The Times They Are A-Changin’

the ball

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Trevor shivered in the cold wind as he made his way up W 45th street toward Times Square.

It had worked. Bobby Kennedy had originally supported his brother’s plan to bomb the Cuban missile sites. Fortunately, Trevor Ross was a historian and a time traveler. He blackmailed Bobby the same way Hoover had. Then something went wrong.

Yes, Kennedy had his secret meetings with the Soviet ambassador. However, what happened between them not only averted 1962’s Cuban missile crisis, but had changed everything when Trevor returned to 1980. How had New York City become the capitol of a Communist America?

Continue reading →

Does Santa Claus Climb Down Broken Chimneys?

abandoned

PHOTO PROMPT © Rowena Curtin

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

“Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child, Holy Infant so tender and mild…”

Derek crouched by the fire barrel rubbing his hands together while Anna sang Christmas songs to her little girls.

“Another homeless fucking Christmas,” he muttered.

Old Saul backhanded him on the shoulder. “Hush and let those babies dream.”

“It’s all crap,” Derek hissed back. “There’s no blessing being homeless. Fifteen families freezing in this dump. No baby Jesus will save us.”

“You’re young yet, Derek.” Saul’s voice ground like a cement mixer. “Miracles aren’t money. Look around you. Being able to love in this hole is the miracle.”

Continue reading →

One Winter Evening

candles

PHOTO PROMPT © Susan Rouchard

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Soren basked in the candles’ glow as he had for so many years during this season. He neither celebrated the Hanukah lights nor the birth of the “Light of the World,” mercy forbid.

The presentation “Artwork by Candlelight” was a centuries old family tradition and he must leave soon. Explaining his presence would be awkward.

“Hello.”

He turned to the doorway. She couldn’t be more than five. “You are Daphine, the Baron’s granddaughter.”

“Who are you?”

He stared, considering a light snack, but then declined. The vampire came to honor his family’s legacy, not to dine on a distant cousin.

Continue reading →

Review of “Shoot the Devil 2: Dark Matter”

ginger

Screenshot from the internet.

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

I woke up this morning to find a wonderful review of the Christian SciFi anthology Shoot the Devil 2: Dark Matter by Ginger Nuts of Horror. “Dark Matter” features my short story “The Heavens Shall Declare His Glory.”

Tales by Richard Paolinelli, Frank B. Luke, and L. Jagi Lamplighter received high honors. That said, there was one drawback the reviewer found with the book:

Continue reading →

My SciFi Drabble “Hunter” is Available at “Martian Magazine”

martian

Screenshot of Martian Magazine web page.

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Martian Magazine publishes science fiction drabbles every Monday and Friday. I somehow missed that one of my drabbles was going to be coming out on Monday, November 30th.

Continue reading →

The Old Shoe

shoes

PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Alan sat in the laundry contemplating the last moments of his life. It was cold outside, and not just because of the weather.

You see things differently sitting on the floor. All these different types of footwear, all for different occasions and seasons.

They cut off his job, his finances, his friends, family, even his electric car. The people of diversity and acceptance were going to kill him because he didn’t fit in with their politics and dogma.

The door from outside opened. It was Brevoort. “Still time to join us before the end.”

Alan threw a shoe at him.

Continue reading →

Review of “The Soldier: Rise of the Jain, Book One” (2018)

soldier

The cover of Neal Asher’s 2018 novel, “The Soldier.”

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Last night I finished Neal Asher’s novel The Soldier: Rise of the Jain, Book One (2018). This one was harder for me to get into than some of the others.

I’ve read a number (but only a fraction of those published) of Asher’s novels, both series and stand alone.

One of the challenges in general is keeping track of all the different characters. It’s not just the Polity and Prator, but now we have the Species, the android Angel, the haiman Orlandine, various AIs including Earth Central (EC), not to mention the mysterious Dragon and the more mysterious Librarian.

Continue reading →

Flowers and Rust

flower car

PHOTO PROMPT © Fleur Lind

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Things like the “flower Datsun” weren’t all that unusual, but people seemed to make a big deal over them.

“There’s worse ways to repurpose your old rig.”

He paused on his walk to regard the object. No doubt someone’s attempt at art or maybe a commentary on the environment.

“Plants are wilting and the chassis is rusting. Can’t really help the latter, but if you’re going to keep plants…”

He knocked on the door of the house belonging to the Datsun. No one answered but the hose was right there.

Jerry started spraying down the pots in the engine compartment.

Continue reading →

Caught in the Time Loop of Science Fiction Fandom

thing

Scene from the 1951 film “The Thing From Another World.”

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

There seems to be an ongoing war debate on social media about whether or not science fiction is inherently liberal/progressive or conservative.

I should say that “woke” is the more common word used for “liberal” or “progressive” although the two terms are not exactly synonyms. Since, in certain circles, “woke” is used as a pejorative, I’ll be using “progressive” in the body of this wee article.

It is (mostly) conceded that across the history of science fiction (and the length of that history is also under dispute) that SciFi has tended to be progressive relative to the era in which it was created.

I bolded that statement because depending on when the piece of science fiction was created, the definition of “progressive” might not fit what it is considered to be in 2023.

Side Note: I took the image above from the movie The Thing from Another World (1951). The military people tend to be conservative and the scientists liberals. The Air Force people end up destroying the monster while one scientist almost gets them killed trying to communicate with the superior, intelligent (and extremely violent) alien.

Continue reading →

Leap into the Panderverse: The End of Quantum Leap

QL season 2

Promotional graphic for “Quantum Leap” season 2

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

I really thought One Night in Koreatown was going to be the Let Them Play episode for season two of the current version of Quantum Leap starring Raymond Lee and Ernie Hudson.

I thought this because of how the showrunner and writers seriously spun the story, emphasizing only some aspects while ignoring the more important facts.

That episode, if you’ve read my blog or have seen the show, depicted the beginning of the 1992 Rodney King riots. I remember them well, because I lived only thirty miles or so from L.A. at the time.

Four white cops had been videoed brutally beating a black suspect named Rodney King. The officers were charged, arrested, and went to trial. All four were found not guilty. Outraged, the black community rioted and looted, but get this. The primary damage almost all in L.A.’s Koreatown.

Continue reading →