James Pyles's Blog, page 136
July 19, 2018
Victorious
Casworon stood at the summit, his booted feet planted on the flagstone, his back, torn crimson cape over tarnished and broken chain mail, pressed against the ancient wall. The battle had been won, but at a terrible cost. The field below was littered with the dead of his foe, Jusveer, King of Zedrov, but so […]
When Masculinity Isn’t “Toxic”
I’m about two-thirds through my read of the Superversive Press anthology To Be Men: Stories Celebrating Masculinity, which I plan to review both on my blog and on Amazon. I’ve already written about my anticipation of this volume and authored a review of The Last Hunt, which was Richard Paolinelli’s contribution. Last night before going to […]
July 18, 2018
When Meg Comes to Visit
The Golden Gate Bridge was almost completely concealed in early morning fog as the 6:30 a.m. ferry made its way from Vallejo to the San Francisco Ferry Building. It was a typical Monday morning commute, and a much more civilized way to get into the City, though the crowding on board was still barely tolerable. […]
Toxic Fear and Things That Go Bump In The Night (and on Social Media)
What started all this was a post by conservative speculative fiction writer Jon Del Arroz at the SuperversiveSF blog called My Post Mocking Feminism Goes Viral – Twitter Locks My Account. Apparently, his twitter account was temporarily locked again, this time for mocking something called National No Bra Day which is supposed to raise awareness […]
The Digital Muse
Another day, another sunrise. The sky is an ugly, pale yellow, and life is bland and uninspired. “Hey, you.” Addy turned toward her laptop sitting on the small desk in her bedroom. The speakers were on, so it was chattering away at her again. “What do you want? I’m depressed.” “Get over here. You have […]
July 17, 2018
Going Up
“Get back here, Deric! Do it now!” The minute Enoch Fischer noticed the boy was missing, he knew there’d be trouble, but he didn’t suspect that not only had some fool strung up a swing at the edge of the cliff, but that the fifteen-year-old would use it. “Relax. I’m fine. Can’t I have some […]
Another Assignment
This could be a lot of places in the world spanning decades or even centuries. I don’t know how I got here, but then, I never do. It’s morning but it’s getting warm fast, which probably means summer. Where are the people? There should be people here. Electrical conduits. That puts me somewhere in the […]
July 16, 2018
The Haunted Detective
“I keep telling you this, Marguerite, but you never listen. You are just as breakable as the next person, maybe more so given your line of work.” Private Investigator Margurite Carter was getting sick and tired of Cohen’s lectures. “Do I tell you how to stitch a cut, Sawbones? Just do your job. I haven’t […]
July 15, 2018
Ant-Man and the Wasp: A Film Review
Yesterday, my nine-year-old grandson and I saw the film Ant-Man and the Wasp starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, Michael Peña, Michael Douglas, and the amazingly cute Abby Ryder Fortson. I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum but I can’t promise to conceal everything. I read another review of the film (and sadly, I must […]
The Fan
“And here you go. My pride and joy, so to speak. Signed shirt from the great man himself.” Andrew Cullen puffed up his chest as he showed his friend Tommy Cabrera his trophy room. “Diego Maradona. Best footballer ever. Your American mates call what you have football, but this is the real deal.” “I wasn’t […]
