Light 'Em Up

Well, here it is. My debut short story collection, SMOKE EM IF YOU GOT EM has just staggered out into the daylight like a used car salesman after a liquid lunch, blinking in the harsh glare and wondering what the hell those stains are on his pants. This is kind of a big deal for me—the book that is, not the stains. Smoke 'Em is my first solo publication and as such, the crutch afforded me by the other writers that have previously surrounded my work anthologies and collections has been pulled away leaving me feeling a little exposed. And now, just like that drunk salesman, my words will have to stand on their own.

SMOKE EM IF YOU GOT EM documents my rite of passage as author. The eighteen stories in this collection stretch all the way back down that dusty highway to where I started out. They show you how I got to where I stand today and there are some new ones which will take you little further on up the road to where I am heading next.

 

Putting this collection together wasn’t just a case of vomiting every story I had into the Amazon dumpster and calling it a book. I was very careful about what I brought with me and what I left behind. Ryan Sayles helped me a lot with that. In fact Ryan helped me a lot, period. The end result is a book that I am damn proud of.

You can pick up Smoke 'Em right now for a shade under two bucks. That works out to around 11 cents a story. I don’t know if any of you good people out there will actually buy the thing, but many thanks if you do, I hope you dig it.

Click here to buy from Amazon US

Click here to buy from Amazon UK

Roadkill Review: A Single Shot by Matthew F. Jones

Amazon

When hunter, John Moon accidentally shoots a runaway girl while poaching deer on state land he has to make a choice. His dilemma is made worse by the drugs and cash he finds hidden at her campground. Whatever he decides, the consequences will be something he can neither predict nor control.  

A Single Shot is a taught thriller that drags you along in the emotional wake of John Moon’s guilt and necessity. Early on the plot put me in mind of Cormac McCarthy’s, No Country For Old Men, but as the story progresses it is soon plain to see that John Moon is more than just a cut and paste rehash of McCarthy’s, Llewlyn Moss. Moon is a man with a strong set of beliefs, he has his own code. But his downward spiral started long before he pulled the trigger and in the best traditions of noir no matter how hard he tries, his subsequent actions only seem to hasten that decent.  

Make no mistake this is a gritty and harrowing novel that deals with some pretty dark subject matter. The narrative is largely well paced and genuinely engaging, but it does suffer from occasional unexplained flat spots, which can leave you feeling a little puzzled, like finding a few feet of smooth blacktop in the middle of a rutted farm track. This minor grumble is more than made up for by Jones’ wonderfully authentic dialogue and his strong sense of place.

I fear that many of those lured in by Daniel Woodrell’s curious and at times almost disparaging introduction will have their resolve sorely tested by the disturbing nature of A Single Shot. The violence and the graphic sexual scenes will no doubt alienate a lot of casual readers.  

While A Single Shot may never be a book that is clutched lovingly to the breast of mainstream country noir, if you are an aficionado of the genre it is a book that you won’t want to miss. I found it to be a well written and thought provoking read.

Thanks to my buddy, Brian Panowich for turning me on to this one.