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

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

Maybe I Should Just Shoot You In The Face?

Apart from working through the frustratingly slow process of getting our Springsteen based crime anthology, TROUBLE IN THE HEARTLAND (did I mention both Dennis Lehane AND Ryan Sayles are in it?) out into the world, it’s been quiet pretty on the Zelmer Pulp front, too quiet. 
All that is about to change with this dark hit of Noir. The talented Isaac Kirkman is taking a well earned break, but MAYBE I SHOULD JUST SHOOT YOU IN THE FACE will feature stories from all the other Zelmer regulars, Brain Panowich, Chuck Regan, Ryan Sayles, Chris Leek and our very special guest, Gareth Spark. Add to that an introduction by Brit Grit Legend, Paul D. Brazill and you have a book that will bring world peace, stop global warming and get you pregnant*. This puppy should be rubbing up your leg in the next couple of weeks.

*These are lies. This book will not do any of those things and any conception that may occur while reading it is purely coincidental.

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.

 

A 2013 Selfie

2013 has been a pretty good year for me. I wanted to do more, but real life kind of got in the way of fiction. Ah well, there's always next year. I would just like to say a big thank you to all the good people who spent their hard earned cash on one or more of these books. It's okay if you didn't, I still love you, just not quite as much.

Happy holidays folks!

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.

 

Johnny Cash Killer

I have a new story up Thrills, Kills ‘N’ Chaos. What with one thing and another, It’s been a while since I have had some of my flash fiction published online and it’s nice to get back in the groove again. JOHNNY CASH KILLER is basically a story of revenge, and maybe regret. There is even a little romance in there too. I got the idea and the title from a line in Eric Beetner’s excellent novella, THE DEVIL DOESN’T WANT ME, so thanks Eric, even though you are blissfully unaware that I stole it! Thanks also to TKNC editor, David Barber for giving the story fine home. You can check out JOHNNY CASH KILLER here: Thrills, Kills ‘N’ Chaos. 

While you're over there why not take a look at some other great stories form guys like Paul D Brazill, Dyer Wilk and my brudda, Ryan Sayles.

Roadkill Review: Queen of Diamonds by Frank Zafiro & Jim Wilsky

Buy it!

Cord Needham is a big name on the Poker circuit; a real high roller and player to be reckoned with. He’s in town to defend his championship title and maybe to have a little fun on the side as well. Casey Brunell is a poker player too, but he has been playing a more dangerous game, running up debts that no honest man can pay with a local mobster and now he’s scratching at the felt.
Casey thinks his luck has finally changed when he meets the beautiful Ania Kozak at the tables. But then again, so does Cord. “Annie” likes to play by her own rules and the stakes are always high. The only bet you can make is “all in” and in her games, cards aren’t the only thing that gets played.

This novel had all the required ingredients to make it exactly my kind of book, and it didn’t disappoint. “Queen of Diamonds” is the second collaboration between Frank Zafiro and Jim Wilsky and it’s a partnership that runs like a well oiled machine.

The story is told from the perspective of both Cord and Casey, alternating by chapter between the two protagonists. This dual narrative dove-tails seamlessly, with absolutely no jarring changes in rhythm or style, which might have been an area for concern in collaborations from lesser writers.

The plot is tightly written and always engaging and the male protagonists are well described, but the real star of this show is the wonderfully duplicitous and insanely hot, Ania. The way she expertly maneuvers Cord and Casey like pieces on a chessboard marks her out as being a cut above your average femme fatale.

I have read a lot of books set in Las Vegas, but I can’t think of any that I have enjoyed more than QUEEN OF DIAMONDS.

This review first appeared at Out Of The Gutter.

Reloaded

As usual I’m a day late and a dollar short, so we best get on with it. BOTH BARRELS, the first anthology from Shotgun Honey, was awesome and I was gutted to miss out on a slot. I’m going out on a limb and saying that RELOADED is even better, and it has nothing to do with the fact I have a story in this one. Okay, so it has a little to do with that, but you should buy it anyway.
 
What’s that you want free shit? Well, alright then, Ron Earl Phillips is giving copies away on Goodreads for those of you in the US who are to damn tight to pay cash money. Just click on the linky thing HERE  

In case you're still on the fence, here’s the TOC:
Patti Abbott – The White Funeral
Hector Acosta – The Howl at the Park
Erik Arneson – All Alone
Cheri Ause – The Trouble with Sylvia
Trey Barker – Release of Degradation
Eric Beetner – One Corpse, Two Assholes
Terence Butler – What Goes Around
Joe Clifford – How to Clean a Gun
Garnett Elliott – Rollin’ Mona and the Tijuana Slide
Rob W. Hart – A Blow to the Head
Andy Henion – When Monte Comes Calling
John Kenyon – No Place Like Home
Nick Kolakowski – How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Ed Kurtz – Buffalo Squeeze
Frank Larnerd – Three Count
Chris Leek – Loose Change
Mike Loniewski – Loose Ends
Bracken MacLeod – Ciudad de los Ninos
Julia Madeleine – Love Gone Bad
Brian Panowich – Set Fire to the Trees
Terry Rietta – Rubes
Rie Sheridan Rose – Tumbling After
Ryan Sayles – They’re Pros, Each and Every One
Richard Thomas – Trinity
John Weagly – The Last Croak

See, I told you.

Roadkill Review: Wake The Undertaker by Joe Clifford

Buy it!

Here is the last of my favorite reads from the first six months of 2013. Wake The Undertaker is a gloriously atmospheric slice of noir from the irrepressible, Joe Clifford.

Most people would be content just to sit back and take the plaudits after reaching such a literary high, but Joe Clifford isn't most people. His introduction to Zelmer Pulp's Hey That Robot Ate My Baby! may be viewed by many as his finest work to date, but hold the phone, he has another novel out.

Wake The Undertaker is actually Joe Clifford’s first novel. It beat the much-admired Junkie Love to the punch by a couple of weeks. When that autobiographical tour de force showed up fashionably late with huffing candy around its nose and a sly grin on its face, it immediately set about stealing the thunder from its elder sibling and has been hogging the limelight ever since. While there is little doubt that Junkie Love is a damn fine book, Wake The Undertaker is no ugly sister and it’s high time we showed it some love.

Nineteen year old Collie Spector is a nightclub singer on the up. He’s got the looks and the voice, but he’s also got the boss’s girl, Zoey, and when that boss is Gabriel Christos, the son of Bay City’s crime overlord Cephalus “the Old Man” Christos, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the fall Collie is headed for is going to be a big one.

Gabriel orders a beat down, which includes ending Collie’s career by cutting his vocal chords, and with the help of Bay City’s crooked cops, Gabriel frames the singer for a crime he didn’t commit. Collie does time in the City’s Island prison of Rockville, working on his upper body and trying to come to terms with the fact he will never sing again. When he comes out, he is twice the man he was, but Collie isn’t the only one who has changed during those seven years.

Gabriel is now estranged from his old man and trouble is brewing between them. Collie soon finds himself sucked into their murky underworld of drugs and politics and ends up working for the very man who orchestrated his downfall.

Bay City is a dark and rain-swept place where the hoods date strippers and dirty cops are on the take from nightclub-owning crime bosses. Here, the washed up newspaper men tell it like it is, everyone drinks their bourbon straight and nothing is quite as it seems.

Joe Clifford has delivered an exceptional pulp novel that reminded me of Frank Miller's finest, but without the pictures. If you were to cut Wake the Undertaker with a knife it would bleed with noir. It would also jump back up and shank you with a rusty screwdriver. I really hope that it isn’t destined to become Joe Clifford’s “other novel." Wake The Undertaker deserves much better than second billing and is a true star in its own right. Part of me hates Mr. Clifford for being this good, but most of me can’t wait to read his next one.

My original review of Wake The Undertaker can be found at the online supermax for offensive fiction: Out Of The Gutter

Roadkill Review: Tales from The Longcroft by Darren Sant

Buy from Amazon

Looking for something for the weekend? Well, if you haven’t done so already I can recommend checking out Tales From The Longcroft by Darren Sant.

In this collection of interwoven stories the author has created a rich tapestry of believable characters. The poor and the marginalized that inhabit his fictional council estate are vividly drawn. Their daily struggle to survive in the run-down terraces and tower blocks of the Longcroft is told with compassion, humor and no mean skill.

The writing is tight and absorbing. I found myself instantly sucked into this gritty world of chancers, wasters and small time crooks. Darren Sant handles some difficult subject matter with consummate ease. His social commentary is spot on, but he never allows the stories to wallow in self pity and lifts the narrative to another level with some clever touches and plenty of dry wit.  

All of the stories here are worthy of your time, but for me, the best of a very good bunch is “Rowan’s Folly” which tells the story of Andy and Shona and provides a harsh lesson in what happens when you rub another man’s rhubarb on the Longcroft Estate.

Get ready for Thrills, Kills, ‘n Chaos

Thrillers, Killers & Chillers is sadly no more. Matt Hilton announced on the site yesterday that they are closing their doors for good. TK&C was a great place to visit for a hit of high quality crime or horror fiction. I was fortunate enough to have my story “Jacks, Queens and Evens” published there last year and from a writers point of view TK&C was a site with rock solid reputation and a great place to showcase your work.   

But fear naught, David Barber - the former editor at The Flash Fiction Offensive and more recently an editor at TK&C - has grasped the bull by the horns and will shortly be opening his new site, Thrills, Kills, ‘n Chaos up for submissions.  David will be looking for the same sort of hard hitting fiction, but this time it needs to be leaner and meaner.

So check out the new site and if you’re a writer get writing. Readers hold fast for now, but prepare for a real blast.  

Roadkill Review: Brown’s Requiem by James Ellroy.

Everybody knows James Ellroy right? His L.A. Quartet provides the hard-boiled benchmark that defines a genre for many. Even if you haven’t read him, you will at least be aware of the movie L.A. Confidential, based on his novel of the same name.

This work pre-dates that movie by some sixteen years and is in fact Ellroy’s first novel.  Set in contemporary Los Angeles it follows the trials and tribulations of a hard bitten PI, Fritz Brown in his attempt to unravel a complicated case of arson and blackmail.  These old school noir staples are put to good use by an emerging Ellroy and the same wonderful spare prose and clipped dialogue that mark his later works are here in spades.

Brown’s Requiem was written by a man still honing his craft. If you look carefully you will see it in the plot, which at times seems jumbled and is prone to wander. There is a lot of the author’s own life mixed in here too; his love of golf and classical music are to the fore throughout and it can feel a little like you are being force fed with Ellroy’s self indulgence. That said this is still James Ellroy and Brown’s Requiem is a novel worthy of his name.

If you only plan on reading one Ellroy book then it’s hard to look past the big four. Choose The Black Delilah of my personal favorite The Big Nowhere. But if you want an enjoyable and interesting look at how he came to write them, start here.

On The Grift

I have finally broken my on-line duck for 2013 with a different kind of bird.

My story ‘Pigeon’ is up at Grift Magazine today. This is  the first flash piece I have had up in a while and it was a lot of fun to write.  

A few years back I spent some time in Northern Nevada. The casinos in places like Winnemucca and Elko are a world away from the glamour of the Vegas strip. But the gambling is just as intense, maybe even more so. ‘Pigeon’ is a story about winners and losers and those that get caught on the wrong side of that line.

Many thanks to John Kenyon for giving it a home, or should that be a loft.

Check it out and drop a comment to let me know what you think.
Grift: Pigeon by Chris Leek

 

So that was 2012 then?

It’s the end of the world year as we know it and actually now I think about it, yes I do feel fine. 2012 hasn’t been an easy ride for several reasons; the economy for one, that's spent the last 12 months resolutely entrenched in the toilet, which in turn has left me clinging to the wreckage of my day job, but like the Boss says: you got to learn to live with what you can’t rise above, so screw all that. 2012 has also been pretty awesome.

Roll back one year to the 20th December 2011. That was the day I got an e-mail from a guy named Larry Green, he's the editor of an online zine called Death Head Grin. Back in the September I had sent him a short story called Wetwork, like the other stories I was touting around at that time it had already been rejected by several other places, so I couldn’t quite believe it when Larry told me he dug the story and he was going to publish it. That was the first piece of fiction I ever had accepted for publication. Those of you who write will know how that felt. For those of you who don’t, try to imagine a lottery win and an orgasm rolled into one. You’re a good man Larry Green.

Roll forwards again to today, one year on and I’ve had 18 short stories published, one even made the cut for the new Out of the Gutter 8 print / e-book anthology (I may have mentioned that once or twice recently).  I’ve also got myself a regular writing gig, reviewing more talented folk’s stuff at the Out of the Gutter website. All that counts as awesome in my book, but what has really made this year for me is the help, support and above all the friendship of the people I’ve met in the crime / noir writing community.  I’m sorely tempted to name the names, but you guys know who you are right? Well you all have my sincere thanks.  

I know that my writing won’t pay the rent or make a damn of difference in the grand scheme of things, but it makes me happy and if once in a while I write something that makes somebody who reads it happy too, I’ll take that.

Happy Christmas Y’all.

A word on some words

Well I guess it must be December because all the blogs are filling up with their owner's choice for the best read of 2012. And I don’t see why the hell mine should be any different.

I’ve read a lot this year, though nowhere near as much as I would have liked. Time is the fire in which we all burn and I still have a mountain of books, both paper and ‘e’ waiting patiently for my attention. Earlier this year I stared doing some book reviews for Out of the Gutter, I may have mentioned that once or twice on here already. Writing those reviews has been a blast, but it has, by necessity streamlined my choice of reading and 2012 saw me consuming a lot more in the Crime / Noir / Hard-boiled arena, than perhaps I might have otherwise. I’ll point out the obvious and say that not all of my picks were first published this year, but as I read them in 2012 they shall reside here regardless. Anyway onwards! In no particular order, here are my favourites. There were plenty of others that were good, but these were better.  



Make of that what you will, but you could do a lot worse than dropping your Dollar, Pound, Euro or Dinar on any of these excellent works.

 

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

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.