James Pyles's Blog, page 151
May 13, 2018
The Runaway Stuffed Rabbit
“What in the name of a bunch of deleted, censored, and just plain bad words happened to me?” The scream came out of Landon’s room, but the nine-year-old was at school at the moment, so the only ones to hear him were the boy’s nearly three-year-old sister Dani, his Grandpa, and of course, Buddy the […]
The Elephants of Yesterday
“Which end is the face?” The class started giggling at Dao’s remark, and Gima laughed so loud that their teacher Mr. Ji scowled at her. “That’s her tail, but you’re right, it could be her trunk.” “What are they called again?” Merilyn looked down at the small sign next to the reconstructions. “Elephant. That’s a […]
May 12, 2018
The Seedy Profiler
It was in the days of cedars when Cedric the seeder spread his precious gift as if in a daze. Just kidding. Winter hadn’t been kind to his lawn, and Bill was using a hand seeder to spread some “love” on some of the barer patches. He didn’t want to get it too close to the […]
The Missing Manuscript Affair
Only about a dozen or so people knew that Olivia Lewis, the woman discovered drowned in a fast-flowing stream near Bethesda after a storm, was a retired SIS operative. She never carried a gun, for her talents were in finding the right approach to a target and then getting them to tell her anything she […]
May 11, 2018
The Pirate Anne Bonny
The crash of wave and snap of sail sung to her, and Anne Bonny was never more alive than when she was at sea. Now that she and Calico Jack Rackham were wedded, aboard the stolen and former Royal Navy frigate “William,” she, Rackham, and her closest companion Mary Read had recruited a new crew […]
May 10, 2018
The Fallen
Jake saw Dani standing in a gorge between two cliffs holding Witherbrand in her hand. Her blade was covered with blood and she was surrounded by bodies. “Dani, what happened?” The seven-year-old looked around but couldn’t see his brother or sisters, that is, until he looked closer at the dead people on the ground. “Dani?” […]
Darfur Misspelled
Ali Garang Salah stared into the black mirror and saw his past. He was only five years old the first time he was raped. They murdered his Father right before his eyes, then raped and murdered his Mother and three sisters. The Sudanese soldier took a liking to little Ali, or so he said, and […]
May 9, 2018
Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories: A Book Review
Since I’ve been toying with writing a few steampunk stories of my own, I decided I should get a better feel for the genre. To that end, I searched my local library system for what would be considered a definitive collection of such tales. At the top of the list was Steampunk! An Anthology of […]
Unanticipated Success (sort of)
I’m not sure if you can read the image above (click on it to make it bigger), but it came as quite a surprise to me. I just sent in yet another piece of fiction to a periodical using the Submittable website. Some publishers use this app for receiving stories, while others allow potential […]
Return to Dieselworld
It looked like a 1938 Ford Sedan, but the lavender paint on the body shone in its own light, and the headlights were black. The radio message from Josiah Covington said her ticket back to his world would be in the poppy field south of town. He’d been definite that she shouldn’t use the dirigible […]
