Tag Archives: fantasy

One Pale Blue Dot on Ice, Please

freezing

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

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Another Valentine’s Day alone. Cassandra considered turning the heat up in her small apartment but her rental agreement said she paid for heating and cooling. She pulled the blanket higher around her while watching TV. The big news was that Voyager 1 had sent back what would be the “Pale Blue Dot” photo of Earth.

“Whoopie.” She tucked her freezing feet under her butt. It was no use. The streets were paved with ice so she wasn’t going out. “Screw it.” Cass got up and opened the chest. “Now where did I put those global warming potions?” thought the witch.

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2023: Reviewing My Year in My Stories

2023

2023 – the year as it was.

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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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Water Me

green jug

PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

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Ken wasn’t getting any younger or thinner, so every morning took himself out for a walk. Fall had arrived, and he enjoyed strolling in brisk weather.

Then it turned weird.

“Hey, Buddy. Stop a second.”

He was walking past the tennis court. The green watering jug marked Ken’s halfway point. He stopped walking and looked around.

“Who said that?”

“Me, the plant. Gee, you’re dense. I’ve been hanging my jug out here every day but you don’t take the hint.”

“A talking plant?

“I need a little more water before the hibernation thing kicks in. Be a pal, will you?”

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The Name

yarn

PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz

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Griffith hated “blipping” into random places, especially late at night, but that was how the quest worked. This yarn shop wasn’t an unanticipated destination. The next clue was here. In fact (he quickly counted the words he already had) this should be the last one. Then he could assemble The Name.

This had been centuries in coming. Once he puzzled out The Name and said it out loud, He would come and the world would be safe. But where was it hidden?

“Please don’t hurt me.” The woman crouching in the corner was a beautiful last word for The Name.

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Dinner for Two

dinner

PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

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Larry sat at his usual table by the window, always dinner for one. His wife had died when their daughter Chrissie was four. He tried to be a good Dad, but that ended with the drunken car accident. Chrissie was ten when she died and it was his fault.

A few weeks ago, he found he could go back, but only to that one day. He relived it all, terror making him tremble as he got her into the car. He returned to the present not sure if he had changed enough.

“Hi, Daddy.” Now it was dinner for two.

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Book Review of “Anonymous Rex” by Eric Garcia (2000)

dino

© James Pyles

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I only heard about the novel Anonymous Rex by Eric Garcia (2000) because the anniversary of the TV movie’s release happened recently (actually, the movie was based on the prequel Casual Rex). The film’s plot seemed like a thinly-veiled attempt to cast the hidden dinosaur society (I’ll get to that in a minute) as the LGBTQ community if it were still closeted. Since I had just finished a rather huge and pondering tome, I thought a little light reading might be in order.

Fortunately, Garcia’s book was in my local public library system and I was soon in the business of reading. Also fortunately, the plot was quite a bit different than the film’s.

This will take a bit to set up. In this world (the book was published in 2000), some twelve or so dinosaur species have survived the extinction event 65 million years ago. Over the long haul, they’ve evolved just enough so that, with the proper complicated costuming, they can pass successfully as human beings. The decision to peacefully co-exist with us was made a few million years ago rather than the dinos destroying a nascent human race when they had the chance.

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Book Review of “The Way of Kings” (2010)

way

© James Pyles

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A few months back, my teenage grandson loaned me his copy of Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings (2010). My grandson is a huge fan and wanted to share his enjoyment with me. I really like that.

The first thing I noticed is the book is long, really long. I tend to read novels in the 300-500 page range (or so), but Sanderson’s tome weighs in at 1252 pages. Yikes!

I didn’t read any of the reviews or summaries so I could come at it fresh.

It’s a hard book to get into. For the first several hundred pages, the action switches between a number of players who seemingly have nothing to do with each other beyond living in the same universe. What the heck?

I mean after the mysterious prologue, we see the assassin Szeth-son-of-Vallano executing a king and then he disappears until somewhere in the middle of the book (he does play a pivotal role in the climax).

At one point, Kaladin is a soldier, but when next we see him, he’s a slave.

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The Temple of Heaven

temple

PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart

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Haoyu Yue Zhan, entering the courtyard of the Temple of Heaven, took a deep breath. Western tourists visited a pale replica of it in Beijing. He had traveled thousands of miles to visit the actual temple hidden in the Kunlun mountains in Xinjiang.

The descendent of famed Yue Fei was not here to study Tai Chi. Here was the center of Earth and Heaven and the gods awaited above. He did not seek paradise, but rather a way to prevent the Earth from becoming a wasteland. Nuclear war was only days away and he needed the power to stop it.

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Frank and the Plot of the Hypnotizing Slime, Chapter 8

chapter 8

© James Pyles

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In the evil headquarters, Kayden was pacing back and forth near the entrance while Hazel was looking through Leah’s telescope.

“I still can’t see anything. Oh wait.” Hazel focused the lens. “I think I can see them at the edge of town. Why aren’t they going in.”

She waited a few more minutes. “I can’t see Leah anymore but what is that?”

Kayden heard the worry in Hazel’s voice and walked over to her. “What is it?”

“A human girl with a net. She’s got Frank and the others.”

“All of them?”

“I still can’t see Leah.”

“That’s because Leah isn’t there.”

Both Seth and Hazel turned to the entrance and saw Leah crawling in and she really looked mad.

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Strings

amanda

PHOTO PROMPT © Amanda Forestwood

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14-year-old Stace McPherson was drawn to the musician’s unusual stringed instrument. The backyard wedding reception was over. He was supposed to be helping clean but he wanted to touch it. The musician, no one called him anything else, had played the most amazing tunes, like from another world. He looked around. Just the last few guests. The musician was saying good-bye to the bride and groom. He had to do it. Stace let his fingers glide across the strings. As he did, something creative entered him. Ten years later with his own guitar, he accepted the best new artist Grammy.

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