James Pyles's Blog, page 138
July 18, 2018
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 […]
July 14, 2018
The Industry
Dr. Edna Thomas had drawn the proverbial short straw this month, and was assigned to the “Disposal Unit,” a slight euphemism for the plant that provided for the orderly disposal of what was left of the aborted “material” once the stem cells and other useful biological components had been removed. Since inadvertent contact with the […]
The Future King
Twelve-year-old David Cohen experienced a rare moment of awe standing in the George Peabody Library. He’d been accepted in the Cantate, a part of the Peabody Children’s Chorus, certainly a tremendous honor, but a secondary achievement. He had started reading at age two, mastered algebra at four, spoke five languages by six, and written his […]
July 13, 2018
Boiling Point
Stop! If you haven’t done so already, read The Quest to Save Landon and When Hell Boils Over first. After giving Alfred and Merlyn Landon’s invisibility cloak, and making sure they entered the secret entrance to the Moose King’s castle, Buddy the Ambrosial Dragon used a separate and most secret entrance himself, this time straight […]
