Excerpt: Science fiction readers are among the people most likely to underestimate the true scale of space. We are so accustomed to faster-than-light drives, wormholes and jump gates that we forget how impossably vast the distances between stars really are. But once a writer decides how long it takes to cross those distances, every other aspect of the story changes—from politics and trade to war, culture and the kinds of stories that can be told at all.
The first quarter of the year has disappeared in a blur of drafts, edits, releases and looming deadlines—business as usual at Stories Rule Press. Mark is deep into the next Thomas Billings thriller, Tracy is preparing new fiction and nonfiction releases, Taylen is starting an all-new fantasy series, and Cameron has another big-concept science fiction novel on the horizon. Different genres, different voices, same mission: story comes first. Always.
The most common problem I see in manuscripts right now isn’t bad prose or weak dialogue. It’s stories where the protagonist could simply walk away—and nothing meaningful would happen. If your character can shrug and go home, they probably should. So why don’t they?
Some movies adapt a book. A rare few understand it. From Stand By Me to The Bourne Identity, these are five films that prove story always matters more than spectacle, budget, or special effects.
Most people think reading ebooks on a phone is impossible: the screen is too small, there isn’t enough text, and you have to keep swiping. But once you discover the trick that makes page-turning effortless, phone reading becomes not just easy, but addictive. Here’s why your entire library belongs in your pocket.
Fantasy maps have the same problem as those diagrams of the Earth and the Moon: they make impossible distances look deceptively small. A quarter-inch on the map between Rivendell and Hollin hardly seems worth mentioning—until you realise the Fellowship spent weeks walking it. Why does Middle-earth feel so much larger than other fantasy worlds, even worlds that are technically bigger? The answer may lie not in the map itself, but in the long, cold, weary miles between the names.
Readers do not know what they want until they see it. They cannot ask for the strange combination, the odd obsession, or the idea that should not work but somehow does. That is your advantage. The books that stand out now will not be the safest ones. They will be the ones only you could have written.
Tomorrow is April 1, and space seems to bring out the prankster in all of us. From fake UFO photos and moon-landing conspiracies to astronauts in gorilla suits aboard the International Space Station, the line between hoax and reality can be surprisingly thin. The odd thing is that the real universe is usually stranger—and far more entertaining—than anything we could invent.
What if the best story you’ll read next isn’t by the author you already know?
That’s the thinking behind a new direction at Stories Rule Press. Instead of focusing only on individual authors, we’re starting to build collections around something bigger: the kinds of stories readers love to fall into.
If you love thrillers, romance, fantasy, suspense—or any story that keeps you reading long past your bedtime—you may be missing books you’d love simply because you haven’t met the other writers behind them yet.
That’s about to change.
Why does Stand By Me still hit forty years later when so many stories vanish almost as soon as the credits roll? Because it isn’t built on spectacle or plot twists. It’s built on emotional truth. Four boys, one long walk, and a story that trusts us to care about the people more than the destination. That’s a rare thing. And maybe that’s why it still works.
