Seeds, Pigeons, Redheads and Egos

I have been fortunate enough to snag a mention from Spinetingler nominee, Brian Panowich, who is over at Chris Rhatigan’s Death By Killing site today. Brian says some very nice things about three of my recently published stories: Seeds, which appears at western zine, The Big Adios. Pigeon, published by Grit Magazine and my Gutter debut, A Redheaded woman.

This is the third time that my name has somehow found its way on to one of these “five you can’t miss” lists and I am very grateful to both Paul D. Brazill and Mike Monson who also put one of my stories in their top five. I suppose this must mean I’m doing something right. Thank you guys.
 

You can read all of these stories for free by clicking on the links to the right and you check out what Brian has to say about them here:  Death By Killing

2013 Spinetingler Awards

The nominations for this year's Spinetingler awards are out. This is the red carpet event for those of us who ply our trade in the murky depths of pulp crime fiction and noir.
I’m delighted to see that my good friend and Zelmer Pulp cohort Brian Panowich is up for Best Short Story on the Web with his double barrelled blast of Georgia noir “If I ever get off this mountain / Coming down the mountain.“

These two stories were published simultaneously by Shotgun Honey and The Flash Fiction Offensive and they tell the tale of a back country blood feud from the perspective of two different protagonists. Not only is this a damn clever idea that I wish I had thought of first, but the quality of the writing is exceptional. Don’t just take my word for it, go and read them for yourself.

This year is a good one for natives of Georgia as the brilliant debut novel from Peter Farris “Last Call for the Living” is also up for an award in the Best Novel: New Voice category.

Congratulations to all the other nominees. We are truly blessed with a wealth of talent in the world of crime fiction.  You can see all of the categories and cast your votes HERE

Making The Cut

First up; Happy New Year!

I thought it would be best to start 2013 as I mean to go on, so here is the first 'Me' post of the new year. 



When the alcohol haze of midnight celebrations had cleared a little I was delighted to find that two of my short stories had been included in the ‘best of 2012 online’ lists from the inscrutable Paul D Brazill and the enigmatic Mike Monson.

Paul picked my story ‘Redheaded Woman’, which first appeared at The Flash Fiction Offensive and subsequently in the new anthology Out Of The Gutter 8.
Five you Can't Miss from 2012 - Paul D Brazill

Mike plumped for ‘Party Favors’, which was published at Spintingler Magazine, back in the summer. Special Short Stories I read This Year - Mike Monson

Thanks guys I’m honored to have made the cut.

Party Favors

Reasons to be cheerful 1,2,3.
Well how about these? It's Friday, the UK is heading into a holiday weekend with the sun still shining (for now anyway) and my story 'Party Favors' is up at one of the coolest of the cool, Spinetingler Magazine.

I guess a lot of you hard-boiled types who follow the crime writing scene around the web will have seen my stuff popping up at places like Shotgun Honey and All Due Respect and wondered where the hell this hack, Chris Leek has sprung from.

Well, the fact is I've been at the writing gig for a while, but it's only in the past year that I've managed to settle myself into a genre where I finally feel at home. Having said that 'Party Favors' is a difficult story to categorize, it has a dash of crime and a good helping of horror too. I'm pretty sure it would need more spaceships to qualify as science fiction, but beyond that I'll leave it up to you to decide. I hope you like it. Click here for those Party Favors

 

Hey while you're there why not leave me a comment and let me know what you think.