SMFS Member Publishing News: Superstition: The Secrets of Van Buren University Book 1 by James Blakey

SMFS list member James Blakey reports that this is publication day for his new book, Superstition: The Secrets of Van Buren University Book 1. Published by City Owl Press, the read is available at Amazon and other vendors.

 

Amazon Description:

An umbrella is opened indoors. A black cat crosses your path. Three cigarettes are lit from one match. These are omens of bad luck that no one takes seriously. But at Van Buren University when these, and other superstitions, are broken… students die.

Sophomore Jerry Williams’ hard-hitting reporting has won awards for Van Buren’s school newspaper. But when he connects a series of campus deaths to bad luck, his editor questions Jerry’s judgment, kills the story, and suspends him from the paper. But the superstition-related havoc continues, and Darla, Jerry’s new girlfriend, barely escapes with her life.

When Jerry digs deeper into the mystery and publishes his findings in the school’s alternative newspaper, the university administration threatens him with suspension for causing a panic. But Jerry’s reporting instincts won’t let him stop. With his friends and everyone else on campus at risk, it’s not like Jerry has much of a choice.

As Friday the 13th approaches, Jerry fears a catastrophe. He must uncover who—or what—is behind these bad luck deaths and determine how to stop it.

SMFS Member Publishing News: The Five People You Meet in Atlantic City by James Blakey

SMFS list member James Blakey reported that his short story, The Five People You Meet in Atlantic City, appears in Black Cat Weekly #154. Published by Wildside Press, the issue is available here in digital format.

 

Publisher Description:

Here’s the complete lineup—

 

Cover Art: Ron Miller

 

Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure:

• “The Bottle Blonde,” by Albert Tucher [Michael Bracken Presents short story]
• “The Fatal Founders Day,” by Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery]
• “New Day Newark,” by SJ Rozan [Barb Goffman Presents short story]
• “The Five People You Meet in Atlantic City,” by James Blakey [short story]
• The Long Arm of the Mounted, by James French Dorrance [novel]

 

Nonfiction:

• “Norman Spinrad at Large: Life As We Don’t Know It?” by Norman Spinrad

 

Science Fiction & Fantasy:

• “Maximinus Thrax and the Gates of Chaos,” by Paul Di Filippo and Claudio Chillemi [short story]
• “When Darkness Falls,” by John S. Glasby [short story]
• “Honeymoon in Bedlam,” by Nelson S. Bond [short story] [short story]
• “The Woman Obsession,” by William Campbell Gault [short story]
• The Invisible Master, by Edmond Hamilton [short novel]

SMFS Member Publishing News: The Pros and Cons of Time Travel by James Blakey

 

SMFS list member James Blakey’s short story, The Pros and Cons of Time Travel, is published at Stupefying Stories. The read is available online and is a free read here.

SMFS Member Publishing News: The Cat Who Loved David Duchovny by James Blakey

SMFS list member James Blakey’s short story, The Cat Who Loved David Duchovny, was published in Impossible Worlds Magazine IV. You can purchase the PDF here.

 

Publisher Description:

Just in time to stuff someone's digital stocking! Six stories of wonder, amazement, and just straight up oddities! From a cat obsessed with Duchovny to government interference in spatial anomalies, this 4th edition of Impossible Worlds is sure to please any SFF Fan! Buy it now or support our Patreon to help us make even more next year! Includes the following stories.

The Day My Mum Chucked a Bloke From the Government Into a Wormhole in our Garden- by Michelle Ann King

The Third Apocalypse- by Liam Hogan

On Arrow- by Beth Dawkins

The Cat Who Loved David Duchovny- by James Blakey

Charismatic Megafauna- by Sarah Morgan 

The Singing Dogs of Lord Stainerau- by Anne Karppinen 

Cover art by Tom Nel 

Interior Illustrations by Garth Von Ahnen 

Edited by Stephen Wright & Chase Stowell

SMFS Member Publishing News: Unplayable Lie by James Blakey

SMFS list member James Blakey’s short story, Unplayable Lie, is published in The Mantelpiece Literary Magazine: November 2023, Issue 5. You can read the issue for free online here.

SMFS Member Publishing News: Porridge by James Blakey

SMFS list member James Blakey’s short story, Porridge, appears online in the recently released, On The Premises #41. The story is free to read here.

Member Publication News: James Blakey

 James Blakey has two new stories out:

"The Last Mission"  in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet #44

and

"The Battle of Hitchens' Bridge"  in Wight Christmas: Holiday Horror and Seasonal Subversion 

FICTION on the WEB short stories: Fast Times at Spiro Agnew High by James Blakey

FICTION on the WEB short stories: Fast Times at Spiro Agnew High by James Blakey: High school student Michael Wimmer owes money to a dangerous acquaintance, and must undertake some detective work to make things right; by J...

The First Two Pages: “The Greatest Secret” by James Blakey

 The First Two Pages: “The Greatest Secret” by James Blakey

SMFS Member Publishing News: James Blakey

SMFS list member James Blakey’s latest short story, “How to Become a Successful 21^st Century Cybercriminal in Five Easy Steps” appears in The Dark City Crime and Mystery Magazine: Volume 5, Issue 3. The issue can be purchased at Amazon and at Magzter.

Synopsis:

The Dark City is a quarterly magazine featuring crime and mystery stories with an emphasis on stories that illuminate character and setting. In this issue we feature a wannabe cybercriminal who finds that success on the dark web is an illusive target, a guy seeking a girl in a bar who finds himself a prisoner and participant in the darkest of games, a film memorabilia collector who seeks the remains of a film femme fatale, a debt collector who has to remind his client that green is the only color that matters, and an aging grandmother who applies a failing memory to solving the disappearance of her only grandson.

SMFS Member Publishing News: James Blakey

SMFS member James Blakey reports that his short story, “Picture Perfect” appears online at Crimson Streets were you can read it here for free.

Gerald So Interviews 2019 Derringer Finalist James Blakey

Gerald So Interviews 2019 Derringer Finalist James Blakey

SMFS Member Publishing News: James Blakey

SMFS member James Blakey reports that his short story, “The Hockey Card Heist’ appears in the current issue of Woman’s World Magazine. The story is in the “solve-it yourself” section of the March 25, 2019 issue.

Mr. Blakey also passes on word that his short story, “The Case of the Vanishing Unicorns” is in the new anthology, Gunsmoke & Dragonfire: A Fantasy Western Anthology. Edited by Diane Morrison and just published by Aradia Publishing, the read is currently available in digital format at Amazon.

Synopsis:

From the drought-plagued plains of Mars, to a post-apocalyptic Canada, to the familiar American West and Mexico, to other dimensions and other worlds weird and wonderful, an international cast of bestselling, award-winning, established, and emerging authors brings you 25 strange western tales:

Robert Lee Beers - A hardboiled P.I. and his partner must find their way back to the present from 1906 San Francisco before the Big One hits, dodging gunslingers and the risk of changing history, with only a drunken misanthropic wizard to help them...
James Blakey - A sheriff must question a colourful cast of characters to discover who has stolen a unicorn rancher's herd...
Zach Chapman - A card-cheating Spellslinger must duel a mysterious Green Gunslinger to his damnation or salvation...
Sara Codair - Two Martian sheriffs must stop a gang of outlaws from stealing a settlement's precious water, if they can keep their marriage together long enough to do it...
Eric S. Fomley - A marshal comes to town seeking an outlaw, but neither he nor the outlaw are the ordinary kind...
Milo James Fowler – Heroic Coyote Cal, the witch Donna Jamieson, and his faithful sidekick Big Yap, must stop a monster from ravaging the livestock and people of a town in the western desert...
Ron S. Friedman - A WWI pilot shot down over the Amazon must survive Germans, crazy scientists, the jungle and dinosaurs...
Carrie Gessner - An elven veteran is called back to face her demons when a little girl is snatched to serve the army that destroyed her...
Paul Alex Gray - The heir to the Bourbon Throne must earn coin in America to overthrow the French Republic and reclaim his birthright, so he builds a fantastic contraption to aid him...
Jude-Marie Green - Sorceress Jane Smith knows her partner Donna Quick is quite mad, but she follows her anyway...
Brent A. Harris - Marshal Bass Reeves has been asked for help by a desperate frontier settlement beleaguered by a dragon...
Ethan Hedman - A wandering gunfighter inherits an enchanted weapon, but it's broken...
Joachim Heijndermans - Two outlaws hole up in a quiet town full of terrified townsfolk, but all is not as it seems...
Russell Hemmell - Two investigators must discover why an entire colony in the Kuiper Belt has disappeared, leaving nothing but an anachronistic western frontier town in its place...
Liam Hogan - A young outlaw is hunted by an implacable mechanical foe...
G. Scott Huggins - A blacksmith with ghostly allies receives an unusual, and dangerous, client...
Sean Jones - The last Norse descendant in North America, who swears vengeance on the Comanche for killing his wife and village, is given supernatural aid by the Navajo...
Mackenzie Kincaid - Junior died helping Pa maintain the fence against the Somethings, so now 12-year-old Jane must take his place...
R. Daniel Lester - An old tap-dancing celebrity defaults on the payments for his magical shoes, and a repo agent has come to collect...
Diane Morrison - Two young elven Gunslingers must stop a cannibal spirit before it, or the blizzard it brings, kills everyone they know...
Diana L. Paxson - A painter journeys to the Rockies to paint landscapes, and stumbles upon an ancient mystery...
Claire Ryan - Rollo is going to get her giant slug herd in to market, come hell or high water, monster or no monster...
Ricardo Victoria - An ex-spellslinger has taken up a career as a travelling salesbeing of a newfangled weapon called a "rifle"...
Stanley B. Webb - A U.S. Marshal must stop a notorious outlaw who may or may not be a dragon...

We invite you to explore these stories in the grand pulp fiction tradition: from weird westerns, to sci-fi and space westerns, to post-apocalyptic westerns, alternate history, time travel, and cattlepunk.

Featuring a classic Solomon Kane story by Robert E. Howard.

SMFS Member Publication News: James Blake

SMFS list member James Blakey’s short story, “The Last Case” has just been published by Over My Dead Body!

SMFS Member Publication News: James Blakey

SMFS list member James Blakey has informed the list that his short story, “The Bicycle Thief” has been published at The Norwegian American. The story can be read in is entirety for free here.

Little Big Crimes Review: Do Not Pass Go by James Blakey

Little Big Crimes: Do Not Pass Go, by James Blakey: "Do Not Pass Go," by James Blakey, in Mystery Weekly Magazine, September 2017. I admit it.  I am a sucker for this sort of th...