Lights Out Tonight

In June of last year I had a flash story published at SHOTGUN HONEY. I took the title and my inspiration for it from the Springsteen track of the same name. Eighteen months down the road and that piece is now about to be published again, this time it’s alongside stories from guys such as Dennis Lehane and James Grady.

If you are wondering just how in the hell shooting the shit on Facebook with my sometime editor JOE CLIFFORD turned into the most anticipated book of 2014, you can read about it HERE and HERE. I know a lot of people have been waiting a long time for this. If it’s any consolation I guess I’ve been waiting all my life. TROUBLE IN THE HEARTLAND hits the shelves on December 1st.  You can pre-order it right now from Amazon. There are way better stories in there than mine, but like the boss says, “You can’t start a fire without a spark.”

Roadkill Review: Wake Up Time To Die by Chris Rhatigan

WAKEUP TIME TO DIE is a stunning collection of shorts from author and All Due Respect front-man Chris Rhatigan. I had the privilege of reading this long before its summer release date, but being a lazy SOB it has taken me this long to getting around to reviewing it.

WUTTD is a hard book to slap a label on so I’m not going to try. The stories in this collection run the gambit from crime to horror to something else entirely.  Chris Rhatigan has the wonderful knack of making the familiar seem strange and the strange appear down right odd. These 12 superbly crafted tales are full of loners and losers that exist in the space between the edges. Their world is a place where Furbies pack heat and nothing is how it seems.

Rhatigan cuts his noir with Novocain, his prose is sharp as a junkie’s needle and his premise as hazy as the morning after. WUTTD is by turns darkly humorous, somewhat disturbing and always entertaining. Read this and I guarantee you’ll be jonesing for another hit. The highlight for me was “The Things I Need To Be A Hitman” which may just be the best short I have read this year. This is one habit you need. Go buy the book, you can thank me later.

Kneel before AMAZOD

The Blues, Mary The Blues

Is there anybody alive out there?

If there is then I expect you’ve been wondering much the same thing. Well, I’m still here...sort of. I’ll admit I have been letting this place slide of late. Life has developed this annoying habit of getting in the way of fiction. You know how that goes, right?

Anyhow, it’s high time I got back in the saddle and what better way to do so than with a brand new piece of flash fiction over at SHOTGUN HONEY.  I haven’t written anything this short for a long time and I forgot just how liberating it can be. Just like the Boss, “I’m sick of sitting around here trying to write this book.”  But distilling a whole story into just 700 words is also a real challenge.

That word limit is why I dig SHOTGUN HONEY way more than any of the other online zines.  You have to bring your A game, every single word has to count. Delta Blues is probably one of the tightest pieces I’ve ever written. It’s also one of my favorites. If you’re in the mood for a good old fashioned love story then head on over and check it out.