Tag Archives: anthologies

2024: A Year in Review

2024

It’s close enough to the New Year for me to post my annual “year in review” comments. 2024 has been pretty good as far as he number of stories I’ve had published.

It started out with my short story “I Don’t Want To Be Human” appearing in the Cloaked Press anthology Spring Into SciFi 2024. This tale goes back to my roots in terms of sapient robots, AI, while flying in the face of the common trope that all humanoid robots want to be like people.

Next up, I’m particularly proud of the 16-part science fiction serial I wrote for Starry Eyed Press called Our Legacy, The Stars: A Tom Corbett Adventure. It’s currently on Amazon’s Kindle Vella platform, but Vella is going away (you still have time to read it). The folks at Starry Eyed say they’ll republish my work in book form, hopefully in the coming year. I’ll let you know.

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2023: Reviewing My Year in My Stories

2023

2023 – the year as it was.

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

The new year is rapidly approaching and it’s time for me to take you back through my accomplishments of 2023. They are better than last year but not as good as the year before. Oh well.

Let’s start off with my SciFi short story “Fall of the Tower” my first tale of 2023 published in One-Way Ticket: A Science Fiction Anthology by Starry Eyed Press. I’d been trying to get some version of this story published for years and finally hit upon the right presentation.

I took the story’s title from the Biblical tale of the “Tower of Babel” found in Genesis 11:1-9. The story began with that Biblical quote, but the publisher replaced it because they do not want to represent any particular religious viewpoint. So it goes.

This was followed by my short story “The Price” featured in Fantastic Schools, Volume Six and is my second magical schools tale published for Wisecraft Publishing. I’m not a big fantasy or magic school writer, but I’m proud of the magical system and story I crafted here. There’s always a price for using magic and it’s typically blood. Sometimes it is life and even many lives.

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Find My Books At “The Big Based Book Sale!”

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

There’s a massive book sale going on at The Big Based Book Sale! Let’s face it, the ideology behind modern entertainment including reading doesn’t rule everything. After all, just yesterday (as I write this), I cited a Bounding Into Comics article which quoted actor Russell Crowe (who starred in the 2003 film Master and Commander) as saying:

“There was an article recently in GQ asking the question, you know, why are so many 30-year-olds obsessed with Master and Commander? And there’s a lot of reasons. And one of the things that they said in the article was that they believe because everybody on board the boat and it’s a very masculine situation on board that boat, you know, but everybody has a job. Everybody’s on this adventure together. They’re all willing to work as a unit. They’re all willing to be led by this one guy. In fact, they love that guy and they want to do their very best for this guy.”

After all, why do you think the movie Top Gun: Maverick (2022) was such a success? Even younger people are craving old world examples of masculinity, honor, basic values, and heroics. New books steeped in those virtues still exit.

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69415

69415
If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

I suppose the number seems mysterious, but it’s born out of curiosity. I’ve written and submitted eleven short stories between December 2021 and today (February 11, 2022). One was already rejected, so I didn’t count it, but ten stories are still “in play,” still submitted and being considered.

Of those ten stories, the word count total is 69,415 words. A small novel basically.

So I thought I’d share a little bit of each of them. There’s no guarantee that any of them will be accepted for publication. But it’ll still be fun to share the first paragraph of each one in no particular order.

Story 9390

The Mahli war cruiser attacked the starship Raeb from below the system’s ecliptic plane, accelerating from behind a ring of asteroids where it was hiding to mask its waste heat. It took less than three seconds for their weapon to form a transitory miniature singularity. It distorted and then shredded major portions of the Raeb’s hull, exposing over half of the ship’s interior to space. But that would be the only shot they’d get.

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Publications in 2021 and the Impending New Year

2021

© James Pyles

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

I’ve noticed other indie authors doing this sort of thing, creating a graphic representation of the books and stories that were published in the past year. Sounded like an interesting idea, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I’ve already posted the graphic on social media, but thought I’d add some details for my blog readers.

Here’s a list of my publications from the beginning of 2021 to the end:

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Publishers and My Trust Issues

 

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Promotional image for the Black Hare Press anthology “Lockdown Sci-Fi #3”

Remember this? I announced that my short story “The Apollo Containment” was to be published in the Black Hare Press anthology Lockdown Sci-Fi #3. I’ve even got my signed copy of the contract to prove it.

However, last night when I happened across the publisher’s Facebook page promoting Lockdown Sci-Fi #4 including a list of stories and their authors (and I wasn’t on the list), I asked about it. I got a rather terse response like “Where did you hear that? No story is accepted until we announce it here.” I immediately deleted my FB comment. They also mentioned something about stories being shuffled around, so maybe “Apollo” will still see the light of day, but who knows?

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Another Mysterious Announcement

unknown

Image found at compellingreads.co.uk – no attribution given

This morning, I received another bit of good news, but I’m sworn to secrecy, at least for the next 24 hours or so, until it becomes official. All I can say is that the email made my day, especially since I was up at a quarter til four in the morning because I couldn’t sleep.

Actually, it gave me time to do the research on a short story submission due in about ten days or so. I’ve been struggling with this one until inspiration seized me, as it usually does, when I’m trying to get some rest.

I spent the early morning working Google into the ground, collecting links, beginning to create characters, and I was starting to outline the plot when the clock told me I only had an hour left before I had to leave for my day job.

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Stories to Chill Your Halloween Night!

Just in time for Halloween!

Fall into Fantasy 2019 Anthology

I’m thrilled to announce that this fantasy love and horror story is available on Amazon now!

fantasy

Cover art for the Cloaked Press anthology “Fall Into Fantasy 2019”

Here’s what you can expect from my short story “The Demon in the Mask:”

Andre Paul LeClair was an orphan, an infant found on the steps of a monastery. Raised in the midst of Priests and Nuns, he grew to be an intelligent, charming boy, and then a handsome, bewitching man. Coming to the attention of a sinister Cardinal, LeClair was whisked away to remote mountain Chateau. Trained for a decade by soldiers, spies, and courtesans, he was honed to be the perfect instrument of assassination. His target, the secret ruler of the Kingdom, the Princess and witch Katia Asa Vajda. But when the moment came to liberate a nation, would he kill the princess, or fall in love with her?

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Story Submission Limbo

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Found at metoffice.gov.uk. No image attribution listed

This is definitely a newbie author question, but I suspect it’s something just about every short story writer has come across at one time or another. I have several stories that have been languishing at the submission phase for months longer than their due dates or even well after the actual publication date of the target anthology or periodical. Emails to the publishers either go unanswered, or the answer is “I’ll get back to you,” and then they never do.

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Interviewed by L. Jagi Lamplight Wright from Superversive Press

wright

Promotional image of author and editor L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright

A few months ago, I wrote about being interviewed by Jensen Reed, co-owner of Pixie Forest Publishing.

A few days back, I was interviewed again, this time by L. Jagi Lamplight Wright at Superversive Press. One of the differences here is that I participated in Jagi’s “Guinea Pig” fiction writing class, a curriculum she was experimenting on last November, so she knows my writing in a different way.

Click on this LINK to read the full interview, which includes a brief excerpt from the first chapter of my WIP novel.