Exiles

 



Well now, here’s a thing. Blackwitch Press has something a bit tasty in the works. EXILES is a charity anthology featuring around 20 tales of loners, losers and outsiders, all penned by seriously good crime writers, and it’s being edited by a great one, Paul D. Brazill. I have managed to blag my way into it too, but don’t let that put you off. I’ll let you know details of who, when and how much just as soon as I have them.

Storybundle

Time is burning me up right now, so things have gotten a little quiet around here. But here’s a cool deal that you might dig. Storybundle has some awesome books on deck and they can be yours for… well, for whatever you want to pay for them. 

This is how it works, you shell out $3 and you get the first four books, which include the Demonic Visions anthology, featuring yours truly. You cough up a ten spot and you get those four plus three more bonus books. So that’s seven books for less than a buck-and-a-half a piece. You even get to decide who gets the money, Storybundle or the authors. The books are available for Kindle, or if you’re one of those people who just refuses to admit they were wrong then you will be pleased to know that you can also get the bundle on your Nook and possibly even on your Betamax VCR.  

Hammer down right here: STORYBUNDLE

Radio silence and occasional static not withstanding, I’ll see you on the other side.


Adios Pardner

It’s time to say a big adios to The Big Adios, well, sort of. A little over a year since we started publishing online, the best short western fiction site on the web is breaking camp and heading off into the sunset. The last story will be published on the website next month. We were fortunate to host some damn fine stories from some very talented writers, unfortunately submission levels never really got out of second gear.

I’m not entirely sure why. It’s not as if there are a whole lot of other places putting out quality westerns. No doubt some of you are now nodding your heads in an, I told you so kind of way and saying how the western is deader than disco. I have made my views known on that subject before, both here and at the ZP BLOG. This isn’t the end of the road for the western or for The Big Adios.

Head Honcho, Ron Earl Phillips has taken the bull by the horns and in May 2014, in conjunction with Ron’s publishing company, One Eye Press, The Big Adios will begin a new life as a quarterly western magazine, featuring 10 thrilling short stories inspired by the Wild West and will be available in both digital and print formats. For all you writers out there, The Big Adios will now be a paying market.

We are accepting submissions through until April 14th to fill the slots for issues 1 and 2. If you are familiar the guidelines on the website then you already have a good idea of what we want, only this time we are looking for stories up to 5000 words, so you now have plenty of space to fully develop your characters and plots.   

I enjoy a good tale of blood, grit and bullets as much as the next guy. But see that box? Good. Now try to think outside it. I would love to read a story about the black cowboys of the Oklahoma Range, or the Asian-American soldiers who fought on both sides during the civil war, or the silver boom towns of Nevada or any one of a thousand other stories that are still waiting to be told. And remember, the American West still exists today; it’s the feel of the story that is important, not necessarily the time or even the place in which it is set.

Full details are available on the ONE EYE PRESS SUBMISSIONS page, so hop on over and as 80’s rock goddess, Pat Benatar once said: hit us with your best shot.

In the meantime please continue to stop by THE BIG ADIOS website; we have some really great stories scheduled to round things off over there.

 

Westbound and Down

One Eye Frigga, the original Shotgun Honey is here to mark my return to the pages of crime fiction's coolest hangout. I’m back for my third go around at SGH with a brand new story, “Westbound and Down.” As always, many thanks to Ron Earl and the team for letting me lower the tone once again. This could well be the only story of mine to appear online this year, so make the most of it!
I hope you’ll take the time to stop by and give it a read and maybe drop me a comment if you feel so inclined.

 

Holy Poet

Working with Zelmer Pulp has given me many things, most of which have required some form of medical treatment. But one thing that will endure, long after the swelling has gone down is the friendship of my co-conspirators. I count myself very fortunate to be working with such a talented bunch of guys.

And when it comes to talent nobody I know has more of it than Isaac Kirkman. The depth and texture of his work is truly incredible. I always look forward to reading a new piece from Isaac. It’s about as close as I get to a religious experience.  Isaac hasn’t had an easy ride and the fact that he has made it this far is a great testament to his courage and determination.

Another talented dude, Ezra Letra has turned his camera on Isaac and produced a candid documentary, giving the world a wonderful insight into the life and writing of Tucson’s own Holy Poet. I guarantee that whatever else your day brings, this this will be the best twenty minutes of it.

  

2014 and all that.

I made a conscious decision not to write any 'best of' or 'year in review' type posts this time around. I already spend way too much time looking back. I guess I’ve reached that sort of age, and seeing as I don’t have the money for a full-blown mid life crisis (who wants to do the Mother Road on a moped?) I have decided to concentrate on the future, not the past. So get lost 2013, you're outta here.

 

I don’t do New Year resolutions either; mainly because I can never keep the damn things. I have a very short attention span and I’m easily distracted and oh, look something shiny… Sorry, where was I? Right, yeah, no resolutions. But I guess I should put some kind of stake in the ground for 2014. I already know that my day job will mean more nights and weekends away this year. I'm not going to bitch about it. I have to pay the bills, so it is what it is, until it's something else.

I will be taking a much more realistic view of what I can achieve this year. For one, I won’t be doing anywhere near the number of online gigs and anthologies I did in 2013. But I am committed to continue writing with Zelmer Pulp. We are shooting for three of our regular issues this year including our first noir offering. Alongside this we will shortly be announcing a very special project involving some incredible crime writers. This thing has kept me up nights since its inception last summer. I still can’t say anything about it until the official announcement is made, but with any luck it will rock your world. It has certainly rocked mine.

Beyond that, any writing time I get will be devoted to my novel. This is not the first novel I have written, but it will be the first to get shopped around. It’s currently going under the name of “That Fucking Book”, but I’ll be working on the title too. The story has more soul than some of my other stuff and if I do it right, it might even break your heart a little.

I also have a couple of things already in the can. My crime novella, “Nevada Thunder” coming out from Snubnose Press, hopefully sometime soon and my western novella, “Gospel of The Bullet” will be out through ZP just as soon as we get the time.

Whatever your aims and ambitions are for the coming year, I really hope you nail them. Stay hard, stay hungry and stay alive. I’ll see you somewhere down the road.  

ZP Anniversary Sale

Picture the scene: It’s the last days of 2012 and in a dank basement in some flyover state nobody can point to on the map, Ryan Sayles paces anxiously behind the hunched figure of Brain Panowich as he feverishly taps away on an old typewriter. Ryan’s meds ran out days ago and Brian knows it’s only a matter of time before there is another ‘incident ’with the neighbor’s chinchilla. He glances at his Hello Kitty watch and then over at Chuck Regan. Chuck is sitting on the filthy mattress in the corner; hugging himself, rocking backwards and forwards. His fingers stained with crayon and blood. He is talking to himself—mumbling really, something about Martians and Ayn Rand. Brian knows it’s all up to him now...

Several hours and one ‘incident’ later, Zelmer Pulp is born and the world of genre fiction gets a zombie wedgie with the release of C’MON AND DO THE APOCOLYPSE.  Surprisingly, a few people actually bought it (not me) and further genrecide followed. 

To celebrate the fact that Zelmer Pulp has now existed for a whole year and nobody has died or been arrested, the first three ZP titles are now on sale for only 99 cents / 77 pence until the end of 2013. And if you’re too cheap to spend a lousy buck, you can pick up Brian Panowich’s first Harmon Brown yarn, BABY JUICE for free.  

So treat yourself and then treat your friends and then treat yourself again.

Go on, it’s Christmas.  ZELMER PULP SALE