James Pyles's Blog, page 80

Margaret Atwood’s “The Testaments” and Other Stories

Disclaimer: This is NOT a book review. This is a commentary on books, current events, and how all that gets filtered through my brain. Over a year and a half ago, I reviewed Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale. It has since been adapted to a wildly popular television series on Hulu. I signed […]

Story Submission Limbo

This is definitely a newbie author question, but I suspect it’s something just about every short story writer has come across at one time or another. I have several stories that have been languishing at the submission phase for months longer than their due dates or even well after the actual publication date of the […]

In Response to “Toxic Fandom”

Oh heck. I wasn’t going to comment on this here. Seriously. I admit, when I saw the title of the File 770 article Fandom, Entitlement and Toxicity I had a pretty good idea of what it was all about. When I saw the author was my old “friend” Hampus Eckerman (really, we’ve only had brief […]

James Tiptree, Jr Award to Retain its Name

This morning, I read the File 770 article Tiptree Award Motherboard Decides to Keep Name and followed the link to their source material Alice Sheldon and the name of the Tiptree Award, written by Alexis Lothian at Tiptree.org. I’m glad Sheldon’s pseudonym will remain on the award. Look, I know from one perspective, what she […]

Reading about “Palestine + 100” (2019). Was This Really A Good Idea?

I found a link to the book review Palestine + 100′ Explores Contested Territory, Past And Future at Mike Glyer’s File 770 and was intrigued. Apparently, Palestine + 100: …poses a question to twelve Palestinian writers: what might your country look like in the year 2048 – a century after the tragedies and trauma of […]

Film Review of “Solo, A Star Wars Story” (2018)

So I finally got around to watching last year’s Star Wars story Solo starring Alden Ehrenreich in the title role, with Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, and Donald Glover. To be honest, I’ve been avoiding it. Actually, last February, when I wrote my commentary Jason Reitman and the new Ghostbusters: Respecting the Fans isn’t Misogynistic, I […]

One More Commentary on the Dragon Awards

I’m new to the whole hype over awards for science fiction and fantasy, well, ever since last year when I learned about the controversy involving the Hugos and the so-called Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies. However, I’ve been paying attention to the Dragon Awards. Unlike most other awards of this type, anyone who has internet […]

Film Review of “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” (1970)

I’m a huge fan of the 1968 movie Planet of the Apes starring Charlton Heston, Kim Hunter, and Roddy McDowell. Unfortunately, my local branch of the public library doesn’t have the film available in DVD, so I’d have to request it from a different branch. It does have three copies of the 1970 sequel Beneath […]

Tiptree Award Name May Change (Here We Go Again)

I read Alice Sheldon’s (pen name James Tiptree Jr) anthology of short stories Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home decades ago when I was a kid (all right, a young man) and recall thoroughly enjoying it. I’ve probably heard of the award named after her, but didn’t pay much attention until reading Mike Glyer’s pixel scroll […]

A Revelation on the Recent Passing of Brad Linaweaver

I’ll say this upfront, I had no idea who Mr. Linaweaver was before today, and I apologize if what I’ve written here is offensive to anyone. It’s not my intent. Here’s what happened. I was catching up with posting’s on Mike Glyer’s File 770 SF fanzine when I came across an article called Brad Linaweaver […]