James Pyles's Blog

When I saw the DVD of The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) at the library this morning, I was really excited and grabbed it immediately. That’s not because I thought it was going to be a great film and I was looking forward to seeing it. Actually, from everything I’d heard, it was a terrible […]

Almost sixty years ago, the American nuclear submarine USS Hollander sank in the Sargasso Sea to a depth of 3,000 meters under mysterious circumstances. Today, pirates operating the deep-sea submersible Thetis led by notorious weapons merchant Simon Harris are attempting to recover her nuclear arsenal. However when they find the Hollander, someone or something is […]

Doctors would have called him neurodivergent if they had been able to submit him to various standardized tests. In truth, Terry (he liked the name for some reason so gave it to himself) was far more alien than that. He thought he may have started out life as a normal boy, but as he grew […]

I’ve read that episodes 1 and 2 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy were available to watch for free on YouTube, but I could only find episode 1, Kids These Days. So be it. I watched the thing. But why? I mean, everything I’ve heard, well almost everything, about the show says it stinks. It’s awful. […]

This was supposed to be a movie set but in spite of the traditional harsh and hot lighting, the details were too exact. “Hello?” Where had the crew gone? Was it lunch yet? He tried to look back at the doors. He swore he left them open but he couldn’t hear the noises from outside […]

“Oh, crap.” Jeremy had been surprised when he was given Dad’s house in his will. They hadn’t even talked in ten years. Then he visited the property and found out why. “You died on Christmas and are making me deal with your junky place for New Years,” he said. The backyard pond was not only […]

And so ends the “Dog” trilogy by Ashley R. Pollard. I just finished reading the third installment in the “Gate Walkers” trilogy, Ghost Dog: Military Science Fiction Across A Holographic Multiverse. I should say I bought all three novels for my Kindle just over two years ago so this is the completion of my reading […]

The kiosk to the park was long deserted when Charlotte pulled up alongside it. She was surprised that it was so easy to get here despite its reputation. “Thanks for getting me hear across that crappy backroad.” She slammed shut the door of her ancient four-by-four. It was still cold an hour later when her […]

Looking back on 2025 and my publication history, here’s what has presented itself. Frankly, I expected two more anthologies featuring my short stories to have come out this year, but both have been delayed. To start off with, I had four drabbles published in the Starry Eyed Press anthology Drabbles: First Contact, tales of exactly […]

I didn’t anticipate watching Thunderbolts* (2025), yes the asterisk is supposed to be there, but it was at the public library in the new films section, so I figured “why not?” It was actually better than I thought, but you have to accept it for what it is. I’ll get to that. Spoiler Alert: This […]