The Rumble in the Dumpster - Sayles Vs. Leek

Today my friend is an auspicious day in the life of yours truly, for I have been granted an audience with the Legend that is Ryan ‘The Walnuts’ Sayles. Yes brothers and sisters rejoice in the knowledge that my life is now complete and join me in the spare parts and broken hearts of my Noir Affliction.

 

Some people are born great; others have greatness thrust upon them and then there are those of us who just make it up as we go along: Chris Leek: a review by Ryan Sayles

School is in Brit Grit style

Traditionally the good ole’ USA has always been the land of the free and home to all things hard-boiled, pulp and noir. But nowadays there’s plenty of blood being splattered across the pages on this side of the pond too.
Gone are the days of quirky old ladies solving cozy mysteries from the comfort of their fireside armchairs. We've got a new crime wave of writing talent in the UK that’s busy kicking down those doors of convention.
Paul D. Brazill tells it like it is in this excellent article, so pull up a chair people, Brit Grit School is in.

Paul D. Brazill - What the hell is Brit Grit?

He Ain't Heavy

I spent yesterday sitting in the dark of a power outage, randomly clicking the buttons on my dead computer mouse and staring at a blank screen. While I was trying to remember just what it was I did with my time before I got hard wired to the Internet machine, the legend that is Joe Clifford published one of my flash fiction stories over at Out of the Gutter.

 

He ain’t heavy is a tale of sibling rivalry and perhaps also of brotherly love. Roy and Tony have a very special kind of relationship, one that seems to endure no matter what.

A big shout must go out to Joe for his help with edits and his continued support of my dubious writing ability. Thanks man.

Monday is a crap day the world over, so why not take five, grab yourself a coffee and head across to OOTG. I can’t promise that reading He ain’t heavy will make your day, but if you do it will certainly make mine.

In the tough times of the lowlife, lost like a rain dog trying to find his way home, I've always heeded the advice of Tom Waits: Never trust a man in a blue trench coat. Never drive a car when you're dead...

As we say in the hood, brother, true that...

He Ain’t Heavy by Chris Leek – Out of the Gutter Online

Last Call For Alcohol

Time is running out to submit to the shiny new Out of the Gutter 8 Anthology. The doors close on 21^st November.  I’ll let Editor-in-chief, Matt tell you all about it...

Brace yourselves! OUT OF THE GUTTER is back with Out of the Gutter 8: 21st Century Digital Love, featuring contest winners, essays, and new tales of wretchedness and woe alongside 2012’s very best from The Flash Fiction Offensive and the Bareknuckles Pulp Department!

Contest: We will select two stories (one flash, another between 3,000 and 5,000 words) that hit the theme of modern digital love. What’s that mean? You tell us. Guns, girls, good intentions gone bad spring to our minds, but there's no limit on subject matter, setting, or style, as long as it's in the pulp tradition. Pure story, in other words. All submissions for the contest will also be automatically considered for inclusion in the anthology.

 Fiction Submissions: Open submissions for the anthology (i.e., not for the contest) can be your regular ol’ gutterish stories. We’re selecting some flash, some longer. Only requirement is to adhere to the strict quality standards of The Flash Fiction Offensive and Bareknuckles Pulp. Hit us hard, hit us raw.

Non-fiction Submissions: We're also looking for non-fiction and essays on the subject of modern technology and love. Anybody have thoughts on Internet porn? I mean, those few of you degenerates who've actually visited such sites. We've been too busy visiting the confessional (mostly to confess to how much Internet porn we watch). Gmail chats gone wrong? Girls (and boys) gone wild? The suckiness of Instragram? What have you got?

Best of 2012: You didn’t think we’d forget our loyal contributors, did you? FFO and BKP will select the top stories from 2012, based almost entirely on the number of hits that story has received. You want a book deal? Pimp your work! Rack up the hits! Any story published by either e-zine in 2012 is eligible. So forward that story of a meth-dealing dead hooker to grandma’s sewing group and get them to share!

There have been some fantastic bad-ass stories published this year and many are worthy of inclusion. If it was my job to choose (which thank god it’s not) these would be my top picks.

Flash Fiction Offensive:

McRib Therapy Alleviates Seasonal Depression by CS DeWildt

We all got problems, man. Some of us are misguided loners; some of us are dead in basements. Some of us are just giant red, chain-smoking clowns with a busted foot and bad attitude. Who are you to judge?

Bareknuckles Pulp:

Kin by Gareth Spark

Here’s some damn fine Brit Grit from this side of the pond. You can choose you’re friends, but not your family. Well this sure as hell ain’t the Walton’s.

There are also many, many other fine pieces worthy of your time; while you’re over there perhaps you could find it in your heart to humor this deluded pulp scribbler and check out my efforts as well.

The Legend of Johnny Kool by Chris Leek

A Redheaded Woman by Chris Leek

Holy Moses

Just in case you‘ve missed it, yours truly is back in the gutter again. This time I’m chewing over Out There Bad, the second Moses McGuire novel by Josh Stallings.

 

Josh is a very cool dude and his debut novel Beautiful Naked and dead was a killer read. I posted a review of that one right here. But did the follow up measure up? Well, you’ll just have to go take a look for yourself: OOTG - Review

 

Next week you can join me on a wild ride with Tom Pitts and a trunk load of weed...

Kama Bomb

Most days life sucks; I’m not talking about major league sucking like sitting in the dark eating cold beans from the can after a hurricane has ripped the ass out of your world. I mean the chicken shit stuff that beats on you every damn day.

We spend our lives waiting for a moment that never seems to come and deep down we know it probably never will. But every now and again we get a little luck, maybe catch a break and that’s enough to keep us from hooking the garden hose up to the exhaust pipe.

 

Well, I’ve put that hose away for now because there’s a double hit of anthology love going on. First up, those stand up dudes Daz & Craig at Near to the Knuckle have accepted my story Brothers under the Bridge for their very first collection. I’m equally stoked to tell you that all round good guy and editor of All Due Respect, Chris Rhatigan has also taken my story The Honeymooners for his new print and e-book anthology. Both titles will be out early in 2013, so keep it here and share the love brothers and sisters, share the love. 

Afflicted by Noir?

If you’re reading this there’s a good chance you have an interest in Noir, if not then you’re probably a Latvian porn spammer. Either way, you should really check out Ryan Sayles and his Noir Affliction interviews over at Out of the Gutter online.

I know what you’re thinking; who’s the hell is this Ryan Sayles dude anyway. Well, I like to think of him as the Oprah of Noir, only he has better legs and does a lot less coke.

Ryan brings something new, disturbing and kind of wonderful to the art of the interview and his ongoing autopsy of the Noir genre is required reading for me. Recent weeks have seen him on the run with Tom Pitts and a trunk full of dead hookers, peeling off stripper singles with Brian Panowich, and this week he’s in the sauna with Eric Beetner.
Look I can’t explain it; this is just something you have to see for yourself.
OOTG - The Noir Affliction