2025: A Year in Review

2025

© James Pyles

Looking back on 2025 and my publication history, here’s what has presented itself. Frankly, I expected two more anthologies featuring my short stories to have come out this year, but both have been delayed.

To start off with, I had four drabbles published in the Starry Eyed Press anthology Drabbles: First Contact, tales of exactly 100 words long, describing humanity’s first contact with aliens (the images above aren’t presented in publication order).

Then there is my first actual (short) novel Our Legacy, The Stars: A Tom Corbett Adventure. This was previously published in installments on the now defunct Amazon Vella but it was always intended to become its own novel. Old school space opera based on a 1950s TV show. A lot of fun. You should read it.

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The Second Wave is here!

second wave

Promotional image for the upcoming Starry Eyed Press anthology “Second Wave.”

Ten of my drabbles (the maximum number allowed) are featured in this anthology.

A SINGLE MOMENT –– A HUNDRED WORDS –– A UNIVERSE OF POSSIBILITIES
What happens after the unknown has arrived? When the echoes of first contact fade, humanity is left to navigate the tremors of change — new alliances, fragile peace, simmering conflicts, and the birth of strange, dazzling futures.

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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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My Flash Fiction Horror Piece “Olivia Comes Home” to be Published by SciFanSat

11

Cover art for issue 11 of the SciFanSat e-zine

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

My flash fiction horror tale “Olivia Comes Home” has been accepted for publication at the SciFanSat monthly e-zine due to be published online on Saturday, June 29th, 2024, in their eleventh issue (the cover for the tenth issue is above).

This is a wee story with a word count of 545 and follows a goth girl named Olivia who is trying to find someplace where she will be accepted.

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Get “Spring Into SciFi 2024” Today!

2024

Cover art for “Spring Into SciFi 2024.”

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

It’s here!

Spring Into SciFi 2024 from Cloaked Press is available TODAY!

Download it from Amazon onto your Kindle device and start reading right now. The price is very reasonable.

If you’d rather have the paperback, that’s available too for $15.99 USD.

This anthology features my short story “I Don’t Want To Be Human.”

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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.

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“Pocket SciFi: Drabble Contest One” is Now Available!

pocket

Cover art for the anthology “Pocket SciFi: Drabble Contest One”

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

“Pocket SciFi: Drabble Contest One” is now available from Amazon both in Kindle and paperback formats. This is a unique publication from Starry Eyed Press in that it came to life as a drabble contest.

A drabble is a complete story that is told in exactly 100 words. You might think that writing such a story would be difficult, but with a bit of practice, it can be done.

For instance, every week, I participate in a fiction writing challenge at Rochelle Wisoff-Fields Addicted to Purple. She sends out emails every Wednesday for her “Friday Fictioneers” challenge, asking anyone who wants to participate to craft a poem or short story no more than 100 words long (also see this blog as mine are available here weekly).

It can be less, but I like to make it into a drabble challenge.

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Existential Hologram: A Science Fiction Anthology Available Now!

james

Promotional image of my short story “The Simulated Woman.”

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

It’s here. Existential Hologram: A Science Fiction Anthology published by Starry Eyed Press is now available on Amazon. It features my cyberpunk short story “The Simulated Woman.” The anthology description is as follows:

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Fantastic Schools Vol 6 Available Now!

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

Fantastic Schools Volume Six, featuring my short story “The Price” is now available through this story bundle. See it as a “Bonus” book in the second row of the image by clicking on the link.

As soon as the bundle expires (in about three weeks as of this writing), it will go on to Pubshare and Amazon. At that time, we will get a paper version up, too.

Here’s a summary of the anthology:

Have you ever wanted to go to magic school? To cast spells and brew potions and fly on broomsticks and—perhaps—battle threats both common and supernatural? Come with us into worlds of magic, where students become magicians and teachers do everything in their power to ensure the kids survive long enough to graduate. Welcome to … Fantastic Schools.

Meet a student who discovers the hard way what happens when he is transformed into a monster, another who mixes magic and music to remarkable effect, a student who wants to trigger a magical industrial revolution, an assassin posing as a tutor with a mission he cannot deny, two students who have to learn to work together – or else – and a student who starts her school newspaper and discovers a conspiracy that strikes at the heart of a proud institution …

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

planet

Image: hongkiat.com

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

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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