That Escalated Quickly!

You probably thought  Zelmer Pulp were sleeping it off under a freeway overpass somewhere and that our particular brand of awesome was on hold until after holidays, or at least until we found Brian Panowich, who was last seen heading west in a stolen Camaro with a transvestite table dancer. The thing is we never sleep, at least not without prescription meds. So just in time for the holidays here is something a little bit special from our very own red-suited fat guy with a reindeer fetish, Ryan Sayles.  

THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY!

Flash fiction doesn’t leave a lot of room for build-up, so it’s best to start by going for the throat and seeing where it leads. In these stories Ryan Sayles does just that. He turns on a dim light and leads the reader down an already claustrophobic path. Active shooter event? Check. Ugly, failed relationships? Check. Dope fiends making smart decisions? Check. People seeking out roadkill because that’s the deepest relationship they can handle? Check. Putting on a soiled Easter Bunny costume to say goodbye the hard way to your former office colleagues who all foolishly thought they had the last laugh? Check and double check. Each story is like an unmarked pill; just swallow it and see what happens. C’mon. It’ll be fun.

The ability to tell a story with only one or two thousand words that stays with a person for days afterwards is a rare talent. Ryan Sayles knows this, and what’s more he has that talent. Read “Uncluttering” and then tell me I’m wrong. These 22 stories are some of the best edgy fiction you will find anywhere, period. And I’m not just saying that because Ryan is a buddy (he doesn't read this blog anyway.) I’m saying it because I believe it.

THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY is out now in both print and e-book. You may hammer down when ready.

 

Junk

Hey, you there. Take a look at my JUNK!

Well, not just my junk, there are eight of us in total. In fact you could say this is an orgy of junk. Back in the summer our man in India, Chris Rhatigan and my brother from another mother, Ryan Sayles came up with the idea of putting together a collection of amusing stories and invited a few guys to contribute something funny.

The end result is a wild collection of truly hilarious stories from: Eric Beetner, Danger Slater, Andrew Hilbert, Jason Armstrong, David James Keaton, Chris Rhatigan, Ryan Sayles and me. The multi-talented Eric Beetner also provided the cover. I’m assuming the picture he used is a selfie.

My contribution is “The Brow Beating Heavy Leather Repossession Shuffle.” A story set in the fictional Tennessee town of Saylesberg and featuring: car jacking, dwarfs, cougars, some guy in a moo-moo, a bank heist and a big rubber dick. My writing has been making people laugh unintentionally for years, so this was a great opportunity to try and do it on purpose.

JUNK is the perfect antidote to seasonal holiday stress. Buy one for yourself and then buy more for your friends. In fact, buy one for everybody; Great Auntie Maude will love it. The e-book can be yours for a lousy buck. My sister told me she laughed so hard she fell of the couch while reading it. So strap yourself (or Auntie Maude) in and cop a feel of our JUNK.

Go on, I won’t tell anybody.

More Demonic Visions

Just a quick heads up for any horror fans out there. I’m delighted to say that DEMONIC VISIONS BOOK 2 is out now for the Kindle and will be available in print before the holidays. Editor, Chris Robertson has assembled a high quality group of both new and established horror writers and this has been reflected by the excellent sales of BOOK ONE, which incidentally is also available for your reading pleasure.

I’m stoked to be back for a second go around with a brand new story, “Loose Ends.” This time out I tried to work the psychological horror as much as the visual. Steve Wenta will once again be haunting your dreams with his awesome cover art. Who knows, maybe you’ll find the odd story in there that will haunt you a little too. I'm currently working on a longer horror piece for Zelmer Pulp. I'm not sure exactly when that one will be out, but I guess sometime early in the new year. In the meantime why not treat yourself to one or both of the Demonic Visions Books?  Go on, you deserve it.  

Zelmer Pulp: The Weird and the Wild and the Doris Day

I'm over at the Zelmer Pulp Blog today, talking westerns and how I came to write my story for our recent Collection Five Broken Winchesters.
Check it.

Zelmer Pulp: The Weird and the Wild and the Doris Day: When we first sat around in the ZP virtual office telling dick jokes and spit-balling about what should follow our science fiction issue, HE...

Roadkill Review: Motel Life

The movie version of Willy Vlautin’s first novel, Motel Life has just opened on selected release in America. To celebrate that and to bemoan the fact that, so far there has been no UK release date announced, I thought I would post my review of Motel Life, which first appeared at Out Of The Gutter earlier this year.

Set in Reno, Nevada in the 1990’s Motel Life is the story of two Brothers, Frank and Jerry Lee Flanagan.  Orphaned at an early age the brothers live a marginalized life of dead end jobs, low rent motel rooms and TV diners washed down with bargain bin liquor.

When Jerry Lee accidentally kills a kid in a hit and run they make a bad situation worse and run away. The brothers take flight to Oregon and dream of living a better life with Frank’s damaged ex-girlfriend, Annie James; only to find that no matter how hard you try, you can’t out run yourself. 

There is an echo of Steinbeck’s Mice and Men here and perhaps also a nod towards the bleak existences portrayed by Denis Johnson in Jesus’ Son. The Motel Life is noir in its most literal sense. It provides a dark and heart breaking commentary on alcoholism and suicide as it charts the downward spiral of people forced by circumstance to play out a losing hand.

Willy Vlautin’s prose is sparse and at times almost child like in its directness. But he writes with such compelling honesty that any minor grumbles about his simplistic style or his stifled character development are swept away by the sheer power of his narrative.

Motel life is not going to be for everyone and it is fair to say there are more accomplished and articulate renderings of America’s third world citizens out there. But for me, there is something wonderful about the naivety of Vlautin’s work that I just can’t shake off. This book still haunts me years after I first read it and in spite of its flaws, I still wish I had written it.

Motel Life is and always will be one of my favorite books. I want to love the movie too. Maybe I will if it ever gets aired on this side of the pond. 

 

RoadKill Review: Dead Animals by CS DeWildt

Amazon

DEAD ANIMALS contains 34 stories that together could be loosely described as Rural Noir. They range in length from tightly written, punchy flash fiction that pops like green wood on a hot fire, to more expansive pieces that burn slower and hold their heat longer.

The well crafted characters will hook you, but it is the bleak and beautiful qualities of the writing that reel you in. The eerie “Bad Habits” and the gloriously wrong “Shakespearian Varity” are amongst some of the best short fiction I have read, period. But even so, it is hard to top “Corbin’s Dreams Take Flight” with its oddly enduring trailer-trash kids and compelling narrative.  

Okay, so let’s cut to the chase here. Chris DeWildt knows how to tell a story and he does it with prose that, at times damn near sings. This collection contains some outstanding fiction. It also contains gut-shot squirrels, smashed frogs and a badly burnt pigeon. Lovers of animals beware; lovers of great writing, rejoice.

Chris' excellent new flash novel THE LOUISVILLE PROBLEM  is also out now. Featuring: one dead man, two beautiful women and a bag full of cash. You know how we roll around here. 

 

Hell and Gone

It’s all about the western right now and just to continue the theme, my story HELL AND GONE is up at THE BIG ADIOS today. I submitted this one back in the summer and I guess Ron Earl Phillips and Ryan Sayles must have liked it, because not only did they agree to publish it, but I also got offered an editors chair. I’m grateful for both.

The story is set on the Kansas / Missouri border towards the end of the Civil War. I have long been fascinated by this period of America's history and especially by the bloody, brutal and often short lives of the Missouri Guerrillas under the command of William Quantrill and Bill Anderson. These men rode hard, fought hard and ultimately died hard. Some of those who survived the war went on to become notorious outlaws such as Frank and Jesse James and Cole Younger. There is no doubt that the Guerrillas put a lot of the blood into 'Bloody Kansas', although to many living across the state line in Missouri they were seen as heroes, rather than murderers. I think the truth probably lays somewhere in the middle.  

HELL AND GONE introduces the character of Mitchel McCann; a preacher with Southern sympathies who worships his own particular kind of religion.  You’ll be seeing a lot more of him and his adopted daughter, Justice in my novella GOSPEL OF THE BULLET, which will be out sometime early next year. But for now go and get yourself to HELL AND GONE. I hope you dig it.