deserted park two blocks from home when she heard his breathing. It was too late to run. Rough hands grabbed her from behind. Instead of screaming, she whirled around in his grip and exposed her vampire’s fangs.
“What? You too?” Nigel retracted his fangs and stood back looking disappointed.
“Oh darn.” The voice came from their right and a slender, dark-haired vamp in goth black appeared.
One by one, they emerged looking rather sheepish.
Desiree, also known as “shortcut girl,” said, “If a real person comes along, I’ve got dibs.” Naturally they all started arguing.
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