James Pyles's Blog

Jake sat his old bones down beside the Mumblebon bush again. He’d discovered it some weeks ago when taking his morning hike behind his house. The day he saw the strange blossoms; he bent over to get a closer look and… “Poof.” A blossom popped into his face and he could hear it talking. Since […]

Harold thought it was great that his friend Jimmy let him use his place in the Arizona desert while he had to stay in Phoenix. At sunset, it was still warm enough to relax in the pool with a drink, and in November, too. “This is the life,” he said sipping at another bourbon. “At […]

A few years back, I read all of the Expanse novel series by James S.A. Corey (really Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) thanks to a suggestion from someone I used to work with and my local public library. I’ve never seen the television series, though I’ve heard it was quite good. I really enjoyed the […]

“Who puts up a Christmas tree in November and why only yellow lights?” Griffin thought. He turned from the window and back to his enemy. Kemp developed the invisibility program for the government. Griffin was their guinea pig, but it was never about science. Griffin was their ultimate political assassin, an invisible man. “You said […]

This review requires some explanation. Spoiler alert: Before I get going, just be warned that there are tons of spoilers in this review. If you want to be surprised, stop reading after the break. I originally saw the 1980 movie Somewhere in Time on cable TV within a year of it being in the theater. […]

“I want this all cleaned up,” said the Manager to his labor group. “You’ve been issued work gloves, shears, rakes, and trash bins. I gave you instructions about trimming these plants at orientation. Any questions?” “Excuse me, Mr. Manager,” said Evie, a portly black mother of three in the front. “What about that painting and […]

Okay, I can finally talk about it. I have a number of short stories published by Raconteur Press. They’re good people and seem to like my stories, even the ones they elect not to publish. They also are in the process of publishing a series of Boys’ Adventure Books. Generally, they’re short science fiction or […]

The fantasy anthology Fantastic Schools Familiars is now available from Amazon in Kindle format (the paperback version will come out in a week or so). It features my short story “Dead Cat Fever:” Daphne Tate is an unusual fifteen year old runaway. To keep her mother from shipping her off to a traditional magic school, […]

“Change the past to save the future,” complained Simon as he trudged through Queens in the October rain. “Go back to 1946 and kill him as an infant, they said.” He patted the loaded pistol in his pocket. “At least they got me off of death row and out of the joint,” he snarled. “I’ll […]

Sixteen-year-old Keaton sat facing the bow tree as he did every day after school. Another tree to his back, he drove the lead pencil, its tip making familiar scratchy sounds across the paper in his sketch book. It was his favorite tree and it listened. “I argued with my girlfriend again,” he told the tree. […]