Tag Archives: short fiction

Book Review of “Error Code: 22 Tales of Robots and AI” (2025)

error code

Cover art for the “Error Code” anthology

Yesterday, I finished reading the small anthology Error Code: 22 Tales of Robots and AI by Eric Fomley and Addison Smith.

It was produced by Shacklebound Books which I gather is a small, indie publisher. They’ve got quite a collection of anthologies listed on Amazon.

Each story is quite short and the book is a quick read (130 pages in print, though it’s available only on Kindle as far as I can tell).

Like many such anthologies, the stories fall into three categories:

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Spring Into SciFi 2024 Coming Soon!

2024

Cover art for “Spring Into SciFi 2024.”

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Almost there.

My short story “I Don’t Want To Be Human” is featured in the upcoming Cloaked Press anthology Spring Into SciFi 2024. Click that link to pre-order a digital copy for download from Amazon to your Kindle device on March 21, 2024.

If you prefer a paperback, pre-order that right here, but there’s more.

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The Planetary Anthology Series is Back!

planetary

The Planetary Anthology Series relaunch

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Once upon a time, there was a “Planetary Anthology series,” eleven volumes each containing short stories written by multiple authors using a superversive theme. Although I submitted to almost all of the different “planets,” I only made it into three.

Sol contains my short story “The Pleiades Dilemma.” An object has entered our solar system from interstellar space. A team of NASA experts has been sent aboard a spacecraft to investigate. What they find is betrayal, the threat of global annihilation, and possibly a greatest hope for humanity’s future.

Mars contains my award-winning short story “The Three Billion Year Love.”. After a billionaire scientist tragically lost his young wife, he secluded himself with a new project. In finding the ancient past on another planet, he also found a new reason to live.

Keep reading past the break. There’s more.

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“Shoot the Devil II: Dark Matter” Coming Soon!

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Some of my regular readers may remember that a short story of mine “Wolf in the Wind” was included in the 2022 Crucifixion Press anthology Shoot the Devil: Ten Tales of Humans Defeating the Demonic. It’s a collection of science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories generally from a Christian perspective that depicts people combatting and defeating literal evil. My own story was less religious, but nonetheless, a battle in the supernatural realm involving a female occult detective in the 1880s west.

Apparently, it did pretty well, so well in fact that the publisher decided to print a sequel. It should go on pre-sale on October 15, 2023 and is called “Shoot the Devil 2: Dark Matter.”

Basically, it’s the same theme only in space.

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Doorways Fluttering in the Breeze

blankets

© Sarah Whiley

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They reminded him of his childhood when Mom used to hang the wet laundry on the backyard clothes line to dry. Except these were supposed to be art at a small, outdoor fair at a local park.

In his peculiar line of work, Demetrius Lauer traveled all over the world and visited communities from the largest megacities to the smallest rural hamlets. Today, it was Winchester Park in the small but growing commuter city of Kuna, Idaho. Fortunately, bringing his M1911 Colt semi-automatic wasn’t a problem in this part of the U.S. He was probably going to need it, but he had to find his prey first.

Dem was an unusual type of bounty hunter. Yes, he tracked down some of the most dangerous men and women on the planet, but many were just as dangerous on other planets, or in this case alternate realities.

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Existential Hologram: A Science Fiction Anthology Available Now!

james

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

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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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Disfigured

mask

Photo credit Sarah Whiley

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Every day for the past eight months I stare at my empty mask with a sense of elation. I am no longer its prisoner, no longer its slave. I am free.

Of course, freedom always comes at a price, usually a very high one. After the accident, anyone looking at my face, even if they were kind and never meant to, always registered a certain revulsion. Well, who could blame them? I was absolutely hideous. Wearing the mask was marginally better. I still received their stares, but more out of curiosity. Naturally, I would never have the affection of a woman again, especially since my dearest wife was killed in the accident that made me a monster.

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Specter

fox

© Lisa Fox

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The building was old enough to have a fire escape. It was perfect. Now that Brian’s divorce was final, he was free to move back to the heart of old downtown and be nurtured by urban variations. He was so close to finishing that best seller he had always wanted to write. The sum he would be offered for the film rights alone would throw his ex into a spasm. He sat at the keyboard and tried to put his fingers to work. Nothing happened. A mist slowly seeped through the walls. The alluring ghost said, “Perhaps I can help.”

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Frank and the Plot of the Hypnotizing Slime, Chapter 1

Frank

© James Pyles

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This is a story my seven-year-old granddaughter and I started last Halloween. Like most children her age, her interests move from one topic to the next, and it was ignored for a long time. When she showed an interest in it again, we worked to finish it. I added the ending page last night.

Now she wants to publish it. I’m not aware of any publisher who would be immediately interested, so the story now appears here on my blog. It’s all in fun and I hope you enjoy it. If you think your children and grandchildren would like it, by all means please share.

Oh, and my granddaughter wants to write a sequel.

Chapter 1

Once upon a time there was a spider named Frank. He was evil but there was a good spider named Lilly. And a team that was evil too teamed up with Frank. Frank and the team of evils had an idea. They will hypnotize Lilly with hypnotizing slime. But Lilly had a team of spiders too. They were good like Lilly. But Frank and the team didn’t know. Frank and the team also didn’t know that Lilly had a force field but the force field could only be up for 10 minutes. Frank is working on an evil weapon but it’s really hard to make. But he is distracted because he is falling in love with Lilly.

But wait. How could he be falling in love with Lilly? To answer that question, we have to visit their first encounter, a random meeting a little while ago when Frank ran out of flies and went to Lilly’s web to ask for some spares.

“Um, excuse me,” Frank said. “I see your web is full of flies and mine just ran out. Could I bother you to spare me a few?”

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Fantastic Schools, Volume Six Available on Amazon

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After a successful run as part of a story bundle and as I previously mentioned, L. Jagi Lamplighter’s “Fantastic Schools. Volume Six” is now available on Amazon in kindle format.

The anthology features my “magic middle school” story “The Price”. For this one, I developed a very specific system of magic, that performing any occult act requires blood or the life force of a person or people. The bigger the feat, the more life force. Evil sorcerers, being evil, will simply sacrifice the lives of the innocent because, after all, they’re evil.

But what of the good? What of the wizards and mages running magic schools, training the next generation of magicians. How does it work for them? My story explores the startling answer and how one thirteen-year-old boy holds the keys to saving his entire school. But as I said, all great acts require a great sacrifice.

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