Tag Archives: james pyles

My Latest Interview and the Secret to Writing Good Adventure Stories

wobble cover held

© James Pyles

Over the weekend, I was interviewed by Jenn and Rob on their podcast MythBehaving about my writing. The main emphasis was my latest YA/Teen boys’ adventure A Wobblegong And His Boy, but we also discussed my science fiction/space opera My Legacy The Stars: A Tom Corbett Adventure.

We had a great time discussing how I see science fiction and writing in general based on my background. I grew up watching shows like the original Star Trek series as well as the original incarnations of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.

Beyond that, my “gateway drugs” into science fiction and fantasy were books like A Princess of Mars, The Time Traders, and The Skylark of Space.

Turns out as I see its, the secret to writing a good adventure novel people want to read resides somewhere in the past.

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What is a “Wobblegong?”

wobble cover held

© James Pyles

My Teen/YA Boys’ adventure novel A Wobblegong And His Boy has been available in both paperback and Kindle formats for nearly four months now. I’ve been on a number of podcasts promoting the book (I record the next one tomorrow) and blanketing social media with promotional material. However, as many of you know, one of the most difficult tasks when you are an indie author and have been published in mainly smaller presses is marketing, that is, getting the word out to the point where a significant number of people buy, read, and especially review your book.

In other words, I need to build a bigger audience.

Raconteur Press has been doing its best in this area and for the novels in their Boy’s Adventure Books line, but as I said, they’re a smaller press with limited resources.

So here I am sending “positive waves” (I just rewatched the 1970 film Kelly’s Heroes if you don’t get the reference) into the universe in the hopes of grabbing someone’s curiosity about why my book would be an absolute GREAT read, especially for boys between the ages of ten and eighteen.

In interviews, one of the questions I’m asked most often is “what is a Wobblegong?”

It’s a very good question and kind of difficult to answer because Wobble’s nature is rather mercurial. It’s in a state of almost constant flux not only in shape but in behavior and half the time, even Remmie, the book’s teenage protagonist, has no idea what Wobble is up to.

I’m posting part of Wobble’s “origin story” (everybody loves a secret origin story) to give current and future readers a handle on where Wobble came from.

Oh, keep reading after the end of the excerpt for links to the three interviews that are already online.

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My Novel “Our Legacy, The Stars” Got a Five-Star Review

tom corbett

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

I’ve plastered this all over social media so I might as well say it on my blog as well. My space opera novel Our Legacy, The Stars: A Tom Corbett Adventure has received its first five-star review on both Amazon and goodreads.

As many of you know, this novel was originally presented on Amazon Vella as a 16-episode series, much like the old magazine and movie serials of the past. Classic speculative and adventure fiction, everything from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “Tarzan” and “John Carter of Mars” as well as Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes” stories were originally serialized in magazines (no, I don’t hold myself up to those masters at all, I’m just making the point).

In the movie serials of the 1930s and 40s, science fiction adventures from Flash Gordon to Buck Rogers were presented in theaters a chapter per week, bringing audiences back again and again to see how the hero or heroine was saved from the latest cliffhanger.

Tom Corbett: Space Cadet was a child of that era, specifically the early to mid-1950s. He’s also appeared in everything from books to comic books and now, finally, has emerged into our 21st century, updated for the science, backstories, and characterization.

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Better Late Than Never: Interviewed by Tina Holland

tina

Tina Holland as shown on her blog.

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

This is kind of embarrassing. I’ve suffered another memory glitch. Some months ago, I was asked if I wanted to be interviewed by my writing. Of course, I said yes and proceeded to answer the interviewer’s questions.

She told me when to expect it to be published and sent me a link via email. I swear I meant to get to it, but I must have been distracted.

I was cleaning out some old emails and came across the one from Tina Holland just a little while ago. The interview went live over two months ago.

Sorry, Tina.

But as I said, better late than never:

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Video Introduction to My Novelette “Ice”

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

My first self-published novelette Ice was published December 2021, but like a lot of indie and self-published works, it needs all the help that it can get just to let people know it exists.

To that end, and to market my “brand” (as it were), I’ve taken to TikTok, creating little two and three minute videos. No I’m not some cute kid dancing around or making funny movies, but it beats the equipment I’d have to buy to record vids for YouTube.

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Third 5-Star Review of “Ice” on Amazon

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

Hooray! Frankly, I’ll take just about any sort of review on “Ice” just so it’s noticed, but I love how all three (so far) are five-stars on Amazon.

Click on the link to find the review and read it. If you’ve read “Ice” and haven’t reviewed it on Amazon and Goodreads, please, please, please do so. Even if the review is less than complementary, I’ll learn more about how to improve my writing.

Here’s my “blurb:”

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“Ice” by James Pyles is Now Available

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

Admittedly, I’ve tried to sell this story in various forms for quite some time without any luck. I even asked a friend for help, thinking maybe he could suggest the proper venue. However, it didn’t take.

So I thought of self-publishing it. Here it is: Ice by James Pyles. No anthologies, no indie publishers, this one is all mine.

Good thing, too. When I went over my submitted story, I found horrible errors I never saw before. I took weeks just reading and re-reading “Ice” until I finally got it to the point where I thought it was ready (I’ll write a separate blog post about my first experience with Kindle Digital Publishing (KDP) by the by).

Here’s the synopsis I wrote for Amazon:

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My Novella “Time’s Abyss” Has Four 5-Star Ratings at Goodreads

time's abyss

Promotional image of the cover for “Time’s Abyss.”

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

My premiere science fiction novella Time’s Abyss now has four 5-star ratings on Goodreads. You can also find it in digital or hardcopy form at Amazon and any of your favorite online booksellers.

So far the Goodreads and Amazon ratings are excellent. Don’t miss out on this terrific SciFi, time travel, alternate universe adventure.

Just to give you a taste, here’s another brief excerpt:

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I’m Featured in “Who’s Who of Emerging Writers 2021”

who's who

Cover art for Who’s Who if Emerging Writers 2021

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

I made the list of Who’s Who of Emerging Writers 2021. The blurb at Amazon says:

In the second annual Who’s Who of Emerging Writers compiled and published by Sweetycat Press, the bios of 128 writers worldwide are included, along with seven essays by professionals in the writing field that should be of interest to every writer at all stages in their careers as writers. An emerging writer is one who has reached a level of proficiency and publication to be deemed a professional writer but not yet reached the level of fame and recognition they deserve. Their bios are as interesting as any story or novel. In this Who’s Who are bios of novelists, short story writers, poets, playwrights, screenwriters and journalists. In this 2021 issue discover WHO the 128 emerging writers are, WHAT they have written, WHERE they live, WHEN they started writing, and WHY they write. Many of them have websites where you can find out even more about them. Open the pages of the Who’s Who of Emerging Writers 2021 and enter a world of unmatched writing talent.

My bio says in part:

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Third Place Winner: Building Your Brand by James Pyles

james

James Pyles – photo taken by David Pyles

EDIT: All three winners will have their articles published in the May edition of Inner Circle Writer’s Magazine.

by Steven Lester Carr

The panel of judges for the Building Your Brand project selected the top three entries. Today I post the third place entry written by James Pyles. Friday I posted the first place winning entry written by Elaine Marie Carnegie. Yesterday I posted the second place entry written by Peter Astle.

Third Place Winner: Building Your Brand by James Pyles

As an author, building your brand might seem obvious. Create a website /blog, use it to advertise your works, such as novels published, anthologies contributed to, and so on. Then link the heck out of them on social media (Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, etc…).

But everyone does that.

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