James Pyles's Blog, page 67

Book Review of “First Lensman”

Ive been reading the legendary E.E. Doc Smiths Lensman series recently. After Triplanetary (1948 originally published as a serial in 1934), which really wasnt about the Lensmen, but did introduce a few key characters, came First Lensman (1950) which still gave off more of a 1930s flavor. While readers get their first real glimpse []

My Copy of “Spring Into SciFi 2020” Arrived Today

As my regular readers know, my short story The Colonists is featured in the Cloaked Press anthology Spring Into SciFi 2020. The book, including my story, was recently and favorably reviewed. Today, my personal copy of the anthology was delivered as you can tell from the image at the top of the page. My grandchildren []

It’s Okay To Be All Three

First off, Im going to say for the record, that a lot of you arent going to like this. My previous blog post Presenting What good are constitutional rights if they are violated when Americans get sick? drew a certain amount of attention because (I believe) theres this notion that governmental intervention in the face []

Pesky Editing and Contracts

So the usual pattern for me and short stories is that I see a submissions call from (usually) an indie publisher, I read the particulars, look at the submissions deadline, and say to myself something like, I can do that. Then as the deadline approaches, and Ive met all (or most) of the other submissions []

Download “Clockwork Dragons” Anthology FREE for the Next Five Days!

You dont want to miss this promotion. Zombie Pirate Publishing is offering the kindle edition of their anthology CLOCKWORK DRAGONS: A Fantasypunk Anthology as an absolutely free download from Amazon for the next five days. You cant beat the price. Features my steam/fantasypunk short story The Mechanical Dragon: A 19th century engineer and a maimed []

Official “Raygun Retro” Table of Contents

  RAYGUN RETRO: A Science Fiction Anthology, edited by Adam Bennett and Sam M. Phillips over at Zombie Pirate Publishing, is only about two-and-a-half weeks from publication. Its available for pre-order now for delivery to your kindle device May 1, 2020. Above is the official table of contents for the book, and includes my short []

Science Fiction and OPPs (Other People’s Priorities)

Id heard of K. Tempest Bradford before, but only tangentially. So far, she hasnt blocked me on twitter, but I expect that to change any time now. I came across her blog post I Challenge You to Stop Reading White, Straight, Cis Male Authors for One Year thanks to a notice posted on Facebook by []

Presenting “What good are constitutional rights if they are violated when Americans get sick?”

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) With the grand kids over this weekend (long story but its coronavirus related), I havent had a lot of time to write (even though Ive still got a lot to say, especially on []

My Amazon Review of John Scalzi’s “The Collapsing Empire” Refused

I know, right? To be fair, Amazon has the right to accept or refuse reviews posted on their site because, after all, it is their site. If I did unintentionally violate their standards, I guess thats that. On the other hand, if you dont like a book thats supposed to be popular (and I did []

Book Review of “Triplanetary,” the Beginning of the “Lensmen” Series

Over 50 years ago, when all the other guys in Junior High were reading E.E. Doc Smiths Lensmen series, I was reading his Skylark series, and loving it. I tried re-reading Skylark of Space, the first novel in the series, several years ago, going so far as to buy a paperback copy. It was tough []