Tag Archives: novella

My Book “The Aliens” Has Been Accepted Into the Starry Eyed Press Series “Galactic Treks”

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Promotional image for the “Galactic Treks” series from Starry Eyed Press

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I’ve had a number of my works published by Starry Eyed Press before, but this one is different. A little while ago, they announced an open submission of a series called “Galactic Treks” The title is on purpose.

The general theme is “space opera,” but the word count can be anything from 5,000 up through novel length.

Wow. To be able to plot a story without worrying about exceeding a word count.

But that’s not all. Here are the specifics:

It should come as no surprise to hear that Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek franchise is one of the most endearing and enduring pieces of quality space opera in the world.

There was even a time, many years ago, when anybody was allowed to write a Star Trek novel and submit it to Simon and Shuster for review!

Sadly, those days are long gone and Paramount would prefer to work only with authors and writing staffs of their choosing in developing Star Trek novels, comics, episodes and films.

So where does that leave the rest of us aspiring Trek writers? We’re glad you asked.

The Galactic Treks line is your time to shine. We’re seeking novels, shorts and series that center on space exploration, optimism, a protagonist or a crew as members of something bigger (a fleet perhaps), and an emphasis on thinking one’s way to final resolve over simply blowing everything up.

So write a “Star Trek-type” story without literally writing Star Trek.

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My Novelette “The Haunting of the Ginger’s Regret” is Available Now!

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

My novelette The Haunting of the Ginger’s Regret, A 224-Verse Story, is now available from Amazon for download to your Kindle device. It’s published by Starry Eyed Press which also published my other (so far) 224-Verse novella The Fallen Shall Rise.

While both “Haunting” and “Fallen” exist in the same universe, the Andromeda galaxy is vast, plus the events they chronicle are likely hundreds or thousands of years apart, so the tales are unrelated.

Here’s the Amazon blurb for “The Haunting of the Ginger’s Regret:”

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“The Haunting of the Ginger’s Regret” Accepted by Starry Eyed Press

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Image: hongkiat.com

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My novella “The Haunting of the Ginger’s Regret” has been accepted by Starry Eyed Press for their 224-Verse. This will be the second story published in their Andromeda galaxy collection, the first being The Fallen Shall Rise.

“Haunting” is set in a different part of the galaxy and in a different era, so the two storylines are completely dissimilar. Those of you who are long-time readers of my blog know that the “Regret” and her pilot have had many adventures here. For publication, I changed quite a few things, so those older stories aren’t the same as what will soon appear in the 224-Verse.

I don’t have any cover or other graphics yet, but here’s a brief sample of the story:

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Review of “Rogue Protocol,” Part 3 in “The Murderbot Diaries”

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Cover art for the novella Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

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I’m continuing to thoroughly enjoy Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries series having just finished Rogue Protocol, the third novella in the collection (and still incredibly overpriced, even for such quality). I’ve already reviewed All Systems Red and Artificial Condition.

Side Note: I’ve mentioned this before in one of the previous reviews, but even though the security unit/murderbot has no gender, even though partially organic, I can’t help but hear her voice as a “her.” Maybe it’s because I’m aware that the author is a woman, or maybe it’s because Wells projected a “female” personality into her voice during the writing, but that’s how I think of “her.” I know some people are going to object to this (for gender identity reasons), but for this and other reviews, the SecUnit is a “she” to me. That’s what I’m going to call her.

In this “episode,” our SecUnit who sometimes goes by the name of “Consultant Rin” when posing as an augmented human security consultant, continues to pursue clues as to her past and the lost portions of her memories. To that end, she stows away on another robotic spacecraft, convincing its AI that she belongs there, and travels to a station orbiting the planet Milu. There, she plans to travel to an abandoned orbiting terraforming station that is not what it appears to be.

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Book Review: “Swirling Darkness” by Sam M. Phillips

swirling

Promotional art for Sam M. Phillips’ “Swirling Darkness”

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Sam Phillips is an author, poet, and a co-founder of Zombie Pirate Publishing with Adam Bennett. They published some of my very first short stories and have been a lot of fun to work with.

Sam is branching out as an individual author and I recently read two of his books, Infinity and I, published by the aforementioned Zombie Pirate, and Swirling Darkness published as part of the Underground series by Black Hare Press

The description for his anthology is:

INFINITY AND I is a collection of seventy brand new science fiction stories from Sam M. Phillips, the co-founder of Zombie Pirate Publishing. Inside you’ll find surreal space journeys, bizarre aliens, futuristic technology, rogue AIs, and a girl who just wants to be loved. Follow a huge array of exotic characters across the galaxy as they use inter-dimensional drugs and fight battles on faraway worlds. Action, drama, and science combine with the complexity of the human soul in the year’s most exciting new sci fi release. Open up a portal and step into the depths of a unique mind with INFINITY AND I: Seventy Science Fiction Stories!

As an aside, I should note that my novella Time’s Abyss is also part of the Underground series.

Sam publishes his poetry on his blog Big Confusing Words. That’s important to know for my review as you’ll soon see.

The blurb for “Darkness” states:

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Interviewed by Starry Eyed Press for “The Fallen Shall Rise:” A 224-Verse Novella

4If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

As part of the promotion for my latest SciFi novella The Fallen Shall Rise, I was interviewed by the publisher Starry Eyed Press. My story takes place in their shared 224-Verse, which includes millions of spacefaring civilizations in the Andromeda galaxy.

The interview begins…

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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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Coming Soon from Starry Eyed Press: “The Fallen Shall Rise”

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Promotional image for “The Fallen Shall Rise” by James Pyles

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This is a novella that was accepted for publication by Starry Eyed Press that I’m now able to talk about in more detail.

The tale takes place in a shared universe called the 224-Verse. My story “The Fallen Shall Rise” is set against a wider backdrop of galactic political intrigue and presents the mystery of why a civilization fell thousands of years ago.

An interview about my story conducted by the publishers will be forthcoming. In the meantime, here’s a small excerpt:

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