The Jackson Cage

I’m back at The Flash Fiction Offensive today with a little number called The Jackson Cage.

This story is my first one to be published online for quite a while. My other writing commitments have meant I’m not writing all that many flash pieces these days. I’d like to think that makes the quality of the ones I do put out that much better, but I’ll let you be the judge of that.

I’d like to thank Tom Pitts and Joe Clifford for letting me lower the tone of their virtual pages once again and also thanks are due to Ryan Sayles and Rich Osburn for running the rule over my first draft.

I hope you read it and I hope you dig it. If you do, drop me a comment.

The holding tank has its own set of rules. Jail isn’t prison and the learning curve can be a steep one. THE JACKSON CAGE

Review: Joe Clifford's Junkie Love

Buy It Here

I don’t ordinarily do this, re-blogging part of my book review from Out of the Gutter. But Junkie Love is no ordinary book.

Junkie Love is Joe Clifford’s second novel and as he says in his introduction, one way or another it has taken him most of his life to complete. It is indeed a love story, although not necessarily in the conventional sense, a junkie romance is never that straight forward.
 
This is ten years of Joe’s life laid bare, at times both brutal and horrific, but always compelling. He is not ashamed of his past and nor should he be. Everybody fucks it up to a greater or lesser degree, but not everybody has the strength of will required to pull back from the brink or the stones to write so honestly about it. Junkie Love is a hard book to read and an even harder one to put down. We already knew that Joe could write; that fact was never up for debate. Here he does something that goes way beyond just putting words on the page. He tells it exactly like it is and more importantly what it was like to live it.
Junkie Love is a hell of a book and Joe is a hell of a writer. You can read my full review HERE and you can buy the book at Amazon or B&N.

A Short Review of the Reviews

Since I landed the gig at Out of the Gutter all of my book reviews have headed that way. This is mainly due to the fact that my week doesn’t usually allow the time needed to read two books. I want to change that, make more time for reading and start posting some reviews back here again, perhaps take a look at some books which don’t fit in with the Gutter’s style. 

My OOTG reviews tend to focus on emerging and independent authors as I feel these are the guys and girls who can make best use of the platform. I’m a writer and I know how tough it is to get the word out there. Established authors don’t need a half-assed critic like me to blow literary smoke up their ass, they already have the platform  that comes from a five book deal with a major. That said, another thing I'd like to do is pass comment on some of those bigger guns from time to time.  So keep a look out for that kind of thing here and remember to check the Gutter on Tuesdays for my weekly slice of the crime stuff. (You can find those crime reviews just by clicking the linky thing to the right).

 

The Rumble in the Dumpster - Sayles Vs. Leek

Today my friend is an auspicious day in the life of yours truly, for I have been granted an audience with the Legend that is Ryan ‘The Walnuts’ Sayles. Yes brothers and sisters rejoice in the knowledge that my life is now complete and join me in the spare parts and broken hearts of my Noir Affliction.

 

Some people are born great; others have greatness thrust upon them and then there are those of us who just make it up as we go along: Chris Leek: a review by Ryan Sayles

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

Holy Moses

Just in case you‘ve missed it, yours truly is back in the gutter again. This time I’m chewing over Out There Bad, the second Moses McGuire novel by Josh Stallings.

 

Josh is a very cool dude and his debut novel Beautiful Naked and dead was a killer read. I posted a review of that one right here. But did the follow up measure up? Well, you’ll just have to go take a look for yourself: OOTG - Review

 

Next week you can join me on a wild ride with Tom Pitts and a trunk load of weed...

Afflicted by Noir?

If you’re reading this there’s a good chance you have an interest in Noir, if not then you’re probably a Latvian porn spammer. Either way, you should really check out Ryan Sayles and his Noir Affliction interviews over at Out of the Gutter online.

I know what you’re thinking; who’s the hell is this Ryan Sayles dude anyway. Well, I like to think of him as the Oprah of Noir, only he has better legs and does a lot less coke.

Ryan brings something new, disturbing and kind of wonderful to the art of the interview and his ongoing autopsy of the Noir genre is required reading for me. Recent weeks have seen him on the run with Tom Pitts and a trunk full of dead hookers, peeling off stripper singles with Brian Panowich, and this week he’s in the sauna with Eric Beetner.
Look I can’t explain it; this is just something you have to see for yourself.
OOTG - The Noir Affliction

Lost in the Woods

Okay it's gutter time again; this week I’ve got a bad ass back woods blast from Peter Farris to keep me company.

 

I reviewed Last Call for the Living in a much less coherent way right here, back in August. This time I did it better.Last Call is pretty much nailed on to be my top read of 2012 and yes it really is that good.

So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is go to OOTG and read the review; then hurry to your local book purveyor, purchase a copy of Last Call for the Living. Once you have secured your book you should consider running all the way home, clasping it lovingly to your chest

Out Of The Gutter - Independent Reviews

The Evil Book Empire (Amazon)

Car Jackers and Spies Like Us

This week over at Out Of the gutter, I’m taking a long, hard look at Gary Carson’s San Fransico based car crime / espionage thriller mash up, Hot Wire.

If this is a book you've read, I'd really like to hear what you thought about it, why not drop a comment and let me know. You can check out my review here:

Out Of The Gutter - Independent Reviews

This Gun's Not For Hire

I'm over at Out of the Gutter today reviewing City of Heretics, the latest offering from Heath Lowrance.

But opinions are like assholes, everybody has one right? Right. So why not drop by share yours (opinion that it is; if you want to share your asshole you've got the wrong site buddy, but the internet is a big scary place, keep looking.)

We're planning on making this a regular gig, so if your an author working his or her mojo in the Crime / Noir / Hard-Boiled arena and you'd like your book reviewed, then you can hit me up here or through the OOTG website.
I'm particularly interested in hearing from you Indie types who are putting it out there solo and those of you working through the small specialized presses. If you've got a five book deal at Random House, hey congratulations, but you can write your own damn reviews.

Just so as you know, I'll only ever review books I have actually read and I'm not on anybody's pimping payroll. I'm doing it purely for the love baby.

Out Of The Gutter - Independent Reviews

The Legend of Johnny Kool

All out of bullets? Well no, not quite. I have had an unbelievable run recently and pretty much everything I've submitted has been picked up; so yeah, I do really need to quit dragging my ass and get down to writing some more. But I still got one or two rounds left.

 If you head over to Out Of The Gutter you'll be staring down the barrel of my latest. 'The Legend of Johnny Kool' is a story I've wanted to write for a while. I guess you could call it fan fiction, but not in the way you're thinking. Celebrity can be a blessing and a curse or so I'm told, it's not something I'll ever need to worry about!

A big thank you goes out to all round good guy, Court Merrigan for having me over to his Bareknuckles Pulp party. As parties go this one is all night spit and sawdust kegger with good music and better company, so why not grab a fifth and head on over: The Legend of Johnny Kool

A Redheaded Woman

This has been an awesome week for my pen jockeying and I must beg your indulgence in my self indulgence just one more time.

Those of you who regularly paw the sticky, virtual pages at 'The Flash Fiction Offensive' will know that this illegitimate son has been welcomed back into the bosom of it's family and is now hosted on the main 'Out of the Gutter' site.

Joe Clifford is the new warden of this institution and I'm delighted to say that after only minimal blackmailing he has kindly taken one of my own bastard children under his wing. This kid would probably shank you with a screwdriver for your change, but she'd say thank you afterwards. (I raise 'em with manners.)

Big cyber chocolate cookies and my eternal thanks go out to all of you who take the trouble to read my ink stained scribbles. Muchas kudos and the key to the mini bar for those who tweet, blog and generally pimp my stuff. I love you all, but not, you know, in that kind of way. (I'm talking to you Steve from Flat Rock, what part of '100 yards at all times' are you not understanding?)

So if you're game for another blast of short stuff, 'A Redheaded Woman' is the story of Tammy and Deke, well part of it anyway and you can find it here:

Out of the Gutter - A Redheaded Woman

If it hits the spot, please post a comment and let me know!

Six Shooter

You may not have seen much in the way of wordsmithing from me recently (assuming anyone was looking), but that doesn’t mean I've been sat on my backside drinking beer and watching sports, well not all the time anyway.

In fact I've got a foaming six pack of stories that will be cracking open this summer. They're an eclectic bunch, some happy, some sad and some downright dangerous to know.


First of all much Kudos is due to Chris Rhatigan for his excellent site, All Due Respect. I'm honored to say that my story Ties that Bind will be featured in Issue #32, which is due out in August

The first of two blasts of white hot flash fiction comes to you from the kings of the short stuff, Shotgun Honey. Those first class guys have my story Drinks at Romero's locked and loaded.
Now online

The second number comes in the form of A Red Headed Woman. This ballad of badness will grace the hallowed pages of flash fiction now hosted at Out of the Gutter. Big thanks to Joe Clifford for wading through my goat-fuck-formatting.
Now online

The July edition of of Hobo Camp Review contains my short story about a Texas drifter who finds his anchor in Spare Parts. This one is unusual for me mainly because nobody dies horribly. Really you could read it to your Grandma, or somebody else’s Grandma, it's entirely up to you. Now online

Issue #4 of the excellent Downer Magazine (I really dig this 'zine) will feature the battle for hearts and minds in small town USA recited in my short story Nebraska. More surprises, this one has some social stones. Now online

Issue #6 of The Stone Hobo Magazine, (two Hobos are always better than one, unless they start fighting over bindles) has the crackle of Dry Lightning, a story of new beginnings at the end of a long, hot Arizona summer. I had to draw deep on experience here, living in the UK again means that summer is now just a distant memory.

Adding a little something extra to this cocktail of delights is the rumour that the old Mystery Dawg is cranking things up again over at Powder Burn Flash. I've got one of my Vegas stories Candy's Room in the starting line up for the next game to be played there, so fingers crossed for a home win.

Okay, I know, that's seven not six, but who ever heard of a seven shooter? I'll be sure to tip you the nod when they go live, and if you can find it in your heart to humor this delinquent pen monkey (who now owns three toasters, but still has no matching socks) and check one or two of them out. I'd sure appreciate it. May your beers always be cold ones and the gods of gratitude copulate in your greenhouses, or something some old Greek guy said.