Word Balloon Books

Word Balloon Books Anthologies feature kid-friendly short stories! Rockets & Robots! Beware the Bugs! Paradoxical Pets! Edited by James & Cheryl Maxey.

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

A hippopotamus is loose in the mainframe. Best friends race their rocket packs through the night. Far from Earth, a manta ray swims past a window. Meanwhile, in a basement, a man shapes the destiny of humanity… by changing his socks. The future will be wonderful… and weird!

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

This year, I'm focusing on catching up on some of my own novels and other projects that got pushed aside. We still are committed to another book, but it's likely going to be 2026. Meanwhile, follow me @JamesAllenMaxey for news about con appearances and new releases.

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

This year, I'm focusing on catching up on some of my own novels and other projects that got pushed aside. We still are committed to another book, but it's likely going to be 2026. Meanwhile, follow me @ja

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

@LiamJHogan @csffanglia @JayHengePubKB @ShortSFFReviews @BSFA @BritFantasySoc @ShrewslibraryUK @liarsleague @SchreyerInk Sorry. Next time I pick a name for a publishing imprint I'll make sure the full name fits in X's character limits!

[James Maxey @JamesAllenMaxey]

Animate Raleigh! Booth 835! Between columns N13 and R13.

[James Maxey @JamesAllenMaxey]

Here be dragons! Mythical & Medieval Festival Myrtle Beach!

[James Maxey @JamesAllenMaxey]

I'm at Alabama Comicon! Come buy some books!

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

Come grab books at Alabama Comic Con in Birmingham this weekend! My first show in the state, you can find me at table 324. I'll be at the very back of the room, slight left of center.

[James Maxey @JamesAllenMaxey]

Climate change! Plague! Nukes! Aliens! Doomsday comets! Super volcanoes!
The human race is heading toward extinction.
Humans have had a good run on this planet, but nothing lasts forever. One day, the sun will rise on a world without us. A comet could wipe us out. An unstoppable virus might now be awakening in thawing tundra. The power sources that make civilization possible have perhaps already damaged our atmosphere beyond repair. Hidden bunkers and prowling submarines house nuclear missiles that can, in a single moment, engulf our world in flames.
Is there hope? No!
Well... maybe. Humans have a good track record of holding back the apocalypse. We’ve cured diseases, turned deserts into croplands, and mostly tamed our warlike natures. But for every danger that falls, new ones arise. This book looks at the progress we’ve made so far and considers our odds against the looming threat of... THIRTEEN DOOMS!
Coming this Halloween!

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

Soda City! Come buy books, buttons, and crochet critters!

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

To cool off last year, we went and biked the Saluda River Greenway, launching with the temp still close to 100. Luckily, biking is a self-cooling activity, since you make your own breeze. With a shady greenway, it's almost never too hot to bike.

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

Hitting the road today for Soda City Con in Columbia, SC! Always a good show, made better by the fact that today we're loading in with highs in the 80s and last year we loaded in with the temp gauge on our car showing 114 degrees.

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

@LiamJHogan @FictionUtopia @northodoxpress @liarsleague @ShortSFFReviews @SRFantasyClub @ShrewslibraryUK Wow! 200 is impressive!

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

One month after launch, Terrific Tomorrows is off to a great start. It eked out better sales than Paradoxical Pets after its first four shows (by about 5 copies). It turns out, there's an unfulfilled demand for positive visions of the future. Who knew?

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

Tomorrow I'm leaving early for the 8 hour drive to Steel City Con! I don't normally get to worked up about guests at these shows since I'm stuck at the table all weekend, but the big guest this time is Weird Al Yankovic. It's going to be nuts!

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

#GenCon Looking for great SF for ages 8 and up? Find James Maxey in the Author Alley for 4 great collections of stories!

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

26 positive visions of our Terrific Tomorrows! Family friendly science fiction exploring the radical idea that knowledge and technology will continue to make life better a humans go out among the stars. Preorder today!
https://t.co/3eCxW2ThRR

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

Interested in reading some of James Maxey's short stories? 10 of his best are collected in There is No Wheel, which you can download free for the next 3 days. For mature readers only!

[James Maxey @JamesAllenMaxey]

FREE for 72 hours!
There's a shark in the kitchen. A teapot filled with lizards reaches a boil. Everything is understood when a sheriff bites into an eyeball. These are doors into the world of James Maxey. Good luck finding your way back out.

https://t.co/U2mq7GhdZo

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

Want to stand out in a short story slush pile? Start with a catchy title! "How to Humanely Remove Glugs from Hair." "The Hippo That Thought It Was a Hippo." "A Cartoon Saves the Solar System." Titles like these are selling the story before we even download the file.

[James Maxey @JamesAllenMaxey]

My first foray into publishing was running a zine called Pursuit in the 90s, publishing libertarian SF. Subs were by mail, and authors had to send in a SASE. Postage costs meant that 99% of all the subs were from the US. Today, we casually correspond with people on other continents at close to the speed of light. We live in an age where the miraculous has become mundane. Things wondrous or impossible half a century ago occur with such ease we never give them a second thought.

[Word Balloon Books @WordBalloonBook]

Of 26 authors in Terrific Tomorrows, 12 live outside the US. Today, subbing and selling to markets outside your home country is unremarkable. This is a huge change that's happened in only a few decades, made possible by technology. We're already living in a terrific tomorrow!