Bloody knuckles, Callused fingertips

One Man’s Bullshit Opinion: What it Was by George Pelecanos

2012-02-15T09:49:00.000-08:00

I’ve been trying to review What it Was by George Pelecanosfor the past couple of weeks. I’ll sit down with a notebook or in front of thecomputer, start writing, and typically at the three or four hundred word mark,I stop cold.

Is it because What it Was is a bad book and I want to avoidthe whole mess of giving an author a bad review? (Writing bad reviews andwhether to publish them or not is a whole other kettle of fish, and I don’thave the time or the energy to go into that.)

No, that’s not it at all.

In fact, What it Was is exactly the kind of novel most fans of Pelecanos want to see him write more of.(Here’s another can of worms thing: I actual like Pelecanos’ “urban” novelssuch as the Way Home and the Turnaround way more than his traditional crimenovels.) What it Was is pulp fiction, plain and simple.

It has a clearly defined bad guy, two clearly defined,albeit morally sketchy, good guys, and possess all of the hallmarks of a typicalDerek Strange novel: Sex, drugs, violence, music, food and set in the 70’s.

But what stops me in my tracks is this: Price point.

As you all know, Reagan Arthur Books pre-sold Whatit Was as an e-book for 99 cents. It’s a hell of a deal and from its currentAmazon ranking, it looks like it’s doing pretty well overall because of theprice point. WhatReagan Arthur Books also did was offer What it Was as a $9.99 paperbackand a $35 mamajamma collectors hardback, and they released all three versions simultaneously.There’s was no waiting around for paperback, there was no waiting for the novelto become an Amazon deal of the day.

Reagan Arthur Books priced the e-book accordingly and readers areresponding to it.

I applaud Reagan Arthur Books for doing this and it also makes me wonderwhy the other big six publishers aren’t following suit? Why it is that e-bookspublished by the big six are still being priced at the $9.99 plus range?

The answer is, of course, greed. (Okay, here’s another hotpoint that I’m not going to spend much time on. When I say greed, I’m notsaying it with any negative connotations; publishing—whether you’re a twoperson small press or one which employees hundreds—is a business, it’s there tomake money, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, we all get it)

E-reader technology is still new, people are enthralled bythe fact that they can instantly gain access to a book, so like any businesswould, the big six are taking advantage of the newness. But the major issue Ican see the New Yorkpublishing houses running into when the e-book “bubble” bursts (i.e., e-booktech becomes de rigueur) is that they’ll price themselves out of the market,not that they’re not pricing themselves out already.

In my eyes, Reagan Arthur Books is laying the ground work for whatpublishing should be doing: Offering a quality product at an affordable priceand for every type of reader. Don’t make people wait around for the preferred formatto become available.

It’s a solid model and one I hope continues.

But here’s another idea: Why aren’t publishers doing thiswith their newer writers? Hell, why aren’t they developing talent through ane-book exclusive line? It used to be publishers took the time to develop newwriters; to foster their talents and build them into a solid earners andstashing a solid back catalog (Pelecanos, along with Dennis Lehane, MichaelConnelly, and Laura Lippman are all of a generation of crime writers whosecareers were built of this type of model.) over the years.

This model has virtually disappeared.

Now it seems—at least to my naïve eyes—that a novelist hastwo books in which to prove their worth and develop an audience, and if theycan’t do it with those two books, they’re done.

But with an original e-book line—not just one which reprintsclassic back catalogs—it seems to me that this would be a way for publishers totake young writers like Matthew Funk or Holly West or Eric Beetner and helpthem develop an audience through e-books with the overall hope of transitioningthem to a print market.

It seems like a solid idea to me.

But what the fuck do I know? I’m just some shitheel whoexists on the fringes of publishing and I don’t understand that doing this kindof thing with an unestablished author would be too costly, or that the novels beingproduced by this type line would be considered inferior.

I’ve heard both of these arguments time and again when Ibring this idea up and all I have to say to both is:

Bullshit.

And I’ll keep calling it bullshit until publisher comesalong and shows me—and what I mean by “shows me” is actual financial reportsand maybe a couple of dull ass PowerPoint presentations— that I’m just talkingout my ass.

Anyway, to get back to What it Was, it’s awesome, you shouldread it and if you haven’t read Pelecanos before, maybe What it Was will turnyou on to his other books enough that you’ll want to read more of his massive,and affordable, back catalog.

Happy Publication Day ... Yeah, I'm having a contest.

2012-02-14T07:16:00.000-08:00

Publication days for authors is a HUGE deal. It's like Christmas and your birthday rolled up into a nerve wracked whooper of a day and there's a few folks who are going through a day full of the jitters on this Valentines Day.

First is Hilary Davidson

You all know what a fan of Hilary's I am and her sophomore effort THE NEXT ONE TO FALL hits the street today and in celebration I'm offering a signed Advanced Readers Copy of THE NEXT ONE TO FALL and all you have to do is tell me what your favorite vacation was (domestic or international) in the comments section. If you want, I'll even have Hilary personalize it when she visits the Poisoned Pen on February 21st.

Here's the skinny on THE NEXT ONE TO FALL:

Travel writer Lily Moore has been persuaded by her closest friend, photographer Jesse Robb, to visit Peru with him. Jesse is convinced that the trip will lure Lily out of her dark mood, but Lily is haunted by betrayal and loss. At Machu Picchu, the famous Lost City of the Incas, they discover a woman clinging to life at the bottom of an ancient stone staircase. Just before the woman dies, she tells Lily the name of the man who pushed her.

When the local police investigate, the forensic evidence they find doesn’t match what Lily knows. Unable to accept the official ruling of accidental death, Lily hunts down the wealthy man who was the dead woman’s traveling companion and discovers a pattern of dead and missing women in his wake.

Obsessed with getting justice for these women, Lily sets in motion a violent chain of events that will have devastating consequences.

To Sweeten the pot, I'll throw in a copy of WILD THING by Josh Bazell, who will be at the Poisoned Pen on March 5th, so I'll get that signed for you, too. By the way, if you haven't already, you can check out my interview with Dr. Bazell over at LitReactor right HERE.

And here's the skinny on WILD THING:

It's hard to find work as a doctor when using your real name will get you killed. So hard that when a reclusive billionaire offers Dr. Peter Brown, aka Pietro Brnwa, a job accompanying a sexy but self-destructive paleontologist on the world's worst field assignment, Brown has no real choice but to say yes. Even if it means that an army of murderers, mobsters, and international drug dealers-not to mention the occasional lake monster-are about to have a serious Pietro Brnwa problem.

Facing new and old monsters alike, Dr. Brnwa's story continues in this darkly funny and lightning-paced follow up to Josh Bazell's bestselling debut.

You know the deal with contests, U.S. residents and Cannucks only

Jesus, has it really been four months since I posted anything?

2012-01-05T09:10:00.000-08:00

Yes, thisis going to be a dopey year end review posts, so don't say you haven't beenwarned.

2011 wasa hell of year.

Tons ofchanges and I can honestly say that all of them have been positive.

Here aresome highlights:

Started anew day job

Bought anew house

Became alandlord

Went toAlaska

Went toSt. Louis and attended my first Bouchercon

(And interviewed one of my heroes, Daniel Woodrell)

Saw my first book published

Saw CrimeFactory: The First Shift see publication (I also hung up my spurs aspublisher of Crime Factory, which was alittle sad, but it was time.)

Startedwriting for LitReactor

My darling daughter Sadie turned 5 and started kindergarten.

It' was a busy year, almost overwhelmingly so, but a good one. But like all the yearsbefore it, I'm glad to see 2011 hit the bricks

I'm readyfor 2012.

My biggesthope for the new year, other than continued health and happiness for my familyand friends, is for 2012 to be quiet.

That'sright, more than anything else, I just want life to be nice and normal for achange.

What do Imean by normal?

I want towake up in the morning, go to work, come home, pick up my daughter from school,make dinner, watch a little TV, put the kiddo to bed, come downstairs to myoffice and spend a couple of hours writing until I get sleepy and then go tobed.

And thenwake up the next day and do the exact same thing day-after-day.

I know,all of that shit sounds boring as hell, but sometimes a little routine is what youneed.

Anyway,that's it.

I hopeyou have a great New Year.

BTW, I finally updated the links over on the side bars and I'm fucking around with the blogs appearance a little

The wonderful, weird world of fiction writing

2011-09-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

I've been struggling with this blog post, which usually isn't the case when it comes to blogging. Typically I just throw it up and then fling it at the world like a monkey, but for some reason or other I've been balking about the subject.

What I've been wanting to write about is how strange it is to be a writer in the modern world. Yeah, it's kind of a worn out subject, but one I've never really touched on before.

I mean, let's face facts writing used to be a very solitary(and when it comes right down to it, it still is) activity where the guy or gal doing the writing would labor for years and years perfecting their craft and accumulating drawer fulls of rejection letters until finally an editor or agent saw something in the writer's work and they were suddenly skipping down the road to success and bestsellerdom.

Or they would just keep pounding away at the keyboard and collect more and more rejections.

Or they would just give up and move onto other professions, other ambitions.

Of course, none of this really happens anymore. I'm sure there are more than a few folks out in the world who are laboring Bukowski style, living as artistic hermits, pounding the keys, wall papering their shack with rejection letters. It seems so romantic to live this way, yet in the modern world, it seems utterly impossible.

Ever since I began my "career" as a writer close to four years ago, I've been on some form of social media or other - hell, I still even have a Myspace page where you can find my early attempts at blogging and links to my early stories (Sadly, so many of those stories are long gone.) - promoting my writing and attempting to gain an audience.

Yes, I was trying to gain an audience even before I'd built a body of work or discovered my true "voice" as a writer. (I am, in many ways, still finding my voice)

Was this arrogant of me? Did I really think I was so great that I felt the need to broadcast to anyone who would listen that I had a new story or blog post or review or whatever?

No, it wasn't arrogance, it was because I could.

Now the next question is, just because I could, should I have done things this way? Should I have waited until my narrative voice matured before sending out and then broadcasting both my success and failures.

Once again, the answer - at least for me - is still no.

And for me, this is the most interesting- and the strangest- thing about modern writing. There's simply is no apprenticeship period where a writer labors with their craft. There is no private time of despair and self doubt because everything is done so publicly now. The reader can watch as the writer grows and improves, or in some cases, fades into obscurity after too much frustration or real life gets the better of them.

And the last question, is this "new" style of writing good or bad?

Coming from a guy who jumped headlong into this "new" (Yeah, I keep adding quotation marks because after ten years of social media promotion, there really is nothing "new" about any of this.) style of media, I can honestly say I have zero regrets.

Anyway, enough my blathering and onto stuff I've been up to.

Last week my story "A Beginners Guide to Dog Sitting" appeared in [PANK] Magazine's special crime fiction issue. I was included in there with the likes of Chris Offutt, (Kentucky Straight, and the television shows True Blood and Weeds) Anthony Neil Smith, (Yellow Medicine, Hogdoggin') Frank Bill, (Crimes In Southern Indiana) Kyle Minor, (In The Devil's Territory) Aaron Michael Morales, (Drowning Tuscon) Art Taylor, (Art's story, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", kicked the living shit out of the rest of us, so make sure to check it out.) and Mr. Eric Shonkwiler. So if you haven't had the chance to check out the issue, you can do it right HERE.

Also, LitReactor went live yesterday (Well, the landing page did. The site itself won't go live until October 1st.) I'll be conducting interviews and writing book reviews for the site and I'm super exited about this one. The staff that's been assembled for the site is literally a who's who of culture blogs and websites, and I'm still scratching my head wondering how I became involved with it . . . . But it's better to not look a gift horse in the mouth and simply roll with it and enjoy the ride. But if you want to stay abreast of all the happenings of LitReactor you can "Like" them on the Faceybook right HERE or follow them on the Twitters right HERE.

Last but not least, this time next week I'll be heading to St. Louis for my first ever Bouchercon. This one is promising to be huge and I already have three interviews lined up for the conference.

First up is St. Louis' reigning king of smut, Mr. Scott Phillips, next is my good friend Frank Bill and last but not least is the great Daniel Woodrell. I'm sure I'll have a few more lined up as the conference moves along and, of course, we'll be debuting Crime Factory: The First Shift at Bcon.

So if you see me (I'll be the pudgy half in the can guy with the flip video camera and armload of books...but then again that's going to pretty much describes everyone there.) don't be afraid to stop me and say hello or punch me or whatever.

See you next time, folks.

Revisited—The Need by Frank Bill

2011-08-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

I’ve known and have been reading Frank Bill for close to four years now. I’ve been lucky enough to read a good sized chunk of Bill’s fiction before the rest of the world and for a time, there was a period where nearly every one of our stories shared page space, (including part 1 of the Hill Clan Trilogy, which was republished in the September issue of Playboy.) We even participated in this thing over at Elaine Ash’s blog.

With as familiar as I am with Bill’s output, the story I kept coming back to when I read and then re-read his debut collection, Crimes In Southern Indiana, is “The Need”. The story originally appeared as a couplet of pieces (along with “Tweakers”) at the webzine Beat To A Pulp. Both pieces were hard bitten tastes of rural noir featuring Conservation Officer Moon and both were powerful pieces of writing. But for one reason or another, “The Need” struck a chord with me.

The story’s focus is on a Afghan war vet named Wayne. Wayne spends most of his days living in his trailer on his widowed father’s property boozed up and high to the gills on meth trying to drive back the dark impulses he carried back from the war.

One night, good old boy Brady Basham stops by Wayne’s trailer asking him to come out hunting with him. After they're finished up for the night, they head back to Brady’s trailer to eat and while Brady’s daughter is serving the two hunters their late night breakfast, she begins flirting with Wayne and Brady takes offense to her forwardness and decides to whoop her ass which finally drives Wayne to act on his impulses. By the end of the story, three people have been murdered and he’s maneuvering through the bush being chased down by Officer Moon and reliving his time in Afghanistan.

What most impressed me with “The Need” was Bill’s ability to switch gears from the rough hewn fiction I was used to reading, to a far slicker, almost commercial style of story telling. Not that “The Need” still didn’t contain the same rough backwoods language that you came to expect from a Bill story, but reading “The Need” was almost like reading a traditional thriller along the same lines as Morrell. Wayne is a disenfranchised, lonely man who has been forced into too many situations beyond his control—too much death and betrayal—and the reader immediately empathizes with his brutal history.

No, “The Need” is not the most accomplished piece in Crimes In Southern Indiana, but in my opinion, it felt like Bill had reached a turning point in his career with the “Double Bill” of Frank Bill which “The Need” was apart of.

Or maybe I know Jack and Shit and Frank had actually turned the corner with “Flesh Rule”?

Whatever.

All I know is I’m damn proud of my friend Frank Bill and I’m convinced Crimes In Southern Indiana is the first step in a long career. So if you haven’t already picked up your copy of Crimes yet, you can do so right HERE.

Pimpin' Guantanamo Style

2011-08-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

Are you getting tired of me pimping my wares?

Yeah?

Well tough shit, because I'm going to be doing it on a near daily basis for the remainder of 2011 going into 2012 (Well not daily, but pretty goddamn close.)

But this project, D*CKED edited by Greg Bardsley, Kieran Shea and Jedidiah Ayres - This one's special.

It's Special because Shea's holding my wife and daughter hostage until after I blog about this anthology

For the love of God help me!

The other reason is that my story, "The Many Loves of Art Snow", appears in it along with a gaggle of great crime writers.

Check out the full line up below:

PATRICIA ABBOTT
Patricia Abbott is the author of more than 75 stories in literary and crime fiction outlets. Recent stories appeared in Damn Near Dead, 2, Beat to a Pulp: Round One, Crimefactory, and Needle. She is the co-editor with Steve Weddle of Discount Noir. She lives and works in Detroit.

CAMERON ASHLEY
Cameron Ashley is the co-editor of Crimefactory (crimefactoryzine.com). He lives, writes and drinks in Brunswick, Melbourne.

JEDIDIAH AYRES
Jedidiah Ayres’s short fiction has appeared in Thuglit, Plots With Guns and Out of the Gutter magazine, as well as the anthologies Sex, Thugs, and Rock & Roll and Surreal South ’09. He is the screenwriter of Mosquito Kingdom and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.

GREG BARDSLEY
Greg Bardsley’s fiction has appeared in the anthologies By Hook or Crook: The Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year, Sex, Thugs and Rock & Roll and Uncage Me. Other stories have appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including Plots with Guns, Storyglossia, 3:AM Magazine, Out of the Gutter, Crimefactory and Pulp Pusher. His debut novel, Cash Out, will be published by Harper Perennial in 2012. Visit him at gregbardsley.wordpress.com

ERIC BEETNER
Eric Beetner is the co-author (with JB Kohl) of the novels One Too Many Blows To The Head and Borrowed Trouble. His award-winning short fiction has appeared in the anthologies Discount Noir, Murder in the Wind, as well as Needle magazine, Crimefactory, A Twist of Noir, Thuglit, Pulp Pusher and many more online fiction outlets. For more information and links to stories, visit ericbeetner.blogspot.com

TONY BLACK
Tony Black is Irvine Welsh’s favourite British crime writer. He is the author of the Gus Dury novels: Paying for It, Gutted, Loss and Long Time Dead. His new crime series featuring DI Rob Brennan begins in 2011 with Truth Lies Bleeding. He lives in Edinburgh. Visit him attonyblack.net

KEN BRUEN
Ken Bruen was a finalist for the Edgar, Barry, and Macavity Awards, and the Private Eye Writers of America presented him with the Shamus Award for the Best Novel of 2003 for The Guards, the book that introduced Jack Taylor. Among his many award-winning novels, London Boulevard is now being filmed, starring Colin Farrel and Keira Knightley, with Oscar winner William Monahan (screenwriter of The Departed) to write and direct.

JIMMY CALLAWAY
Jimmy Callaway lives and works in San Diego, California. You can find more of his writing atattentionchildren.blogspot.com

RACHEL CANON
Rachel Canon is the author of the political thriller, The Anniversary [Random House]. Her short stories include the winning entry in a contest that called for finishing a story started by Harlan Ellison, and her first published fiction was a mystery serial that appeared weekly in her elementary school newspaper. She lives and writes in Los Angeles.

HILARY DAVIDSON
Hilary Davidson’s first novel, The Damage Done [Forge, 2010], has been called a “razor sharp mystery debut” by Publishers Weekly, “Hitchcock writing for the hip Manhattan set” by Ken Bruen, and “a rich, haunting debut” by Megan Abbott. Her second novel, The Next One to Fall, will be published by Forge early in 2012. Hilary won the 2010 Spinetingler Award for Best Short Story for “Insatiable,” and her short fiction has appeared in anthologies including Beat to a Pulp: Round One and Thuglit Presents: Blood, Guts, & Whiskey. Before turning to crime, she was a travel writer and the author of 18 nonfiction books. hilarydavidson.com

JASON DUKE
Jason Duke is a Sergeant in the U.S. Army who served 15 months in Iraq between 2007 and 2009. His short stories have appeared in Plots with Guns, Thuglit, Spinetingler Magazine, Crimewav.com, Crimefactory, Darkest Before the Dawn and A Twist of Noir, among others.

BILL FITZHUGH
Bill Fitzhugh has been described as “of average height” and “not particularly fast in the hundred meters, though quick enough to escape capture that one time.” According to the New York Times, “He is the author of enough books to keep you busy for a while.” Confounding critics and readers alike, his series of stand-alone novels explores the dark underbelly of the world of testicle transplants, the international kitty porn industry, and pie-eating contests. His novel, I Think I Need My Stomach Pumped, features a new protagonist: Angus McNaughty, a loner and an alley cat, who travels only with a toothbrush and furball medicine. Fitzhugh lives in Los Angeles with very little hope of a decent future.

MATTHEW C. FUNK
Matthew C. Funk is a social media consultant, professional marketing copywriter and writing mentor. He is the editor of the Genre section of the critically acclaimed zine, FictionDaily, and a writer for FangirlTastic and Spinetingler Magazine. M. C. Funk’s work features at numerous sites online, indexed at his Web site, and in print with Needle Magazine, Howl, 6S and Crimefactory. He is represented by Stacia J. N. Decker of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.

HARRY HUNSICKER
Harry Hunsicker is the author of the Lee Henry Oswald mystery novels, Crosshairs, The Next Time You Die, and the Shamus Award Nominee, Still River. Hunsicker is an active member of the International Thriller Writers, the Mystery Writers of America, and the Private Eye Writers of America. In 2008 he served as the Executive Vice President of the Mystery Writers of America.

NANCY LEE PHILCOX
Nancy Lee Philcox lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and works as a graphic designer. She sings for The Shitfits (coming to a dive bar near you), enjoys motion graphics, animation, metal sculture, illustration, and painting. Nancy is the principal at Luminous Sky and Level Eleven™ where she hocks her design talent. You can see more of her diverse creations at level-eleven.com

SCOTT PHILLIPS
Scott Phillips is the author of The Ice Harvest, The Walkway, Cottonwood and Rut as well as The Adjustment, forthcoming from Counterpoint Press in 2011 and Nocturne le Vendredi, from les Éditions la Branche in 2011. He also is the author of the story collection, Rum, Sodomy and False Eyelashes. John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton starred in the 2005 feature film of The Ice Harvest, which was adapted by Richard Russo and Robert Benton and directed by Harold Ramis. Phillips lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

KEITH RAWSON
Keith Rawson is a little-known pulp writer living in the alkaline desert wastelands of southern Arizona with his wife and very energetic three-year-old daughter. His stories have appeared in Plots with Guns, Pulp Pusher, CrimeWav.com, Bad Things, Powder Burn Flash, A Twist of Noir, Beat to a Pulp and many others. He is a frequent contributor to BSCreview and a staff writer at Spinetingler magazine. He also co-edits and publishes Crimefactory magazine.

MARK RICHARDSON
Mark Richardson works as a marketing writer in Silicon Valley. His short fiction has or will soon appear in Crimefactory, Switchback, Nth Position, and Thirst for Fire.

AL RISKE
Al Riske is the author of the novel Sabrina’s Window and the story collection Precarious. His stories have also appeared in Hobart, Switchback, Pindeldyboz, Word Riot, Blue Mesa Review, 34th Parallel, and the Beloit Fiction Journal. He has worked as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, copywriter and ghostwriter. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, he now lives in California with his wife, Joanne, and their dog, Bodie.

MARCUS SAKEY
Marcus Sakey is the award-winning author of The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes, The Amateurs and other critically acclaimed books. He lives in Chicago.

KIERAN SHEA
Entrepreneur and veteran of the blue-chip advertising shakedown, Kieran Shea has published short fiction in Ellery Queen, Plots with Guns, Thuglit, Pulp Pusher and Dogmatika.

OWEN SMITH
Owen Smith’s illustration clients include Sports Illustrated, Time, Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker, for which he has created 15 cover illustrations. He has recently completed work on a new children’s book for Simon and Schuster. Owen’s influences come from the WPA artists of the 1930s, Diego Rivera, and the lurid covers of pulp magazines and dime-store paperbacks of the 1930s and 1940s. His paintings have been featured in exhibitions in New York, Rome, and Milan, as well as solo shows in Los Angeles. In 1998, a set of mosaic murals Owen designed was permanently installed in a New York subway station at 36th Street in Brooklyn. Currently Owen teaches illustration at California College of the Arts and is designing permanent art for a historic San Francisco hospital, including murals, mosaic, and relief sculpture. Owen lives in Alameda California with his wife and two sons.

STEVE WEDDLE
In addition to being a writer, Steve Weddle is the editor of Needle: A Magazine of Noir and a founding member of DoSomeDamage.com. His website is steveweddle.com. He lives with his family in Virginia.

Yeah, it's an impressive line up and I will say this - "The Many Loves of Art Snow" is my favorite story which I've written to date. It's weird, it's funny, it's inspired by a painting owned by my fellow contributor, Scott Phillips.

So, make sure to pick up your copy today at D*CKED's Website (And go ahead and use one of these coupon's for an extra savings) (Oh, one other thing, Shea assures me that D*CKED will be available as an e-book in the next couple of days, so you e-reader people go ahead and take it easy before you get your panties in a bunch)

And while you're at, check out the official video trailer of D*CKED below

Now Available From Snubnose Press—The Chaos We Know

2011-08-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

It actually went live over the weekend, but I’ve gotten into the habit of actually writing and spending time with my family on weekends instead of pimping my wares, so for all intents and purposes, let’s consider it live right now

Grab up your copy today at Amazon or Smashwords.

(BTW, folks, I promise not mention the collection every five minutes on Facebook and Twitter. Sure, I want you to buy the freaking thing. But, ya know, I don’t want to become that annoying asshole who only talks about his latest e-book.)

Autumn—I want you to hit me as hard as you can…

2011-08-02T06:58:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you, folks, Fall can not get here soon enough. I’ll be the first to admit that even though I’m a sun/heat person, this summer in my adopted home of Phoenix has been a bear. But there’s other reasons why I want summer to hit the bricks and it's because this coming Autumn is going to be heralding some major changes.

So what’s coming in the Fall, you ask?

Okay, you all know about Crime Factory: The First Shift hitting the shelves. (Oh, speaking of Crime Factroy, have you downloaded issue #7 yet? I shit you not when I say it's the best issue we've put out to date, so get to it if you haven't already.)

You all know about my short story collection The Chaos We Know hitting the virtual shelves from Snubnose Press

Most of you know I’ll be at Bouchercon trying to keep Jimmy Callaway out of jail and Matt Funk and Cam out of bar brawls.

But here’s a bit more good news.

Recently the good folks at ChuckPallahniuk.net (AKA the Cult) put out the call for freelance writers and I figured, what the hell, I’ll try my luck and see what happens.

Well, what happened is that out of 500 applicants, I was one of the seven new freelancers selected to write for the Cult’s new home LitReactor starting in October.

Yeah, needless to say that I’m ecstatic to be writing alongside Cult regulars such as Stephen Graham Jones and Richard Thomas along with all the new kids.

Also, on top of the new writing gig, I’ll be helping out Crime Factory’s fiction editor extraordinaire, Jimmy “Don’t Call Me The Gem” Callaway, with a new venture which he’s heading up starting in September.

So come on Summer, get your ass out of here!

Oh, one last thing before I split out and just to prove summer ain’t all that bad, I figured I’d drop one more piece of news on you.

If you follow me on the Twitters, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve been using this hash tag: #DICKED a lot

And typically speaking when I’ve used said hash tag I’ll usually mention something about Greg Bardsley being tortured, or Kieran Shea being a plant for the N.S.A or Jedidiah Ayres being transported to Guantanamo Bay…Well, there’s a reason for all of this, because D*CKED: Dark Fiction Inspired By Dick Chaney, edited by Greg Bardsley, Kieran Shea and Jedidiah Ayres is coming…

Alright, fellas, I outed you, so I’m sure the C.I.A will coming for the three of you sometime this morning.

A Couple of Quick Annoucements

2011-07-01T10:36:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, gang, I'm going to make this quick because I'm on my lunch hour and I'm actually hungry, so I'll just jump right into things.

First off, Black Heart Magazine's NOIR issue guest edited by Crime Factory's own Jimmy Callaway hit the streets today and it's one damn fine wreck ball of an issue.

Here's the full line up in case you haven't peeped it yet:

WRITERS
Cameron Ashley
Christopher Benton
Josh Converse
Chris Deal
Garnett Elliott
Matthew C. Funk
James Gibbons
AJ Hayes
D.S. Jones
David Jordan
Nik Korpon
Alexander Kraft
Mary Long
Chuck Marecic
Richie Narvaez
Dan OShea
Dale Patterson
Keith Rawson
Stephen D. Rogers
Kieran Shea
Benjamin Sobieck
Leland Thoburn
Jonathan Woods
Changming Yuan

VISUAL ARTISTS
Nora Costello
Michael Fugere
Sophie Newman

COVER
Brian Roe
Ronda Pattison

GUEST EDITOR
Jimmy Callaway

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Laura Roberts

Yeah, it's pretty much a Who's Who of the current short crime fiction scene.

My poem, "Hard Candy" is part of the collection and to be honest with you, it's my favorite piece of poesy to date, so I hope you pick up an issue ASAP.

You can buy your copy for $2.99 right HERE

Okay, second piece of news.

My short story collection, The Chaos We Know, has been picked up by Snubnose Press to be published later this year.

I'm excited as hell to be apart of the Snubnose crew, (In case you haven't picked their inaugural anthology, Speedloader, you can snap it up right HERE) I've known and written for Brian Lindenmuth and Sandra Ruttan for the past three years and I like and respect both of them very much, so I know they'll do a great job with the book.

So anyway, folks, that's what I've got for you, have a great July 4th!

I'm Such A Freakin' Tease...

2011-05-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

Jon Bassoff, publisher of New Pulp Press dropped me a line today letting me know that Advanced Readers Copies of Crime Factory: The First Shift were ordered today and will be sent out to various industry publications for pre-release reviews.

Needless to say, when I read the e-mail, a smile crossed my lips and my stomach got a bit of a flutter in it. (or maybe I was just gassy, who knows?)

But let me tell you this, there's no greater feeling in the world knowing that something you had a hand in creating is about to become apart of the world. (well, a lot of you might)

And you have no idea how proud I am to be apart of team who put this anthology together. Cameron Ashley and Jimmy Callaway are two of the best editors in crime fiction and my hat is off to both of them.

And, of course, none of this would be happening without our amazing contributors - You guys rock and all of you brought your best to the table. (Damn, I wish this thing was out today so everyone could read these amazing stories.)

Anyway, to celebrate a wee bit, I thought I'd share a small piece of the cover with everyone. (No, not the whole thing, like the title says, I'm a fucking tease.)

The cover was designed by internationally renowned graphic artist Lou Beach (If you've never checked out Lou's work, you can see more of it right here at: www.loubeach.com. But chances are you've seen his work on more than a few magazine and book covers over the years.) who I was thrilled to have design the cover.

Alright, gang, that's all for tonight, don't let the door smack you on the ass on the way out

Pimping Wednesday: Review—Every Shallow Cut by Tom Piccirilli

2011-05-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years, I’ve started to think that novels over 250 pages are a bit overrated. Don’t get me wrong, certain stories need a broad canvass (Justin Cronin’s the Passage comes to mind.) but 99% of the time if a novel goes over the 300 page mark, I’m usually of the opinion that the author is stretching the narrative too thin.

For some reason the market (i.e., Publishers) demand that manuscripts be of a certain length, otherwise the airport/Wal*Mart crowd won’t want to shell out $25 for a hardback. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, (namely Chuck Palahniuk, who’s novels rarely exceeds the 225 page mark) but for the most part, if you’re buying from the big six (and really, who isn’t?) you’re buying an over inflated and—at times—sloppily edited paper bricks. (But I’ll digress and sorry to turn a review into a diatribe.)

Luckily small publishers—such as New Pulp Press, Pulp Press, and the newly minted ChiZine Publications—have no issue with publishing “little” books or in the case of Tom Piccirilli’s Every Shallow Cut, books which pack the wallop of an 800 page epic in a scant 175 pages.

Here’s The Skinny from the ChiZine Publications Website :

“Alone except for his beloved bulldog, Churchill, a despondent man who's failed at his career, his marriage, and his own simple hopes makes his way across the fierce American landscape and the spectacle of his own bitter past. As he heads home to his distant brother, he witnesses various tragedies and crimes which bring out the killer in him.”

The storyline of Every Shallow Cut is a simple one: Part road story, part descent into madness, part meditation on the condition of the American dream. Piccirilli’s nameless narrator is an every man driven to the brink; full of self loathing for what he views as his “failures” and is disconnected from other people to the point of paranoid delusion. (This is most evident in his interactions with his older brother.)

Over the past several years Piccirilli’s “noirellas” have been a mixed bag of horror and noir, but with Every Shallow Cut, he’s leap frogged both genres and has created a unique disturbing, and utterly compulsive narrative voice which cannot be defined by genre. Each sentence is a sharply crafted gut punch keeping the reader on edge as Piccirilli’s no where man finally lets go of the ghost of his old life and fully embraces insanity.

If you’ve never read Piccirilli before—yes, you’ve been missing out on one of the strongest talents in the business—I would strongly suggest you make Every Shallow Cut your first foray into his extensive catalog.

Highly recommended.

(BTW, folks, if you’re interested, stop by Day Labor for my interview with Mr. Piccirilli right HERE)

Let’s Talk Social Webbies Part 3: Facebook: The DON'Ts

2011-05-17T12:54:00.000-07:00

So last week I was all cuddly and covered the Dos of Facebook. It was a good time and I hope I made everyone feel all warm and snuggly. This week, however, I’m going to cover the DONTs. This post is not going to be as feel good because I’m basically going to stand here with a Sunday edition of the L.A. Times and whack people across the face with it.

Anyway let’s get right into the DON’Ts.

#1: Don’t Make It All About Yourself.

This one’s been drummed into our collective heads so many times that this should practically be a Facebook mantra for writers.

But it’s a tough one.

As writers, we spend hours a day crafting our stories and we’re proud when a new book or story of ours comes out. We love seeing ourselves in print and we want to make sure everyone in the universe knows about it. The downside of only posting about us is that it starts to become a drag for your friends and unfortunately when this happens, they start to tune you out.

Yes, your page has become a freeway billboard.

Passers by may glance at it for a second, but they’re already speeding down the road.

So does this mean you should be posting stuff from your other writer pals when they have a new story or book that comes out?

Sure, any little extra attention helps.

Should you post links to news stories, videos, music, and other general interest content.

Yes

Remember, the point of social media is to get personal. Give people small glimpses of what you’re doing on a daily basis: Let people know what you’re watching, reading, listening to and thinking about. This will break up the monotony of your page and draw people into actually viewing your posts.

#2: Don’t be friends with just writers

‘I’m only Facebook to socialize with people I know.’

I get this, some people are only on Facebook to stay in contact with friends who live cross country and who you only get to see once or twice a year, and there are some writers on Facebook for this exact purpose and there’s nothing wrong with that.

But you know as well as I do that most writers aren’t on Facebook to exclusively stay in contact with friends, they want to spread the word about what they’re writing. And, yeah, it’s great when you first jump online and you see that there are so many writers who you admire or who you’re friends with in the real, real world, but chances are they’re on Facebook for the same reason you are. And chances are they want to support your efforts, but they’re going to want to support themselves even more.

So, how do you get out of the writer rut?

The easiest way is to use the Find Friends/Edit Friends option in the account menu. At this page you will be given several search options including hometown, current city, high school, and college.

Now I can tell a lot of you are cringing when I mention this option and I know all the arguments—I don’t want to re-connect with high school/college/work place/home town douche bags and when it comes right down to it, I don’t want to either. But you can filter the douche bags (just like you did in high school, the only difference is they’re not a physical presence) and maybe connect with people who you really liked. I’ve connected with more than a few guys and gals who I went to high school with and guess what? They’re still just as cool as when we were kids.

And, yes, I’ve rejected more than a few douche bags along the way, too. The great thing about social media marketing is it is selective marketing. You approve who you do and don’t want to have as a friend or who you interact with, so it should be relatively easy to weed out the assholes who you didn’t want around before your writing life.

The one thing to remember, though, is you are on social media sites such as Facebook to develop and expand your fanbase and if all you’re doing is chumming around with writer pals, you’re not exactly doing that.

#3 Don’t Create A Fan Page

So you’re thinking about creating a fan page, huh?

Before you do that, you need to ask yourself these 2 questions.

Is my name:

Stephen King

J.K. Rowling

Cormac McCarthy

Michael Connelly

Stephanie Myers

(Insert any mega-selling author after this)

Do I have 5000 friends? (the Facebook maximum number of friends)

If the answer is NO, then you don’t need a fan page.

A couple of years ago more than a few social media mangers were pushing the idea of creating fan pages down every authors throat. But here’s the problem with fan pages, unless people are interacting with the page on a daily basis, fan pages rarely make it into the Facebook news thread, therefore they’re basically invisible.

Now if you’re an organization such as Crimefactory (yes, I want you to be a fan) or Needle Magazine, or Crimespree then your only real option is to create a fanpage if you want a Facebook presence. But once again, if people are not interacting with the page on a daily basis, it won’t appear in the news feed.

(Quick side note, folks. For those individuals who have a fan page and someone requests your friendship through your individual FB account, don’t be that that guy who then immediately posts a link to your fan page to your new friends wall. Seriously, don’t be that guy, because everyone wants to punch that guy in the face really, really, really hard, or delete/block you as a friend)

#4: Don’t Post Too Much

How much is too much?

Honestly, five times a day is about as much as you want to post and that’s pushing it. My personal comfort level is a couple of posts a day and then I leave it alone and respond to those two posts and posts on other people’s pages. Sometimes I get real crazy and put up a third post, but it’s pretty rare.

And what’s wrong with posting too much, you ask?

Well, it’s just like the people who do not adhere to DON’T #1. Yeah, you’re a freeway billboard, you’re white noise. So, before you think about posting that 17^th cheesecake photo of the day or music video or news article and it’s only nine o’clock in the morning, stop yourself and look at the interactions you’re having with each post, because chances are you’ve been tuned out.

(Another quick side note. Here’s probably the biggest DON’T in the posting too much category: DON’T post to FB using Twitter. I know, I know, it’s so much easier to handle your social networking that way, but here’s the deal: Your FB and Twitter followers are going to be virtually identical. Sure, there’ll be some people who are only on Twitter and some who are only on FB, but for the most part, there is going to be a lot of cross over between the two and if the content you’re posting is identical on both sites, people are going to tune you out. So do me this favor, go to the apps section of FB RIGHT NOW and disable Twitter for Facebook)

#5: Be There

I love it when I get a friend request and I accept it and I go the person’s page (and this is author or otherwise) and the only thing posted on the page is that so and so is now friends with you and fifty other people. Now let’s say you go back to that page a month later and guess what? The only new posts are so and so is now friends with fifty other people….

Yeah, kind of lame.

For authors who have this kind of FB page, let me give you a piece of advice…Are you listening? Good…

You don’t have to be on Facebook to be a writer.

You don’t have to be on any social network to be a writer.

Does it make marketing your writing easier?

Sure it does, but if you’re going to take the time (and it does take time) to create a FB page, do something with it other than collecting friends or just delete it, because otherwise, you’re just static.

Okay, I’m sure there are a bunch more DON’Ts I could cover, but for today that’s what I’ve got.

Remember, if you have a DON’T you’d like to share, feel free to add it in the comments section.

Alrighty, so I’ll be back sometime next week to cover my favorite social media (and least effective) platform, Twitter.

Where The Hell is Jackson Donne? Guest Post by Dave White

2011-05-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

I recently I asked Dave White to stop by old Bloody Knucks to do a little guest blogging in support of his new thriller Witness To Death. And when he asked what I wanted him to blog about, I had only one question on my mind:

Where in the Hell is Jaskson Donne?

Growing up, I loved thrillers.

From the time I was in second grade, when I first saw View to a Kill and North by Northwest, I responded to fast-paced, action-filled epics. I remember reading Michael Crichton’s The Terminal Man, the James Bond novels (by Fleming and Gardner), and Jeffery Archer’s Honor Among Theives*.

So, when I’d finished writing my two Jackson Donne thrillers and it came time to do something else, I turned toward the thriller genre. Donne had come to a natural pause moment at the end of The Evil That Men Do, and his voice kind of went away. He seemed settled**. So I started to think about what I had in my life that I could relate to—because that’s where it starts for me. How can I relate to this story?

The everyday man in trouble is what caught my eye. As a teacher, I know, teachers are rarely in life-threatening danger. (Okay, that’s not exactly true. Some schools are pretty bad and dangerous. And the New Jersey governor is trying to crush our health benefits—which is kind of life threatening.) So, I asked myself, how can I get a teacher in trouble?

And, my love of thrillers from wayyyy back started to sprout in my mind. Cary Grant is just an ad man. By the end of the movie, he’s throwing guys off Mt. Rushmore. I wanted that feel for my book. So I dropped in some spies. And what are spies searching for these days? Terrorists.

And that’s how I got to a standalone thriller. I love noir, but at times it’s too slow paced for me. As a writer, it’s tough for me to get into a slow burn. I need thinks to happen. I need some snap, some flash. Witness to Death has snap and flash. It has explosions, fist fights, torture, and romance. It has story.

And, man does it move. Which is exactly what I want.

*Saddam Hussein steals the Declaration of Independence and threatens to burn it on nation television? On the Fourth of July? My eighth grade brain couldn’t handle the awesomeness of such an idea. I LOVED that book when I was a kid.

**You know, when Dennis Lehane said Kenzie’s voice went away I kind of scoffed. I figured he just wanted to write other things, which is his right. But it’s true. Sometimes voices go away. Donne’ll probably come back one day, but right now he’s taking a breather. And he’s not talking to me.

***I freaking hate footnotes in blog posts.

Cameron Ashley Swings Into Action

2011-05-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

As you know, Jimmy Callaway's hetro life mate and my partner over at ye Ole Crimefactory is one very talented writer, but where his storytelling skills truly excel is in the world of comic books (If you ask him nicely--and if they're still in existence after Cam's laptop was stolen this past summer--he might even show you some scripts he co-wrote with a certain A-list novelist.)and I was thrilled this morning when I woke up to this brand new webcomic scripted by Ashley with art by the very talented Patrick Halpin. So when you get the chance today, make sure to check out BEST BEFORE right HERE

What All The Cool Kids Are Reading (And Me)

2011-05-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

Oh, e-books, you are truly addicting.

Not only do I now have to contend with new releases in print, but now I've got all these great writers releasing their wares independently.

Not that I'm complaining, folks, there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to read it all.

And not like most of you don't already have a mile high TBR stack, but I wanted to pass along a few recommendations of a few ebooks
that I picked up recently

I discovered the fiction of Barry Graham through the Patrick Millikin edited Phoenix Noir. (Akashic Publishing) Graham writes tough, unsentimental, character driven crime fiction and recently Graham has been dipping his toes into the e-publishing world by releasing his novel How Do You Like Your Blue Eyed Boy and short story collection Scumbo out into the world. Well on Tuesday he re-released his first novel, The Book Of Man.

Here's The Skinny:

Researching a television project about his former friend and writer Mike
Illingworth, London-based playwright and performance artist Kevin Previn returns
to Glasgow, where his abusive childhood and subsequent years of decadence flood
his memory. The recent death of Illingworth, a junkie and a victim of AIDS,
leaves a hole in Kevin's life and prompts numerous questions about his own
drug-filled, promiscuous past as well as his lost hope, love, and sense of
identity. Graham deftly portrays a decaying city and culture. This is a bleak
present filled with postpunk notions: cocaine and heroin addiction, welfare
living, alcoholism, and general apathy. Graham's words are raw and gritty, and
his observations unrelenting and brutally honest. Though this may be considered
counterculture to some, The Book of Man is sadly real and deeply poignant. It is
a book about strange friendship, youthful freedoms, perpetuated cycles of abuse,
and the ripples of violence flowing through every level of society. Moreover,
this book is about identifying our demons and accepting what role we play in
their creation

The Book Of Man is available on Amazon Kindle for .99 cents for a limited time right HERE.

As most of you know, I'm a pretty big fan of Dave White around these parts and on Tuesday as well, the scariest public school teacher in New Jersey released his second e-book only release (After of the phenomenal short story collection More Sinned Against) Witness To Death. I was luck enough to get to read an earlier draft of WIT, so let me tell you, for thriller fans, this is a seriously tough as nails read.

Here's the lowdown:

John Brighton is an ordinary young schoolteacher still hung up on his ex,
Michelle. Suspecting her new boyfriend is cheating on her, John decides to
follow Frank's Lexus and find out the truth once and for all. Turns out John's
in for a major surprise. Frank isn't heading for some sack time with another
girl. Instead he drags John into the middle of a shootout on the banks of the
Hudson River, and before John knows what's happening, he's knee-deep in bodies.

Before the corpses can even cool, Frank disappears and John finds
himself wanted for five murders. With no way to prove his innocence, John goes
on the run-not only from the police, but a vicious assassin as well. And when
Michelle is kidnapped, John's worst-case scenario comes true. Though his head
tells him to stay in hiding, his heart says otherwise. He has to save the woman
he loves or die trying.

As John begins to uncover the truth surrounding
the events that have turned his life upside down, he learns it isn't just
Michelle he must rescue. Thousands of other innocent lives are in jeopardy too.

A heart-pounding, heart-stopping, heart-breaking thriller from two-time
Shamus Award nominated author, Dave White. For fans of Harlan Coben, Thomas
Perry and Jeff Abbott

It's a Hell of a read and is available for .99 cents right HERE

My current e-book read is on a favorite subject of mine:

The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse.
Yeah, I love me some undead cannibals.
What's most interesting about this story is that the grisly end of human existence seen from the perspective of a dog.

Here's more info on A Prarie Home Apocalypse, or What The Dog Saw By Albert Berg:

The dog did not understand when his people left him behind in the cold and the
rain. He did not understand when the sound of gunshots echoed through the air.
And he did not understand when the things came into his yard. Things that moved
and moaned, and smelled very very dead.

With all he has ever known in
tatters the dog is forced to forge ahead into an uncertain world where the
dead-things roam and danger lurks at every turn. All he has to his credit is a
keen nose and an unswerving devotion to the girl who rescued him.
Together
these two innocents will risk everything for each other in a world where evil
reigns supreme.

You can snap up Berg's little slice of Hell for a measly $2.99 right HERE

Let’s Talk Social Webbies Part 2: Facebook: The DOS

2011-05-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

“Man, I fucking hate Facebook! I can’t stand it!”

You have no idea how many times a week I hear this. It gets to the point where I just zone it out and I implant these words into an author’s mouth instead:

“Man, I fucking love Facebook! I’m on there 3 or 4 times a day!”

Let’s face facts, if an author or anyone else for that matter hated Facebook that much, they wouldn’t be on it, they would avoid it like the plague. But most authors are on Facebook and with good reason.

Let’s get into the nuts and bolts before I get into some dos and don’ts.

As of January 2011 there were 600 million registered Facebook users and by the end of the year there may very well be a billion.

That’s right, by the end of the year 1/6 of the world's population is going to be a registered Facebook user and for that 1/6, this will be the way they view the internet. It will be where they come for news and entertainment stories. This will be how they communicate with family and friends. Facebook will be the primary way an author, whether established or new, will market the stories they have to tell.

I know there are going to be a lot of people out there who say you shouldn’t be using Facebook (or any social network) for marketing purposes. It should be for social interaction and social interaction alone. And what I have to say to these individuals is:

You’re being naïve.

When you have this many people logging onto a single site on a daily basis, you’d be a fool not to use it for marketing purposes. But I will say this, marketing and trying to get the word out about your writing should not be the only thing you’re using social media for. When it comes right down to it, the key to social media is being SOCIAL.

And I know what you’re thinking: No shit, Rawson. Duuuuhhhhh…That’s why they call it SOCIAL networking, dumbass

The only problem is a good hunk of writers out there aren’t getting the social end of things AT ALL and are turning Facebook into a giant billboard.

Okay, before I get into the dos and don’ts, I want to point out some writers who I think get Facebook absolutely right. Why am I doing this? Well, sometimes it’s good to see what others are doing—and what they’re being successful at—and not so much trying to replicate what they’re doing, but observe and maybe pick up a few pointers along the way

Here are my Top 5 Facebook users:

Jason Pinter
Christa Faust
Tom Piccirrilli

Kyle Minor

Joelle Charbonneau

I’ve set links to all of their accounts and if you’re not friends with them already, I encourage you to request them.

Alright, let’s get to the nitty gritty.
(and I guess I should mention that I don’t want anyone to use what I’m about to write as a Facebook Bible. Nothing here is written in stone and if you have a “strategy” that is working for you, please keep doing it. I am by no means what you would call a social media “guru”—because what the hell is a guru anyway?—I’m just a guy who spends way too much time on the internet. ‘Nuff said)

Dos

I think it’s best to start off with the positive before I head into land of ‘stop doing that because all you’re doing is alienating potential readers’ land.

So her we go:

#1: Interact

I think this is the hardest one for writers to grasp. When you post a link—whether to a news article, a link to your latest book, a positive review, whatever—and someone responds to it, make sure to respond back. Now I’m not saying hover over your computer and wait for a Facebook response e-mails so you can immediately jump online and provide your thank you. But if you’re cranking through your latest work in progress and you take a break and check e-mail and you notice the notifications starting to stack up, log onto FB and respond back. The great thing about FB these days is you can now individually tag users in a post so you can personally respond to every one who’s taken the time to comment.

And once again, I know what you’re thinking, I already do this, you’re not telling me anything I don’t know. But once again, it amazes me how little interaction goes on in posts sometimes, if any at all.

#2: Get Personal

This is one of the cooler recent posts I’ve read on Facebook and it comes from Dave Zeltserman:

"I've got a family of foxes living now in my backyard. It looks like 2 adults about 6 pups. It could be worse. When I called animal control, I was told some people in town are seeing fisher cats roaming their backyards."

Why is it that I think this post is so cool? Simply put, it’s giving us a brief glimpse of Zeltserman’s daily life. Yes, we all know that Dave has a million books out there in either print or as e-books, but it’s rare that we get a glimpse into Dave’s private world. Yes, having foxes living in your backyard may seem trivial, it may seem like no one in the world could possibly care about those foxes, but they do.

They care about the foxes

They care about your kids

They care about what you’re having for dinner

They, in general, care about you as a person.

Yes, chances are they’ve never met you, but they read your stories, they feel that they know you through your fiction, so don’t be afraid to let them get to know you on a personal level.

This means post pictures, post how you’re feeling—both physically and mentally—In your status updates. In the long term, this will draw readers in.
(Quick Note: Only release what you feel comfortable with. Sometimes getting too personal can backfire if you drag them into your own personal soap opera.)

#3: Interact on OTHER people’s pages

I know we’re all busy. Most writers work day jobs, they have families, they actually want to get some writing done between it all, but I can’t stress the importance of going outside the boundaries of your page. It takes five minutes to congratulate someone on a story acceptance, a book deal, a birth, or offer sympathies when something has gone not so right. This will also help you in actually in creating a network of other writers and friends when something great happens to you. Which leads me to…

#4: Networking

Here’s an interesting only to me fact: Did you know when Cam, Liam and I released Kung Fu Factory the link was reposted 75 times on Facebook? Yeah, and with issue 5 it was reposted 63 times. That’s a pretty broad reach and most of this has to do with the fact that, yes, Crimefactory is a solidly made product and that we have a large audience because of it, but it also has to do with the fact that Facebook is a network of friends and it’s a network which I’ve spent the last three years carefully cultivating by trying to get to know the people who I’ve become “friends” with. True, I’ve had other interactions outside of Facebook with my core network, but a solid chunk of folks who support my writing and publications are people I only interact with on Facebook.

And I know this may sound trite, but I appreciate every single one of those people. Yes, reposting a link only took a second, but in that second they exposed Crimefactory to all of their friends and there’s a better chance than not that one or two of their friends then reposted. Yes, sometimes Facebook can be nothing more than one great big chain letter, but a chain letter that actually works. So try and get to know the people you’ve become friends with and support what they’re doing if you think it’s cool (I’m going to be going into this aspect of social networking in the DONTS portion)

#5 Have Fun

Here’s another one that a lot of writers seem to have a tough time accomplishing and I largely think this has to do with the fact that they consider social networking and the marketing end of writing a job, it’s a chore. But I’ll tell you this right here and now, it’s okay to be cruising the social webbies all day long if it’s your job (Yeah, right here.) but it’s quite another thing if all your doing is web crawling instead of writing. Social media for the non professional should be something you do in your spare time ONLY. Because I swear there seems to be dozens of writers all do nothing but post to Facebook and the other social sites. So I repeat this once again, SOCIAL NETWORKING SHOULD ONLY BE DONE IN YOUR SPARE TIME. Seriously, you have much better things to do

Anyway, that was a bear of a post and hard to believe its only part #1.

Hopefully I’ll have part #2: The DON'Ts ready to go by tomorrow.

By the way, if anyone has any questions through out the course of these posts, please feel free to leave them in the comments section.

And I have a link to share with you as well.
After nearly a year on ice, Tony Black’s Pulp Pusher is back in Business and you can check out the details right HERE

So Let's Talk Social Webbies....

2011-05-08T20:56:00.000-07:00

I talk with a lot authors, either through e-mails or face-to-face

Authors ranging from the newbie looking to find their footing in the publishing world-to-authors who have five or six novels under their belt and tons of critical acclaim, and without fail most of these conversations lead to sales and marketing i.e., How the Hell Do I Sell More Books? How Do I Publish More Stories?

For most writers, their biggest struggle is not how to write a better book or story, but how to get the fine novels and stories they’ve written out to a wider audience so they can make more money and dedicate more time to writing better novels and stories. But in order to do this, there has to be an audience to begin with. A core of people who will not only buy the books and read the stories, but who will pass it along their suggestions to friends and family who will then (hopefully) act on those suggestions and do the same thing and so on and so forth.

It’s called creating great word of mouth.

It’s called getting the audience to work for you and simply put, it is a huge pain in the ass to accomplish.

At one time, creating great word of mouth was a bit easier. Publishers had vast marketing departments who would design print and media campaigns, get copy out to key outlets and the only thing the author would have to worry about is writing his/her next book in their contract and concern themselves with the quality of their hotel rooms on their book tour.

All of this, of course, changed with the invention of personal computers, the internet, and publishers becoming larger, publicly traded corporate entities.

Suddenly publishers weren’t so concerned with developing new and exciting talent or even designing media campaigns for them, because all they really became concerned with was the bottom line. And marketing campaigns cost MONEY, money that was being taken out of the pockets of stock holders. Besides, with e-mail and blogs and instant communications, the author was now able to do a lot of the leg work if not all of it.

I know, it sucks.

Writers are artists, not sales people.

They should only be concentrating on the written word, not on if they’ve earned back their advances. But like it or not, the writer handling his/her own publicity is here to stay and I say it’s better to learn the ins and outs of it.

Now at this point, I know what most of you are thinking, you’re thinking: c’mon, Rawson, you don’t have a book deal, you don’t know the real financial struggle of an author.

And you’re right, I don’t, and I don't know if I ever will either?

But what I do know a thing or two about is how to market: How to get word out about books, stories, authors, publications, and how to audience build. It’s been a long time hobby of mine that has since grown into a budding career—and not to toot my own horn—I’ve gotten pretty good at the social marketing end of writing. And with me spending so much time working on how to best promote my own writing and Crimefactory, I’ve observed a few different ideas in social networking that work very well and others that just plain fall flat.

So what I’ve been doing in between fiction writing and day-to-day life is I’ve started writing down a few of the things that I’ve learned and I’ve decided to write them up and post them to my much neglected little blog (because guess what? Blogs are kind of essential to a modern writer and a lesson I should be slapping myself silly over) over the next couple of weeks.

And you can take these posts as you will.

You can read them earnestly or think I’m just full of shit. Either way, I don’t care because I’m going to post this stuff anyway.

I’ll see you in a couple of days when I start to cover Facebook…

A couple of things before I go, here’s some links I wanted to pass along:

First off, have you read Jedidiah Ayres Beat To A Pulp debut Down, Down, Down, Burns, Burns, Burns yet? If you haven’t, give it a read right HERE. It’s a different kind of story for Ayres and I honestly think it’s one of his best.

Secondly, Dan O’shea’s Red Cross Tornado Flash Fiction Challenge has produced a fine line up of stories that I’m just starting to delve into thanks to a rambunctious weekend. But you can check out the full line up right HERE.

Lastly, I made my debut over at Kent Gowran’s sweet Flash Fiction site, Shotgun Honey. You can read my story “The Floating Man” right HERE.

And with all this reading, if you run across a story you like, make sure to leave a comment, writers are fond of those.

Tornado Relief Flash Fiction Challenge: Have you ever seen the rain?

2011-05-06T23:57:00.000-07:00

Here's the skinny: Devilish Dan O'Shea set a challenge to us writer-y folks that for every flash piece that was produced he'd donate $5 to the Red Cross for relief from the rash of devastating tornadoes that tore the asshole out of more then a few southern states recently. I thought it was a solid idea, so I threw in my hat. Anyway, here's my piece, I hope you like it (By the way, folks, the RED CROSS near the top of the page is a link, so if you feel up to donating, every little bit helps.)

Hide and Seek

The rain’s pissing down on me warm and rank, like god’s giving me my own special electrolyte infused golden shower. That’s just how the rain is in Phoenix in the middle of the summer. You would think that in the middle of the night it would bring some coolness, some relief from the scorching hundred degree temperatures.

Wrong.

I’ve been digging up my backyard for over an hour. I’m covered head-to-toe in tacky red clay, my hands are blistered raw, and the muscles in my lower back feel like two small dogs are tearing at each others throats underneath my skin

I guess this is what I get for spending the last ten years behind a desk instead of going into the grunt end of construction like my old man wanted.

Despite it all, I work past the pain and keep digging.

Jesus, some days I just hate my kids to pieces.

--So you’re sure it’s no trouble? I know with Jean out of town you’ve got to have your hands full

I do, but I don’t tell him that.

--No, it’s no trouble at all.

What the fuck else am I going to tell him? No, you asshole, the whole situation is un-fucking-acceptable. Now why don’t you just go and waddle back into your office, shut the door, close the blinds, and stroke one out to some internet porn and pretend you’re in a meeting for the rest of the afternoon and forget this whole conversation ever happened.

--Because if it is, seriously, you can tell me…

--It’s no big thing….

Liar

--I know how it is

--It’s just that it’s been so long since Marina and I have been out alone together and it’s really starting to affect us.

--Hey, Jean and I came close to ripping each other’s heads off after Scotty was born, so I know how it is.

His rotund body shutters with emotion and he knuckles a couple of tears out of the corner of his eyes.

He’s crying?

All I can think is that Marina must really be putting the heels to him.

--I can’t thank you enough, Bret…So is seven okay?

--Seven’s perfect. I know the boys will be excited, they love Tara.

The boys hate Tara.

And to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of her either.

I know, what kind of man hates a little girl? But honest to god, I think the little bitch is Hitler reincarnate.

Maybe that’s going a little too far?

But she’s one of those precocious kids who know she’s the apple of her parent’s eyes and thinks the rest of the world should be at her beckon call just like mom and dad. And Marina and Frank—my boss—they fall right in line with what ever she says.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe a parent should be involved in their children’s lives, but there’s a line and those two stepped over it a long time ago.

Frank and Marina dropped Tara off at seven right on the dot.

They stayed a couple of minutes, Marina fluttering around Tara, asking her if it’s still okay for them to leave her?

Marina’s a stick thin bird of a woman, a worrier to the core and I’m sure if she wasn’t a health nut she’d be a two pack a day smoker with her fingernails chewed to the quick from gnawing at them all days. Frank’s the same way, but instead of hitting the treadmill three hours a day he stuffs seven or eight Caramello bars down his throat throughout the day.

They’re quite a pair, perfect for each other, really.

I finally got them out the door, their mouths full of promises that they’d be back to pick up Tara by midnight at the latest and the minute they’re gone, Tara’s already starting in on Dave and Scotty, trying to get them to play along in some elaborate make believe game where she’s the queen and the boys are her lowly servants.

Dave’s your typical eight-year-old boy, loves action figures and the Power Rangers and doesn’t take shit off of cootie queens like Tara. Yeah, he’s at that ‘all girls except mom are gross’ stage. Scotty, though, that’s a different story and he falls right in line with whatever Tara says.

Scotty’s five and like most five-year-olds, he’s out to please everyone. Most of the time he’s out to please Dave, except when there’s a girl around.

What they say plays.

He’s a Casanova, my little Scotty, and most days I’m proud of how smooth he is. But some times I get these flashes of him when he’s a teenager and I have these visions of a half a dozen girls standing at our front door with swollen bellies and red eyes with their angry parents standing behind them wanting to kick Scotty’s ass

I try not think about this future too much.

After an hour of Tara’s shouted orders and Dave shouting back that he doesn’t have to listen to her.

I’m going out of my skull.

--So who’s ready for pizza! I shouted.

We live out in the sticks, so nobody delivers to us and I have to make the thirty minute drive to go and get it. Normally I don’t mind the drive, but then again, normally Jean’s home instead of helping her sister move out of her deadbeat boyfriend’s house out in Vegas.

And for a brief second, I think maybe I should just take the three of them along with me.

That would be nice and safe.

That would be nice and responsible.

But then the exhausted, negligent parent who’s been ruling the roost since Jean left on Monday kicks in and says: Fuck it, man, leave Dave in charge. Dave’s old enough to handle things. Besides, these kids are driving me up the fucking wall. I need some quiet.

--Okay, Dave’s in charge, I’ll be back in a half hour.

I had an ‘Oh, fuck me’ moment the minute I pulled into the drive way and step out of the SUV, two pizza boxes piled in my arms, fumbling with my keys:

I had left an eight-year-old in charge of a four and a five year-old because all their mean spirited chatter was giving me a headache.

What kind of asshole does that?

This was the statement that always popped into my head when ever I was watching the evening news and saw a story about a toddler drowning in a swimming pool or a parent who leaves their two year old in a minivan on 115 degree day with windows rolled up to let the kid cook in their own juices.

Who the fuck does that?

I did that, me.

I’m thinking this as I finally get the keys plugged in unlatch the deadbolt and I’m immediately hit with a wave of sound from the living room speakers which knocks any thoughts of irresponsible parenting clear out of my skull and is replaced by ‘those kids need to turn the TV down’, which repeats over and over again as I make my way to the dining room table with the pies

I’m not going to say I knew something was wrong the minute I turned around, because I didn’t, (Right, I was all about the TV being turned down) but then I notice the pile of toys in the middle of the living room and that the large clear plastic Tupperware container that normally houses them is missing.

And the boys are the only ones stretched out on the couch zoning out to Kung Fu Panda.

First order of business:

--Would you guys turn that down….

Second order of business:

--Where’s Tara?

Maybe I was a little harsh, but I think if you bury a four-year-old girl alive you deserve to have your ass beaten.

Maybe I went a little too far? Maybe I should’ve laid the belt to their asses after they showed me where they buried her and then laid into them. But instead I left them in a welted, monkey red ass pile of tears, snot and incomprehensible apologies and headed out to the backyard, grabbing a shovel along the way.

Normally, I don’t think it would be all that hard to find a small mound of dirt with a little girl stuffed into a Tupperware bin burried beneath it. I mean, how far down could the boys dig in only a half an hour?

But work men have been back here all week digging the hole our new pole is going to poured into, so the backyard is nothing but small mounds of dirt. Plus the rain turning the entire back yard into a mud pit isn’t helping things out, either.

I pull my cell from my hip pocket and check the time:

10:38

The way I figure it, Frank and Marina are going to get sick of each other around 11:00 and start making their way back over here.

Best case scenario, they get here around 11:30, worst case, 11:15.

For a second, I think about going into the house and shaking Dave awake, but then I spot a loose pile of dirt along the far side of the yard and think to myself, that’s it, that’s going to be the one she’s hiding in and I get back to work.

Epiphany or Blather?

2011-05-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

I’ve been thinking a lot about the writing process lately.

I know, a writer thinking about process, huge shocker, right?

Not mechanics or grammar or anything along those lines, but what makes a writer sit his/her ass down in the chair day-after-day and put words on paper.

What drives someone to actually want to put themselves through all of this?

(By the way, Anthony Neil Smith has a pretty great post about regarding the day-to-day crap that most of us go through right HERE)

I don’t have any answers, I’m not going to pretend that I do because most days I keep asking myself the same damn question over and over as I drag myself into my office after putting in a very full day.

I keep saying to myself:

I’m hot

I’m tired

I want to watch TV and zone out until it’s time for bed.

But still, I come in here because it’s becomes habit.

But even with the habit, you can still sometimes get lost.

What I mean by this is when you spend so much time writing, you occasionally get bored with what you’re putting down on paper. It just seems like the same old shtick and you want to open up a little more, experiment and try different things so maybe what you’re putting on paper isn’t so bland to you

And don’t get me wrong, a little experimentation sometimes does the trick and gets you back to the nitty gritty, and sometimes it just leads you down a path that you can’t pull yourself out of and you lose the VOICE.

That’s the other thing I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is the writers natural voice.

It’s a hard thing to achieve finding that voice.

There are some folks who just get it right off the bat.

They sit down and pound out page-after-page and it’s pitch perfect for them. Others, it takes a few years to find it.

I’m of the latter category. My voice can warble some days, it can fall flat on its face on others and two or three days a week it’s spot on.

I started thinking about natural voice a couple of weeks ago when I went to go see Joe Lansdale at the Poisoned Pen. As you know, Joe’s a big favorite of mine and a huge influence.

But when I say that what do I mean?

It’s not like my writing mirrors Lansdale’s all that much. Sure, there are some similarities, but it’s not like his style has radically affected the way I write.

But here’s the thing with Lansdale, when you talk to Joe and when you read Joe, it’s virtually the same thing. He’s a big, gutsy storyteller and he has a big, gutsy NATURAL voice and this is Lansdale’s biggest effect on me, that utter originality that can’t be mirrored or duplicated.

As writers, I think that’s what I’m looking for the most and fortunately I had the opportunity to have myself reminded about the importance of following that voice and ignoring the nutty twinges of experimentation and simply pushing forward even if I’m getting a little bored with what I’m doing.

By the way, if you haven’t seen my most recent interview with Lansdale yet, (you didn’t think I was going to pass up the opportunity to do a little pimping, did you?) you can check it out right HERE.

Anyway, I’m going to cheat tonight and call this post part of tonight’s word count.

Besides, I’m tired, I’m hot, and I want to watch a little TV before bed.

Three Sentence Story for Chuck Wendig

2011-04-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

It's Chuck Wendig's 112th birthday!
And all he wanted was for his regular readers to write him a three sentence story and leave it in the comments section of his blog, Terrible Minds, or post it on their blog. Well, since I don't use old Bloody Knucks all that often, I figured I'd post my story here,
BTW, Happy Birthday, Wendig.

Welcomed Release

His skin burned; raw blisters erupted from his shoulders and chest with tiny asthmatic hisses; the pus dripped to the hard earth, sizzled and formed small noxious clouds around his swollen feet; he screamed as his left eye burst from the socket. He was still in awe of what they had done; they'd turned his creation against him and made him its first test subject; he should have known all along that they wanted nothing more than a weapon, not something which could end human suffering; which could alter the DNA of the human race so that they would never have to endure disease, hunger, or the ravages of aging ever again—he knew he was being naive when he accepted their money; they were Russian gangsters, what else would they want the modifier for? They cautiously approached him in their hazard suits, their guttural voices amplified, squelching through the helmet microphones; two years in the wilds of Russia and he still couldn’t speak a word of the language; the two men carried assault rifles; he knew their intentions and welcomed the release; he finally let himself collapse, his eardrums popping as his jaw unhinged and he waited for the bullet to end his agony.

So Ya Think Yer A Poet, Do Ya?

2011-04-11T21:11:00.000-07:00

Little known fact:

I started off my meager career as a writer as a poet.

Yeah, dead serious.

Sure, I’m like every other writer out there who says that they knew when they were a teenager that they wanted to be a writer.

And when I was a fifteen I was fairly convinced that I wasn’t suited for any type of work other than sitting in front of a typewriter all day making shit up.

I even have a clutch of badly written Stephen King and David J. Schow pastiche to prove it. (By the way, not a chance in hell anyone other than my closets family members—i.e., my wife—is ever going to read those beyond explicit dribblings.)

But like most writers, I really didn’t start getting into the craft until my early twenties and the form I experimented with the most was poetry.

I have reams of the stuff tucked away in manila folders and tattered spiral notebooks.

The question is was any of it good?

Well, some people thought it was okay enough to publish.

Xeroxed broad sheets and hand stapled zines like cokefish and helpp (still don’t know what the extra P was for?) loved my poems(I was originally going to print something from those old pubs when I first started planning this post, but right now the Rawson clan is living out of boxes due to our recent move and to be honest with you, I don’t even know where to start looking.) and I loved poetry so much that I ran weekly readings at Macy’s coffee house up in Flagstaff, AZ for six months.

Needless to say I thought I was hot shit.

Of course, when you’re young and idealistic you don’t realize that what you write is the shit.

It is SHIT.

Straight up runny cow flop.

No, it really wasn’t that bad, but it was heavy on the Bukowski and Frank O’Hara influence.

Yup, working class surrealism.

By the time I left dreary soot gray Flagstaff for the oven baked desert flats of Phoenix, I’d pretty much grown out of poetry (or at least I thought I had) and started driving myself towards writing prose and dabbling in visual art forms. (oil painting—BTW, if anyone ever want to see those efforts, I have a garage full of them for you to look at. There was a three year period where I painted every day without fail.)

But even those forms faded to black when I fooled myself into thinking that I could be content with a life in a cubicle where I didn’t create anything other than profits for whatever mega corporation I was working for.

I managed to keep this self deception for four long, video game addled years until my daughter Sadie was born.

And I don’t know if it was because of the lack of sleep or figuring out that spending countless hours playing Balder’s Gate was a huge waste of my fucking time and I started writing again.

But by this time, I’d discovered writers like Bruen, Stella, Starr, Gischler, Smith, Coleman, Zeltserman, Abbott, and that Polish guy from Philly.

And the form I returned to first:

Poetry.

But instead of working class surrealism, I churned out hard-boiled/noir poetry, which I then shaped into short stories.

But about a year ago I thought to myself, self, you should just write a poem to write a poem, so I did and they weren’t half bad, so I sent a few of them out under the name C.K. Black (Another interesting only to me fact, the name C.K. Black derived from a short lived collaboration between myself and A Twist of Noir’s editor Christopher Grant. We wrote one flash piece together and it was published by Flash Fiction Offensive.) and surprisingly, the pieces got picked up by a few zines. Then I decided that the whole pseudonym thing was kind of stupid and just started sending them out under my name.

Which brings me around to the Lineup 4.

Wow, what freaking great collection to be apart of:

Bruen, Coleman, Corbett, Schwartz, plus cronies like Weddle (who, by the way, is a pretty damn talented poet) and Shea and a whole bunch of other talented whackos…

When Gerald and Reed told me my poem, “A Story To Tell Our Daughter” was in, 37 year-old me nodded and said,

“That’s righteous, thanks for including me.”

But the 21 year-old Keith—who still lives somewhere deep in my bowels where he spends most of his time chain smoking hand rolled cigarettes and pining for women who will never want him—was jumping around and pumping his fist in the air.

So go and buy this fucker over at Poetic Justice Press and make 21-year-old Keith and 37 year-old Keith happier then a pig in shit

I'm still here

2011-03-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

I keep saying to myself—self, you really ought to blog more. I mean, you’ve had old Bloody Knucks for a couple of years now and all you really do with her anymore is stop by to check out the blog roll to see if Jedidiah Ayres or A Twist of Noir or Charlie Stella have posted something new.

But you don’t write on it anymore.

It just sits there, molders, and you let another day go by without posting something.

But the fact is, I’ve thought about killing the blog more than a few times over the past couple of months I can’t bring myself to do it, though. Just like I can’t bring myself to delete my Myspace page. There’s just too much of my writing history here, so I’ll just bite the bullet and post something new.

I guess I'll do it Jimmy Callaway style and post what writing of mine has appeared recently…which isn’t all that much, to tell the truth.

Kung Fu Factory finally made the scene.
It’s a fantastic issue if you haven’t picked it up already, (Which you can do so right HERE.) and is so packed full of talent that I’ll just let you head to the website to check it out for yourself.
But trust me when I tell it is not to be missed.

Patti Abbott’s last flash fiction challenge hit BIG with nearly 70 writers turning out for it (My story, the Lesson of Blood, can be found right HERE.)

I’ve been invited to participate in three upcoming anthologies!
Hey, that’s exciting, right?
Except I really can’t talk about any of them at this point…

I guess I’m boring?
All I’ve really been up to is big life altering stuff.
Me and the Missus are buying a new home (Ya know, not new-new, but new to us) and becoming landlords in the next three weeks.(And trust me when I tell you that moving and becoming a landlord is a GIANT raw boil on my ass. I swear after we move this time that I’m not moving anywhere else for the rest of my life.) The daughter is getting ready to head to kindergarten (We’ve still got a few months before that happens.) which has got me on pins and needles already.

But let me think…what else?

Oh yeah, the short story collection I talked about a month or so ago.

That one’s still on.

In fact, Charlie Stella was gracious enough to write the foreword. (And format the sucker, which, by the way, if any of you folks need help with getting a manuscript ready for submission, Charlie’s the man to see. Stella is not only a great writer, but he has a real eye for manuscript mistakes that the author may have missed or was too ignorant about the submission process—guilty!—to format it correctly. [Don’t even start in on me. I know I’ve been at this writing crap for a while now. But, seriously, I was just being a little too lax when I sent it to Charlie] And in case you haven’t seen it yet, Stella’s started a side business called First Reads. So make sure to check it out right HERE.)

My pal Ben Springer (You know, Poker Ben, the guy who did the banners for Bloody Knucks, the Crimefactory blog, and a couple of Anthony Neil Smith’s covers.) is working on the cover

And I came up with a title.

The Chaos We Know

The name’s from one of the unpublished stories in the bunch, I know, not the most original idea, but I thought the title fit with the overall theme of the collection.
By the way, I’m still planning on giving a couple of copies away to folks who came up with some decent titles.

Also, I treated the collection like a big boy publisher and actually sent it out for some blurbs, all of which are pretty cool:

"These aren't stories (The Chaos We Know), these are slivers of a blasted world
which Rawson gleefully embeds in your mind, and which won’t be dislodged by
bourbon, ritual scarification, or even the police procedural -- thank God. And
thank God, too, for Rawson, who has the kind of talent to leave you mutilated
and breathless."

Benjamin Whitmer, author of Pike

“The Chaos We Know is a pulp-fueled debut w/dopers, cops, husbands and wives.
Boyfriends & girlfriends, psychos & sadists, sand-storming through the
potholes & shithouses of Arizona, leaving barnacles of the self centered,
the down troddin’ & the surviving. Keith Rawson is the new garbage-tongued
satirist of filth, deviance & violence for the new underclass.”

Frank Bill, author of Crimes in Southern Indiana and Donnybrook

“Keith Rawson wields his spare prose like a wrecking ball, laying bare a world
of whores, petty criminals, crooked cops and meth heads. These short, sharp
portraits of users &losers are deranged snapshots from deep in the
underbelly of contemporary America. No tired noir tropes here, this is tough,
unsentimental& savagely funny dark fiction that charts its own course”

Roger Smith, author of Wake Up Dead and Dust Devils

"Keith Rawson's last name gives you a hint. It's going to be raw, and it's
going to get to you. Like stepping on a shard of glass, but in a good way.
Rawson's stories always bowl me over with aggressive style and deep
psychological fright"

Anthony Neil Smith, author of Yellow Medicine and Choke On Your Lies

And Ken Bruen offered up this one on the old Faceybook:

“Keith
It's simple.
you rock buddy”

Yeah, I’ll take it.

Anyway, that's what I've got for right now. Hopefully I'll see you in about a month

NEW FLASH FICTION CHALLENGE: Scarry Night

2011-02-07T12:57:00.000-08:00

So I've been doing a ton of writing in long form for the past....Christ, I guess since October or so and haven't delved into writing any new short fiction for the exception of a few anthology pieces. Now don't get me wrong, I dig writing the long stuff. Once you get into a rhythm of churning out pages and pages with the same characters populating the storyline, it's hard to put it away.

But at the heart of my creative core, I'm a short story writer. I love the form, plus I can knock out a two or three thousand word piece in a day or two.

A thousand words or less is usually an hour or two of work for me if I'm feeling particularly motivated.

Now why, you ask, am I blathering on about my love of short fiction?

Well, because I miss it a little bit and I'm raring to throw down a piece of dirty old bastardized flash fiction.

Luckily, Patti Abbott has got the cure for my flash fiction blues. Here's what Patti has to say:

On Saturday night, we passed a young woman on the street who was talking to
her male companion and said, "I really don't mind the scars." A good start up
line for a little challenge perhaps? I looked for a picture to go with it
but:

1) They scarred (make that scared) me too much to post
2) I felt the pictures steered the story

So how about a 800 or so word story that contains that line in it? How
about an end date of February 28th? What do you think?

If you don't have a blog to post on, I'll post it here with mine. Just give
me a few days notice.

I say I'm in.

And if you want to participate, too, click right HERE to do so.

New stuff and contests

2011-01-30T18:50:00.000-08:00

Hey, gang, I'm going to keep this one brief tonight (Don't I always say that and it never ends up that way, but I swear I'm going to keep it short tonight, well, because I have stuff to do) but a ton of cool stuff has come down the pipe in the past couple that I wanted to point out in case you haven't seen it yet.

Okay, first up is Out of the Gutter #7
My story Flaming Shits is featured in this issue along with new fiction by Stephen D. Rogers, Ian Ayris, Rekha Ambardar, Donald P. Watts, William Boyle, Julie Morgan, Carolyn Baxter, James A. Ford, Tony Black, M.P. Johnson, Jane Bradley, Steve Rasnic Tem, Michael Bracken, Dave Siddall, Tim P. Walker, Benedict J. Jones, Charlie Wade, Danny Hogan, and Matt Louis. I'm damn proud to be apart of this issue, so make sure to pick up a copy or seven today right HERE

Over at Day Labor (You know, the Official Blog of Crimefactory Magazine) Crimefactory is partnering with Little, Brown and Lionsgate films to celebrate the imminent release of the Lincoln Lawyer, so make sure to click HERE for all the details on how to enter.

Okay on to electronic publishing.
As most of you know by now, pulp guru Anthony Neil Smith released his fifth novel, Choke On Your Own Lives, via Kindle and for fans of the dark stuff, this one's going to be right up your alley. Plus, good Ole Doc Noir is offering Choke on Your Lies for only .99 cents for the next six days, so make sure to pick up your copy right HERE today before Neil jacks up the price. (Plus, Smith has promised to write a follow up to Choke On Your Lies once he hits 1500 sales, so if you'd like to see a sequel, get the word out about this phenomenal piece of crime noir.)

Alright, last but far from least, Crimefactory favorite Dave White has teamed up with Needle publishing (You know, Weddle and Jacobs.) to release a collection of his Jackson Donne stories called More Sinned Against. In case you've never read White's two fantastic Jackson Donne novels, When One Man Dies and The Evil That Men Do, the short story collection may be a great place for you to start out at. (Although the collection isn't out until February)

But, with Dave putting out the collection with Needle, this got me thinking. I've been toying with the idea of gathering up some of my stories from around the web and some stories I haven't sent out yet and gather them up and offer a Kindle collection. But for one reason or another, I've blown off putting it together either due to other projects, or just plain laziness, but when Dave announced his collection it got me thinking (Plus, a fair amount of being bagged on by White and Stephen Blackmoore) and the next thing I knew, I was writing Weddle and he told me to gather up my stuff and send it his way, and over the past couple of days I've been making selections and cleaning up my unpublished stories.

The one problem is that I suck at titling stories and what not and I'm having the same issue with the collection. So what I did on Facebook tonight was open up a contest to let people title the collection for me and I figured I'd do the same thing here on the blog to folks who aren't on the old Faceybook.

So here's the deal, leave the title that you think would fit a collection of my stories nicely in the comments section and I'll send you a copy of the collection in the electric format of your choice. And for my non Kindle/nook/iPad owning readers, I'll print up some copies of the collection and sign it for you.

Here's the one stipulation of the contest: Be nice, you bastards. I know my writing doesn't appeal to everyone, but be polite for God sakes.

Anyway, gang, that's it for tonight, have a good week.

2010 (Don't let the door smack you in the ass and cripple you on the way out) a reflection

2010-12-31T07:22:00.000-08:00

"Did I ever tell you about Cossack Justice?" asked Gavin. "How the Cossacks used to test young boys they captured in battle? If they couldn't piss over a horse's back, they threw them off a cliff."
"And if they could?"
Gavin leaped down from the trunk. "They threw them off a cliff."
-Jerry Stahl, Cossack Justice

I thought the quote best emphasized my experiences in 2010.
No matter how hard I worked, no matter how much good stuff I put out, the world simply decided to treat me like a little boy captured by the Cossacks.
Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been all bad. In fact, most of it was downright great. But for some reason or another, (Okay, there was only one reason) all the good was beaten down with athletic socks stuffed to overflowing with cow flop.
But the major irritant in my life that was causing all this trouble is long gone and I feel nothing short of amazing.
But I'm ready.
I'm ready for this shit hole of a year to be long gone and tonight as I eat elk steaks and drink copious amounts of beer with the wife and our friends the Kerby's, I hope you'll all raise a glass with me and toast the demise of 2010 and welcome 2011 with a sloppy five second frencher.
Happy New Year.

My personal Top Ten

2010-12-09T21:48:00.000-08:00

I got the idea for this little list from Anthony Neil Smith over at Day Labor. (Yeah, you know, the official blog of Crimefactory) If you haven’t read the post yet, pop over right HERE and give it a gander. But what Neil did was put together a personal top ten of things he dug through out the year, and I figured, what the hell, maybe it would make a decent post for old Bloody Knucks

So here’s my personal top ten:

10) Writing for Spinetingler

Hard to believe my whole relationship with Lindenmuth started after he completely trashed my first short story in Plots with Guns. It’s been a blast, and it’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for this seminal publication

9) Family Guy

This is the rock of my nightly broadcasted entertainment. Peter Griffin never gets old

8) Blue Wasabi

Me and the wife’s favorite restaurant. Awesome fusion sushi place/martini bar a couple of miles from our place. Martini’s and raw fish make an awesome combo.

7) Shock Top

I’m not a huge fan of wheat beer (or anything manufactured by Coors) but damn, on a hot day (which is pretty frequent in Phoenix) nothing tastes better than this crisp brew.

6) My Stromboli

I make it once or twice a month. The very definition of comfort food

5) My iPad

I write, read, game, listen to music, and once I have the keyboard (This is a not so subtle hint to the wife of what I want for Christmas.) it’s going to completely replace the laptop.

4) Getting to meet Cam

It was cool cruising around the desert with Smashley as my co-pilot and getting to map out the direction of Crimefactory for the next year.

3) Getting laid off from my job

It was a shock at first, it threw our lives into turmoil, but now that I’m a couple of weeks removed from the event itself, I’m actually kind of glad it happened. After six years, the truth is I was burnt out and I was on cruise control most days, counting the hours until I could get home so I could write and hang out with my family. It’s true what they say, sometimes things happen for a reason

2) Crimefactory

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m still—yeah even after a year—floored by the response the magazine has received, the quality of work we’ve been publishing and the strides me, Cam, and Liam are trying to make in order to make CF even better than it has been. 2011 is going to be a great year and I hope you all stick around to see what we’re going to do next.

1) My wife and daughter.

Yeah, Mrs. Rawson and our little girl rock.

What I've been up to

2010-10-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

Busy few weeks around the old Rawson house. Interviews, house guests of the Australian type, events at the daughters school, Crimefactory coming out my ears, new writing, old writing needing rewrites. (which I guess qualifies as new writing) You get the picture, a whole bunch of stuff going on and not enough time in the day to get it all done. Luckily I've been on vacation this week, so at least I don't have the the day job to deal with on top of the writing schedule. The coolest thing that happened this week is I got to meet and hang with my partner in Crimefactory, Cameron Ashley. As expected we ate and drank too much, talked writing and books, did a shitload of driving and thoroughly discussed the future of the magazine and the direction we'll be taking Crimefactory in the coming year. You can expect some major changes and a lot of fun developments, so stay tuned (At this moment we're almost finished with issue 5 of Crimefactory, so stay tuned.)

Alright, onto other stuff I've been up to, namely stories of mine that've popped up.
First is my piece, 602, in the A Twist of Noir 600-to-700 challenge. If you haven't seen the stories that Christopher Grant has posted so far check 'em all out right HERE. Next up is my story, A Pink Tidal Wave, in the anthology, Discount Noir. Damn proud to apart of this one. Here's the full line up: Patricia Abbott, Sophie Littlefield, Kieran Shea, Chad Eagleton, Ed Gorman, Cormac Brown, Fleur Bradley, Alan Griffiths, Laura Benedict, Garnett Elliot, Eric Beetner, Jack Bates, Bill Crider, Loren Eaton, John DuMond, John McFetridge, Toni McGee Causey, Jeff Vande Zande, James Reasoner, Kyle Minor, Randy Rohn, Todd Mason, Byron Quertermous, Sandra Scoppettone, Stephen D. Rogers, Steve Weddle, Evan Lewis, Daniel B. O'Shea, Sandra Seamans, Albert Tucher, Donna Moore, John Weagly, Keith Rawson, Gerald So, Dave Zeltserman, Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen, Jay Stringer, Anne Frasier, Kathleen A. Ryan, Eric Peterson, Chris Grabenstein and J.T. Ellison.
It's an impressive right up and you can find it right HERE at Untreed Reads.

Alright, last but not least, my story, Life on the Mesa, popped up at Beat to a Pulp. I worked on this story for nearly a year-and-a-half, so I'm pretty proud of it.
Speaking of Beat to a Pulp, the first Beat to a Pulp anthology hit the selves a couple of weeks back. The line up is a who's who of the new breed of crime and pulp writers, so make sure to pick up your copy right HERE.
Last but far from least, Crimefactory favorite and good friend Frank Bill made up a video trailer for Beat to a Pulp round 1. It's pretty damn cool and you can check it out below.
Alright, gang, gotta split and get ready to take the daughter and her best friend to the zoo

Crime Factory Con' Challenge

2010-09-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

Cameron Ashley, my partner in crime he just ain't a pretty face he's also got some great idea's. Check out his newest humdinger below --KR

Over the course of either (or both) Noir Con and BoucherCon participants must produce a piece based on a synopsis that CF provides at the start of the con’. Participants will be provided with 5 pages of CF approved pad and a limited edition Crime Factory pen (that will possibly be a kilometrico with ‘Crime Factory’ dymoed on it). Note that participants are NOT required to produce a completed piece (see below).

Should you wish to participate and cannot attend either con’, pieces will be accepted via post, as long as they do not exceed the 5 (A4) page maximum, and are postmarked the final day of either con’ (mailing address will be provided upon expression of interest).

The aim is to create a unique collection of hand-crafted examples of the creative process that readers are rarely privileged to see. If enough material is generated, CF will produce a special issue titled ‘Rough Draft’ collecting this material.

Of course, all copyright to stories, ideas, doodles, etc remains property of the author[s] and original pages will be returned if requested.

RULES:

1. All material must be generated by the end of the last convention day of either con’.

2. As stated above, a finished piece is not required. Any of the following is acceptable: breakdowns/notes/comics/doodles/graphs/haiku/beer stains/stories – as long as it hand-written and is a (semi) genuine attempt at the task provided.

3. As Keith and Cam intend to participate Liam shall choose the synopsis and email it via armed guard from Australia (all worthwhile bribes shall be accepted for early notification ) The rough synopsis will be at the top of the first of each participants notepad pages upon hand out.

We really hope that you will be able to participate, we feel that we might be able to produce something really special if there’s enough interest, so SPREAD THE WORD.

Cheers,

Hope to see you at the conventions, or in the post.

The Foremen

I'm gonna check with Cam on this, but I wouldn't be opposed to receiving scans of your first drafts. But we'll see and I'll check back with you all.

--KR, again

The Necessity of Ego

2010-09-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

It shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who knows my reading habits that I just finished reading the new Ellroy memoir, the Hilliker Curse. Like most of his books, I found it maddening, frustrating and compulsively readable. What can I say, I’m an Ellroy geek, the man’s words get me revved up like no other writer. But the past couple of days as I’ve sat at my desk reading the Curse on my lunch hour, I’ve been thinking about a question I asked Craig McDonald when he was here in Phoenix promoting Print the Legend. The question I asked was: How important is ego in the act of writing? How important are oversized personalities like Hemingway, Crumley, and Ellroy in moving literature forward and keeping the general public not only interested in their antics but in buying and reading their new books?

Craig answered truthfully, saying that ego was important, but that Ellroy, Crumely, and Papa had all burned some serious bridges and ended more than a few life long friendships because of their raging egos. I nodded and agreed, but I couldn’t help but think, yeah, these writers, these madmen, they burned bridges and I got the feeling that, ultimately, they lived very lonely lives.

But…..

But, I couldn’t help but think that maybe it was the overwhelming confidence in their abilities was the reason why they produced such indelible works of genius? That without their egos they wouldn’t have become legendary figures in American letters? I also thought maybe a few burned bridges might be worth the accolades.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to all of a sudden start turning on the few friends and allies I’ve managed to cultivate in publishing in order to create legends. That’s just not me, because like most folks who write crime fiction, I’m a pretty decent guy. (or I try to be, but I’m sure there are more than a few people out there who think I’m an asshole.)

I will say this, though, I do think a certain amount of ego is absolutely necessary in the act of writing and for some reason or other, our chosen genre seems to be completely lacking in it.

I’ll cite a couple of examples that I’ve run across recently.

First was a blog post that ran over at Do Some Damage a few weeks back written by Jay Stringer. (Check out the post right HERE in case you missed it and Jay does spend the majority of the post tooting his own horn, which I was proud to read) In the post Jay mentioned that anytime the subject of him being a writer came up, he would skirt the subject and move onto another subject of conversation. Novelist Eric Beetner said much the same thing in his recent self interview over at Nigel Bird’s slice of the interweb.

Now I’m not trying to pick on Jay and Beetner. Both of them are extremely talented writers and they should both be proud of what they’ve accomplished (and it’s a lot, peoples.) but for one reason or another, they’re reluctant to sing their own praises, or even admit that they spend their meager free time making shit up about criminals and trying to have it published. And Beetner and Jay aren’t the only ones, folks. How many of you in the crime writing community avoid the subject of their efforts in social situations? I know I used to. Anytime the subject would come up at a party or dinner with friends, I would simply shrug my shoulders, politely smile, and start talking about my “real” job, which, folks, is just as boring to talk about as my far more satisfying after hours activities.

I say used to, because as of late, I’ve been considering myself a writer more than I have a wage slave. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not disrespecting my day job. I need my day job, it pays the mortgage, it buys the groceries, it provides the medical benefits, but is it who I am? Is my day job what defines me as a human being?

The answer, of course, is no, but neither does being a writer.

My upbringing, my experiences, my family is what determines who I am, but a big part of who I am is being a writer and all of the things I just mentioned have defined my growth as a writer.

So, when I’m now in those situations where what I do becomes the subject of conversation I say:

I’m a writer.

No, I haven’t published a novel (yet) but I have written and published a hundred short stories, reviews, columns, and interviews in the past three years. (And that’s not counting this miserable excuse of a blog.) I say that I write for two different websites. I say that I co-publish one of the best known crime fiction publications going. (You should know by now that I’ll never miss the opportunity to pimp ye ole Crimefactory.)

And, yes, I say it all with a straight face and with a certain amount of the all dreaded ego.

Anyway, folks, that’s enough of my blather for one night.

But one last thing, the grand pulp guru Anthony Neil Smith dropped the newest issue of Plots with Guns today and it’s a headbanger of an issue, so make sure to check it out right HERE

David Thompson

2010-09-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

I don't really have anything else to add to today's tragic news of the sudden loss of David Thompson. David and I never met face-to-face, but for the past year, I don't think a week went by without an e-mail from him. It seems like I was always writing and asking him a favor and David never blew me off, he would always get back to me an hour or two after I wrote him and he always did whatever he could to help me, whether it was to arrange an interview with an author or send me out a new title from Busted Flush Press. And whenever he'd send a care package in my direction, he'd include one of these goofy little notes along with whatever book he sent me and for some reason or other, he'd always sign the notes Dad, even though he was only a year older then I am.

David was a good man and I regret that I'll never be able shake his hand and thank him for all of his support and friendship.

Suddenly I'm everywhere

2010-09-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

So the wife and I made it back from our first toddlerless vacation in Las Vegas in one piece. True, we're tired and in need of a second vacation (Luckily we made it home right at the beginning of the Labor day weekend and have three more days to recover) but we had a great time doing what you're typically expected to do in Vegas. We drank too much, (way too much. In fact, I’ll be in dry out mode for about the next month or so) ate too much, and spent way too much time walking around the strip. (Hell, we had to do something to counteract all the booze and rich food, even if it meant doing the douche bag stroll down the strip. But, you know, it was the wife’s first time in Vegas, so she had to see it.) The only thing we didn’t do was gamble. Yeah, I know, who goes to Vegas and doesn’t gamble? Well, the financially conservative Rawson family doesn’t, that’s who.

But I guess I should’ve been doing some gambling while we were there, because I got luck on a few times on the writing front while we were there. And I’ll get around to all that stuff here in a minute but I wanted to do a quick run down of all the stuff that’s had my name attached to it over the past couple of weeks and in order to conserve writing time, I’m gonna do it bullet point style.

First up I had my first story to be published in quite some time pop up in the zine Title Fights. Title Fights is a theme based zine and the theme for the group of stories I appeared in was Jimi Hendrix songs and I was lucky enough to draw Crosstown Traffic as my song. The story pretty much wrote itself after receiving the theme and I had a hell of a lot fun writing the thing. By the way, if you haven’t checked out Title Fights yet, make sure to right HERE. They’ve got some great stories from the likes of Eric Beetner, Jimmy Callaway, Josh Converse, Cameron Ashley, AJ Hayes, and a whole bunch of talented folks.

Alright, next up is my interview with John Rector over at my home away from home Spinetingler magazine. As you know, I had a great time with Rector when I finally got to meet the man face-to-face and John’s UK publisher, Simon and Schuster UK, liked the interview so much that they decided to turn the audio of the interview into a podcast. (This was lucky bit of news #1 on our trip) I’ll make sure to post a link to the podcast when it hits, but if you haven’t seen the original interview yet, make sure to check it out right HERE.

Next bullet point is all about me and a gentleman by the name of David Cranmer (Speaking of David, if you haven’t already, make sure to check out the first installment of A Rip Through Time over at Beat to a Pulp. This is BTAP’s first serialized story and the concept and characters are all David’s creation. The first installment was written by none other than Chris F. Holm with the remaining parts to all be published as an e-book by various authors. It’s good, pulpy fun folks, so make sure to check it out right HERE) David asked me to do one of his 7 questions interviews for Gutter Books and in the interview I reveal the entire line up for the up coming Crimefactory anthology and the reason why you haven’t been seeing all that many of my stories lately. I had a great time with the interview despite the fact that I was dealing with one of the worst cases of stomach flu I’ve ever had. So if you haven’t already, check it out right HERE.

Next is my self interview over at Nigel Bird’s little slice of the internet pie, Sea Minor. I had blast writing this thing. So if you want to read me making a horses ass out of myself (You know, more than I normally make of myself that is) you can check it out right HERE.

More Spinetingler stuff. I tore out a new Short Thoughts on Short Fiction column right HERE about all the anthologies I’ve been reading lately (And I will be doing another of these because there have been some truly stellar anthologies to come out this year.)

Here’s another interview I did for Spinetingler with debut novelist Benjamin Whitmer. Benjamin’s debut, Pike, is one of the most impressive debuts I’ve read in a very long time. It’s gritty, atmospheric and violent and like most guys who write gritty, violent novels, he’s one hell of a nice guy. Make sure to check out the interview right HERE.

Okay, now onto the good news portion of this windbag of a blog post. After three years of submitting to pulp rag Out of the Gutter, Matt Louis and his crew of degenerates finally picked up one of my stories for issue #7 of the magazine. When Matt sent me the acceptance letter I was out by the pool at our hotel putting some words on the page and nursing a killer hangover and when I read it, I practically jumped up and shouted in my excitement. I’ve been trying to get a lot of my stuff into print magazines this year and I’ve been doing nothing but getting knocked on my ass for it, so this was a real boom for me.

Alright, print publication #2 happened the same day when Gerald So accepted one of my poems for issue #4 of the Lineup. I’ve been a closet poet since I was in high school and I had quite a few of my half ass meanderings published in old school fanzines in my early twenties, but I never thought I would get a poem in a glossy journal like the Lineup. It was a hell of a nice surprise

And acceptance #3 came when the wife and I were wandering the strip and I found out super agent Stacia Decker had managed to sell an anthology I was involved called Discount Noir. Now, I’ve received a few e-mails about just what the hell Discount Noir is? Well, back at the beginning of the year, Steve Weddle of Needle magazine posted a link to the website “People of Wal-mart” and we started goofing around about the site and I casually mentioned that Steve should approach our mutual friend Patti Abbott about sponsoring a flash fiction challenge revolving around the site. Well with Steve being Steve, he ran with the idea and what happened was probably one of the most original—and popular—flash fiction challenges I’ve ever participated in. And Ms. Decker liked the idea so much, she decided to have Steve and Patti edit all the stories into an anthology with new stories from Kyle Minor, Sophie Littlefield, Bill Crider, JT Ellison, Laura Benedict, and a whole bunch more writers and Stacia ended up selling it to the good folks at Untreed Reads. For the full line up of writers, make sure to check it out right HERE.

Well, shit, that went on way too long, but you all know I don’t have a problem with bragging about myself and hopefully more good news will be coming in the next few weeks as I spit polish some new stories for some of my favorite sites like A Twist of Noir and Plots with Guns and try my hand at getting into some other print mags.

Oh, and one last thing before I go, issue #5 of Crimefactory will be hitting at the end of the month and we’re going through a few format changes at the moment and we’ll be announcing some HUGE news as we get closer to zero hour.

Anyway, folks, have a great holiday and I’ll see you next time.

Meet John Rector over at the Grove

2010-08-09T05:23:00.000-07:00

So, if you don't know who this guy over on the left is already, let me introduce you. He's my buddy John Rector. Rector wrote this great novel, the Cold Kiss. The novel has been getting universally great reviews and it's not all smoke and mirrors, folks. The novel's one of my favorites this year and I've been passing on the good word about it to just about anyone who'll listen. (I've even got my 71-year-old mother reading it right now.)

But, before The Cold Kiss, Rector wrote this little book called the Grove. Rector's agent, Allan Guthrie, tried his damnest to sell this noir/horror mash-up, but none of the big dog publishers were bitting, so what Rector decided to do was publish the Grove on Kindle. Well, 60,000 or 70,000 copies later (Okay, it wasn't that much, but it was a lot.) Amazon (who decided to get into the publishing end of the book selling business.) offered to publish the Grove as a "real" paper bound book.

Anyway, the paper bound version of the Grove debuts in November, and Rector recently got his hands on a mess of Advanced readers copies and has decided to do a little contest to give away 10 of them to the reading public. And all you have to do win one of these copies of the Grove is blog it, review it, tweet it, send smoke signals, whatever. Make sure to check out all the details right HERE.

And since I really want a paper copy of the Grove, I figured I'd do my part and repost my review of the Grove from issue#1 of Crimefactory

The Grove is the story of small family farmer Dexter McCary, a shattered man who is separated from his wife, grieving over the death of his daughter, and slowly drinking himself to death out at his remote farm house. On top of all of his other problems, good old Dex also suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and occasional blackouts. He’s usually fine as long he keeps up on his medication; the major problem is that Dex has let his meds lapse since his wife left.
After one of his blackouts Dex awakens to discover that he’s gotten his tractor stuck on a muddy embankment in the middle of his cornfield and while he’s attempting to get the machine unstuck, he injures his hand and goes wandering to a grove in the middle of his fields and discovers the body of a young high school girl.
Since Dex suffered from a blackout the previous night, he panics and believes he may have killed the girl for trespassing on his property.
After the discovery of the body, Dexter’s broken mind really starts to rev up as he begins to haphazardly investigate the girl’s death on the behest of the girl’s “ghost” and preserve the rapidly decaying corpse, and to complicated matters, a piece of pure d white trash discovers Dexter’s dead girlfriend and decides to lean on our mentally incapacitated protagonist.
The Grove is tightly written pure dose of noir. Rector’s writing is as spare and stripped down in the same tradition as such hard-boiled silver age masters as Goodis and Thompson—with a strong dose of modern country noir influence—the major difference being that Rector creates real rapport between Dexter and the reader. You can’t help but feel for Dexter’s ten car pile up of a life and the author keeps the emotional tension running high from page one to it’s shocking—albeit understated—conclusion.
If you’re new to Kindle or one its many platform friendly incarnations, you’re going to have a lot of choices on what to download, but make sure to pick up The Grove first for a sure fire, fast paced read.

The Crimefactory blog

2010-08-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

So on Friday night as I was making changes on the Crimefactory website and uploading the new issue, I was thinking of a quick blog post to tack on to the site. Usually I put a little more thought into what I'm writing over there (As do Cam and Liam) saying that it's the editorial sounding board for the magazine. Usually we keep things pretty jokey and light hearted over on that end of the site, mostly concentrating on what we're doing to make the magazine better and so on and so forth.

Needless to say, my plate has been on the full side lately and I didn't have anything prepared, so I decided to whip out something about the upcoming Crimefactory anthology. You know, nothing too long, maybe two or three sentences about the contributors and how I was in the thick of editing. But then I switch over to my e-mail because I was expecting our cover image from Liam and what I got instead was an e-mail that went a little something like this:

"Keith, Did you receive my story for the anthology? I sent it over a month ago and haven't heard back from you yet and I would appreciate a response as soon as possible, or I may have to take my submission elsewhere. Sincerely, BLAH BLAH"

Now, if this e-mail was from an actual contributor, I would have jumped right on this and let them know that I had received the story.

The thing is, it wasn't from a contributor. In fact, it wasn't from anyone I even had an association with, it was just from a random person who decided that their short story should be included in an invite only anthology.....

When I read this, I got a little pissed and then I got a little nasty and posted something inappropriate to the site. Luckily, Cam and Liam caught it, e-mailed and told me they thought the blog post was a little on the"Oh, wow, Rawson's finally lost his shit" side (Which, honestly, it was.....I guess I'm pretty lucky to have far more level headed partners than myself.) so I jumped on the site, made the changes and the rest is history.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself,
'Jeez, Rawson, ya fuckin' hot head, it was just one e-mail.....'

The issue, folks, it wasn't just that one e-mail, it's been six in the last three months. Six e-mails with short stories attached to them wanting to be apart of the anthology. Not the magazine, mind you, (And it would have still annoyed me a little that these folks weren't following the clearly stated contributors guidelines, but at the very least I would have responded and told them to follow the submission guidelines and query first like everyone else has to do.) the anthology. And for some reason, the tone of these e-mails, except for one of them, has been so goddamn petulant. As if these stories were simply meant to be apart of the anthology. That their stories had to be included in the list of carefully considered contributors of the first anthology.........But what pissed me off even more were the follow up e-mails.

Jesus, these anomalies were being just plain assholes to me.

But instead of responding to these e-mails and tearing them a new virtual asshole, I simply hit delete, no response.

Don't get me wrong, I get as excited as the next writer when I hear of a print anthology that I might want to be apart of. I'll e-mail the editor about contributor guidelines or to ask if they're looking for outside submissions, but I just wouldn't send a story and then follow up a few weeks later with a shitty e-mail.

So let me give you folks a piece of advice, when you're wanting to be apart of a publication--any publication, whether it be print or electronic--be courteous, be professional, because this tends to leave a greater impression on the editor/publisher.

And remember, if you act like an asshole. the editor will remember.

Also, I want to apologize if I've ever done this to any of the editors/publishers I've submitted to in the past three years. If I've done this, well, you get one punch to my face on the house.

And to Cam and Liam, thanks for making me take down the post.

By the way, folks, don't forget you can find

CRIMEFACTORY ISSUE #4 RIGHT HERE

PS

For our Kindle readers, the edition should be up sometime today, and thanks for your patience.

CRIMEFACTORY ISSUE #4 IS LIVE!!!!

2010-07-30T21:36:00.000-07:00

5 issues in 7 months
I don't think anyone will accuse me, Cam, and Liam of ever being lazy.

But here it is.........

CRIMEFACTORY ISSUE #4

With new fiction by:

Allan Guthrie
Scott Wolven
Kieran Shea
Brian Murphy
Michael Gonzales
Graham Powell

New Features and Interviews by:

Chris La Tray interviews Hard Case Crime founder Charles Ardai
Cameron Ashley interviews The HORSEMAN director Steven Kastrissios and returns to the comics column he created in the original run of CF:
BRING ME THE HEAD OF FREDRIC WERTHAM
Andrew Nette throws the opening punch in our new Asian crime feature: SETTING SUN
I go head-to-head with Andrew Prentice over Blood's A Rover by James Ellroy in our inaugural
Love/Hate column.
Liam Jose interviews Jeff Sparrow author of the groundbreaking KILLING: Misadventures in Violence.
The Nerd of Noir returns with the Crime Sleeper Double Feature.
And last but not least, Audrey Homan pens our first retro review column, COLD CASES.

I know I say this about all of our issues, but I'm damn proud of this one.

Now for some non-Crimefactory stuff:

I've been jerking around with the blog a little bit and my friend Ben Springer, AKA Poker Ben, has been helping me out by creating a couple of new banners (Ben did the same over at Anthony Neil Smith's slice of the interweb.) and I think they all look pretty great and I'll be switching them out every few weeks or so. If you'd like, feel free to leave a comment about which one you like the best.

I've had a couple of new interviews roll out in the past couple of weeks.
First up is my second sit down with Sophie Littlefield right HERE
and with Gary Phillips right HERE
You can find them both at Spinetingler Magazine.

And last but not least, after a three month lay off from writing short stories, I've busted out a few in the past couple of weeks and they should be popping up in the next couple or few weeks, looking forward to that.

Anyway, see you next time.

Crimefactory 'Sad Janitor' contest

2010-07-29T06:49:00.000-07:00

You know, I really should have posted this when issue 3.5 of Crimefactory hit, but like the past several months, time got away from me. But, to let you wonderful, wonderful people know, Crimefactory is running its first ever themed writing competition. What's the theme of the comp, you ask? Well what we want you to do is write a story about 'A Sad Janitor' kind of like Thomas Haden Church's character in Jake Goldberger's piece of shit directoral debut, Don McKay. The deadline for the comp is August 20th, the maximum word count is 1500 words and what you win is publication in issue #5 of Crimefactory, so get crackin' people!

(BTW, folks, please send all entries to: crimefactoryzine_at_gmail dot com)

Also, if you need a little inspiration, here's Liam's review of the film:

DON MCKAY
(2009)
Directed and written by Jake Goldberger
Thomas Haden Church plays the titular character in Jake Goldberger’s film – a mopey janitor who returns to his home town to reconnect with his dying high school girlfriend and becomes embroiled in a tedious series of lazy plot twists and frustratingly irritating support characters.
Church, as always, is awesome, yet finds himself again wasted in subpar dreck (see Spider-Man 3 and Smart People). The normally excellent supporting cast flounders with the material they’re given, with Elisabeth Shue embarrassing herself intermittently.
The film seems to pass off long pointless scenes as introspective or atmospheric, with every second scene devoted to reiterating the previous. The film furiously spins its wheels, giving us little to care about as far as characters or plot is concerned.
Elisabeth Shue’s character suffers from ‘movie disease’ – clinically referred to as
Ambiguitis.
The film’s flimsy plot is so fucking irritating that it’s actually painful to sit through the film until the end. And once you get there, you’ll wish you hadn’t, ooh boy… It’s not just that the film features one of the worst twists in cinematic history, it’s that it introduces it in the same minute as the second, third, forth and fifth worst twists in cinematic history.
Yes. Really.
In a single minute the film rushes through all that shit. As an audience, it’s difficult to care other than being pissed off. And the twists are idiotic, with a final twist that is supposed to act as pathos, which instead makes the preceding two hours seem somehow stupider.
Tonally, the movie is a mess. Like Goldberger had seen a bunch of Coen Brothers, early DePalma and Lynch and wanted to make a movie like those he loved, but without understanding what made them work. The whole exercise feels entirely incompetent. Is it a comedy? A mystery? An existential treatise? A psychological thriller? A quirky indie comedy? All of the above?
Now, you may be thinking that this tonal schizophrenia isn’t a problem and that risks should be commended. Well, sure.
But filmmaking is like cooking. There are certain recipes that are likely satisfying and tasty regardless of how pedestrian or easy to pull off. Then, there are those other, delicate recipes that are hard to bring together and take a master chef. And yes – of course you can invent a new recipe – mixing new flavours. But you’d better be a fucking good chef. Goldberger could burn cereal.
Don McKay isn’t bad. It’s awful.

Cool new stuff

2010-07-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share this cool Ad Liam and Cam worked up for the Noircon program. Both Cam and I will be making it to the city of brotherly love in November to spread the word about Crimefactory (and, of course, our own various writing projects)If you haven't heard about Noircon, check it out right HERE for further info.

Also, I got to spend a few hours with John Rector tonight at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale and then for a drink and some good conversation afterward. Without question Rector is one hell of a cool dude and a amazing writer to boot. If you haven't checked out John's debut, the Cold Kiss, yet, I encourage you to get yourself down to a bookstore ASAP and pick it up. The Cold Kiss currently ranks as one of my favorite reads of 2010 so far (And if you're not convinced by my minor opinion, check out the Nerd of Noir's review over at Spinetingler right HERE.) and I'm not just blowing smoke up your ass with this one, folks.

Alright, I know just about everyone has heard about Frank Bill's two book deal with FSG by now, but I figured I'd add my voice to the chorus of praise that's been bouncing around the net. I've known Frank for almost three years now, I've published alongside him in Plots with Guns, Pulp Pusher, and Beat to a Pulp, I've published him and will continue to publish whatever he sends Crimefactory's way, and we've exchanged what seems like a thousand or so e-mails, and honestly, I couldn't be prouder of the dude.
You're the man, Frank!

And last but least, if you're on the old faceybook, you should click right HERE to become a fan. We've only had the page up for about a week and we've already got about 250 fans, but we're always looking for more. So make sure to stop on by.

Alright, gang, I've got about a thousand e-mails to send out and some writing to get around to, so I'll see you next time

Why I shouldn't write poetry (#1)

2010-07-03T22:56:00.000-07:00

the edge of
the tinfoil curtain
flutters, crinkles
as the stale air

pushed by the lazy
fan
passes over
their fly specked
shimmering
surface.

we've stopped
thinking about
the bugs in the
walls,

both the kind
that crawl
under your skin
and the kind
that listen.

the white van
parked outside
the house
is just
a white van.

something driven
by a housepainter
or a carpenter
or a pedophile.

we've stopped
gnawing
the skin around
our fingernails.

we've stopped
thinking.

it's the first
thing we've done
that's made
any sense
in a very
long
time.

____________________________________________________

PS

By the way, if you haven't seen my interview with novelist Michal Koryta, you can check it out right HERE over at BSCreview.

Crimefactory 3.5 is LIVE!!!

2010-06-27T19:39:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know it went live on Friday, but this had to be one of the busiest weekends I've had in a long time and this has been the first time I've been able to sit down at the computer over the past couple of days.

But it's been an exciting two days to say the least.

First off, we dropped issue 3.5, our first all fiction issue, which features new stories by:

Sophie Littlefield
Jonathan Woods
Jake Hinkson
Cullen Gallagher
Garnett Elliot
Jason Duke
John Kenyon
Jay Stringer
Robert Crisman
Julie Madeline
Eric Beetner
Naomi Johnson

It's a damn fine issue with an amazing line up, so make sure to check it out right HERE

And on the same night, I headed down to Scottsdale to cover the Poisoned Pen conference.
It was a crazy, fun night and I sat down with Michael Koryta, (who, by the way, has got to be one of the coolest authors I've met since I started doing interviews for BSCreview/Spinetingler, and his new novel, So Cold The River, ranks as one of the best reads of the summer.) Sophie Littlefield, (One of my favorite people, period.) the charming and hilarious Gary Phillips, and the legendary Vicki Hendricks for video interviews for both BSC and Spinetingler.

By the end of the night, my voice sounded like Tom Waits after gargling a shot glass of flaming cooking oil and wood chips, but I had a blast and had a mountain of books signed (including my Really Good Books edition of the Jook by Gary Phillips) I also got the chance to hang out with Jason Duke for a little bit, although our visit was way too brief.

And on Saturday, the wife and I (and about a thousand toddlers) celebrated my daughter Sadie's fourth birthday. Every parent says it, but it's true, it just seems like yesterday that my darling girl was born and I'm sure I'll feel the same when she's thirty.

Anyone, gang, I'm beat and have get a few other things before the night's done, so I'll talk to you later.

Oh, one more thing, make sure to check out Frank Bill's Blog, House of Grit. Frank's one of the few guys I know who's even busier than I am slapped together a new post detailing what he's been up to, so make sure to check it out right HERE.

Crimefactory #3 is LIVE!!!!!!

2010-06-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

Hi, folks,

It's that time again.

Crimefactory issue 3 is Live!

You know, this has been our toughest issue to put together to date, largely because of a lot personal turmoil that Cam, Liam, and I have been individually going through in the past couple of months and it took us a little while to get our shit together and we ended up being a couple of weeks late on the issue, but in my opinion, it was well worth the wait.

Issue 3 features fiction from some the best up and coming writers today including Kieran Shea, Dennis Tafoya, Greg Bardsley, Sandra Seamans, Daniel O'Shea, and we debut an excerpt from my good friend Jedidiah Ayres first novel, Peckerwood.

And the features, we've got some amazing stuff this issue:
Liam interviews filmmaker Nash Edgerton, director of the Square.
Crimefactory founder David Honeybone interviews crime fiction legend Peter Temple.
South African novelist Roger Smith offers up a fantastic Under the Influence piece.
Australian novelist Leigh Redhead Returns to the Scene of her debut novel, Peepshow.
And everyone's favorite blessedly foul mouthed critic, the Nerd of Noir, returns with another installment of the Crime Sleeper Double Feature.

Also, make sure to check out the Crimefactory blog where Liam gives us a run down of what's to come for Crimefactory in the next couple of months.

And as always, make sure to spread the word.

Blog it
Facebook it
Twitter it

But most of all, READ IT!

CRIMEFACTORY ISSUE#3

PS

The Kindle and Smashword links will be live sometime tomorrow. Yeah, both orgs wanna make sure the issue ain't got no bad words or any nonsense like that before they publish it.

Also, I want to personally thank Jimmy 'the Gem' Callaway for his bad ass copy editing skills. Yeah, not only is Jimmy one of the best writers going, but he's gotta hell of an eye for detail.

Look, Ma, I still have a blog!

2010-06-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I posted this one a little too early today.
I actually meant to write something, but then like most things in my life these days, I got busy and accidentally posted the title and nothing else instead of saving it in drafts, which is probably a good thing because folks started posting comments and that's forcing me to actually write a blog post.

But listen, I'm not going to make excuses of why I haven't posted over here at old bloody knucks, I've been busy. So busy, in fact, that most of this social networking stuff has been falling to the wayside for the exception to the 15 or 20 minutes I spend on Facebook a day. (Not that I'm missing it all that much.) And chances are things aren't going change all that much, especially with all the projects I'm winding down.

Here's a abbreviated list:

1) Crimefactory issue #3 (Liam and Cam are days away from delivering it, so please be patient)

2) Crimefactory #3.5 (This one's pretty much in the can, but it is our first all fiction issue and we have no lack of great stories. So as a quick side note: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PEOPLE, GIVE ME SOME FEATURES!!! Seriously, quality non-fiction has been tough to come by.)

3) The Crimefactory anthology.
This should come as a surprise to no one that I've been working on this since about a week after issue #1 and most of the stories for it have made it into my inbox and I've been more than happy with the results. But now comes the hard part for me of actually editing the damn thing.

4) Author interviews for BSCreview.
Yeah, summer book tours are in full swing and there are a ton of great writers coming through Phoenix who I'm scheduled to interview

5) Lots of longer stories that I've been chipping away at over the past year are coming to a close, so those are taking up a ton of time every day.

6) I've started going full steam on a pet project I've been kicking around for the past couple of years and I'm fully dedicated despite the fact that it'll probably never see the light of day.

7) Work and family. This should actually be #1 because both take priority over everything else.

So, yeah, lots going on and chances are you won't be seeing that much of me over here for awhile. But, I'll still be doing time over at Spinetingler and BSCreview.

Hope everyone has a great summer!

PS

Speaking of busy guys, Anthony Neil Smith has put out the call for some summer help for Plots with Guns, so make sure to check it out right HERE for all the details.

Time to celebrate because it's.......CINCO DE JUNIUS!!

2010-05-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, people, in case you didn't know, your boy Seth Harwood is teaming up with the good folks at Tyrus Publishing and are releasing Seth's newest novel, YOUNG JUNIUS!

And May 5th is CINCO de JUNIUS!!!

So at noon tomorrow, head on over to Seth's site at SETHHARWOOD.com and enter in the promo code KEITH when ordering and you'll receive 3 bucks off the cover price!

It's a hell of a novel, folks, so make sure to check it out!!

More Needle shenanigans

2010-04-22T19:38:00.001-07:00

I'm gonna keep this one brief tonight, folks. I'm way behind on a couple of projects, but I figured I'd start the night off with writing up a quick post for those fine whack-o's over at Needle magazine. In case you didn't know it, Steve Weddle and John Hornor Jacobs are running a contest over at the Needle site where if you catch somebody reading a copy of the magazine, all you need to do snap a picture of the offensive sicko, post the link to the site and Weddle will then draw three names out of a hat and the winners get a free copy of issue 2.
So, anyway, here are my entries:

Yup, I'm a firm believer of always going for cute, so here's a picture of the toddler getting ready to make a run for it with my copy of Needle!!!

I'm also a firm believer in celebrity product placement. Here's Ace Atkins giving Needle the old once over (By the way, make sure to pick up Ace's newest novel, Infamous, because it's about as noir as it comes.)

So that's it tonight, folks. Remember to pick yourself up a copy of Needle!
(And while you're at it, go and read issue 2 of Crimefactory!)

ATTENTION WRITERS, JASON DUKE WANTS YOU!

2010-04-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

Jason Duke, that crazy bastard......He's gone and set up a contest, but I figure I'll let him do the talking.

Talk to you later, Gang.

* * *

It's nice to get published, it's better to get paid. As writers, we know this all too well. My 15 minute claim to fame was an adventure for Dungeon Magazine that netted $100 bucks. I've been paid for other stories over the years, ten dollars here, twenty dollars there, but those are few and far between.

So why is it so fucking hard to get paid? I'm not the greatest writer. I'm good enough to get paid, but not the greatest. There are a lot of better writers out there, yet we're all in the same boat. Why? I think because there are so few paying magazines.

Which makes sense.

In the crime fiction circle, it seems books are even a hard sell nowadays. I hear firsthand from authors how hard they work to get word out about their books in the hopes of selling copies, authors like Anthony Neil Smith, Eric Beetner, Seth Harwood, Megan Abbott, Tim Maleeny, Nick Quantrill, the list goes on.

If books are a hard sell, then probably crime magazines too, right? Especially paying magazines. Sometimes, I wonder how publishers and magazines manage to stay afloat, because not all of them stay afloat, a lot of them sink. My hat's off to the ones that survive. Without them, no one would have a shot at getting paid.

Which brings me back to my point: it's nice to get published, it's better to get paid. There are a lot of great crime magazines available right now, mostly online, and some more prestigious than others, where writers like myself can get published, just not paid. Exposure is great, don't get me wrong. With everyone struggling to climb the same pay ladders, not everyone is going to make it, and exposure helps our ascent.

So what I offer is a shot at getting paid. Not just a token amount, either, at least I don't think so. I believe in karma. I believe in altruism. I consider myself a generous person. I try to be. If I have the cash, and life is good, I believe in spreading the wealth.

Every time I log on to Facebook, or read your blogs, or read magazines like Spinetingler, Thuglit, Plots With Guns, Darkest Before the Dawn, A Twist of Noir, I see this great community of fellow crime writers, all struggling to climb that ladder, all deserving to get paid.

A community looks out for each other, helps each other, encourages the other to aspire to something greater, to reach for and change the stars.

We all play our part in some way.

That is why I've decided to throw down some scratch for a crime fiction contest. The winner gets paid $50. The runner-up gets paid $25.

You know what?

Fuck that.

The winner gets paid $100 and the runner-up gets paid $50 bucks.

Call the contest whatever you want. I don't give a shit what it's called, but if someone comes up with something really catchy we'll run with it.

Everyone has a month to get their stories in. I think it goes without saying, only submit your best. We'll handle entries the same as other contests such as Daniel B. O'Shea's “Let Us Prey” fiction challenge, the “Recession” fiction challenge over on Do Some Damage, or the various contests hosted on A Twist of Noir. In other words, post your stories on your blogs, on A Twist of Noir, Darkest Before the Dawn, anywhere on the internet, email me the link at dm_jasonduke@hotmail.com, and we'll link them for the judges at Paul David Brazill's blog You Would Say That, Wouldn't You:

That's right, we have judges.

Excellent, qualified judges who know their shit. In the line-up are Aldo Calcagno, John McFetridge, Steve Weddle, and Stacia J.N. Decker.(Yes, that Stacia Decker.) They have very generously donated their time to read the entries and select two stories each. From those eight stories, David Hale Smith (Yeah, that David Hale Smith) has also generously donated his time to narrow the selection to four - two winners, and two runner-ups. From those four picks, I'll decide the winner and the runner-up. Yeah, I know I'm not as qualified or know my shit nearly as much as Aldo, John, Steve, Stacia, and David, but it's my fucking money, so ha.

Crime fiction only. It's broad, can mean a lot of different things, leaving it wide open, so if you ask me to explain what we're looking for I'm gonna put you in a fucking chokehold. Word limit on stories 2,000-3,500 words. I don't want them too short, but still quick for the judges to read.

The judges will have another month to narrow their selections. We will post the announcements on Paul's blog. Then I'll announce the winner and runner-up. Payment will be through paypal, money order, direct deposit, cash, however the fuck the winners choose to get paid. The winner and runner-up will also get published in Crimefactory, with a big thanks to the Crimefactory crew Keith Rawson, Cameron Ashley, and Liam Jose.

So what the fuck are you waiting for?

Get to it.

The New Toy

2010-04-14T19:54:00.000-07:00

You know, I really have a lot to do tonight.
Seriously, I shouldn't even be thinking about blogging.
What I should be doing is wrapping up a few stories, a few book reviews, a couple of print interviews, and prepping for my next video interview. (Which happens to be with Mississippi novelist, Ace Atkins, who is, by the way, appearing at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ on Tuesday the 20th to promote his latest novel, Infamous. So make sure to stop on by the store at 7 PM.) But, no, I'm down in the living room, a cup of coffee close at hand and I'm writing about the TOY.

What is the TOY, you ask?

Well, like 92 million other Americans (BTW, I'm thinking Steve Jobs and the good folks at Apple are exaggerating those numbers just a tad bit?) I got suckered into buying an iPad. And not just one, but two, because there was no way in hell I was going to share with the wife

But I'll be honest with you, gang, I don't really feel like I was suckered into anything, I just really, really wanted one. And believe me when I tell you this, me and the wife, neither one of us is real big into keeping up with the Jones. We're not the type of family who has to have the newest gadget and the nicest cars on the block so that we can brag to the smucks next door that we're up to our eyes in debt, but damn we look good and have really nice stuff that we don't actually own. But we have been wanting to upgrade to new laptops for awhile, so we went for it.

I'm five days into iPad ownership and I've written a couple of stories on it, including my piece for Patti Abbott's newest Flash Fiction Challenge, details of which can be found right HERE, and my newest story at the always excellent A Twist of Noir. Plus, the resolution on the thing is so damn sharp and the print's so clear, I now fully realize why Amazon was so damn scared of this thing. Because guess what, the TOY has pretty much made the actual Kindle reader obsolete. (You can download the Kindle App for free and all the books you've purchased will be in your library, so you don't really need to worry that you wasted money.)

So, anyway, enough said about that, I just needed to get that out of my system.

But before I go I do want to do a little pimping.

If you're one of my two or three readers, you'll know I'm a pretty big fan of Anthony Schiavino. In case you don't know who Anthony is, he runs the website Pulptone and publishes his comic book Sergeant Zero under the Pulptone banner. Well a few days ago, Anthony released an alternate cover of issue #1 of Sergeant Zero. You can find the link to pick up a copy of the comic right HERE at the Pulptone mini-site and make sure to take a look at this cool trailer bellow.

Alrighty then, time to hit the sack.

NEEDLE MAGAZINE is LIVE!!!

2010-04-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

NEW FICTION BY:

ABBOTT
AYRES
BEETNER
BRAZIL
BROWN
DAVIDSON
GOWRAN
GRANT
NUSBAUM
ROHRBACHER
SEAMANS
SHEA
SINGER
ZELTSERMAN

And, oh yeah......me

MAKE SURE TO PICK UP YOUR COPY RIGHT........HERE!

SHATTERED BONES, CONCUSSED BRAINS: FU MANCHU WANTS YOU!

2010-03-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

You’ve probably figured this out already, but we at Crime Factory are a bunch of enthusiastic guys. We have a bi-monthly schedule we’re pretty determined to keep for the foreseeable future, as long as we suffer no drop in the quality and frequency of content received. The only thing that will slow the zine down is a drought of material, and all we’re seeing at the moment is a flood of incredible work. When we re-launched, we hand-picked people who not only shared our enthusiasm, but also had the chops to back it up and wouldn’t leave us stranded. We also put out the call for new material and, as I mentioned recently at the CF blog, we’ve been amazed by the overall quality of what we’ve received. It has all happened with surprising ease thus far too. Let’s hope I haven’t just jinxed it, because we’re about to push our luck.

Not content with cracking out a bi-monthly zine, we’re about to step things up a notch. A project should be announced later in the year that we can’t believe we’ve actually pulled off (to be fair, it’s Keith who did most of the pulling off with this one. That sounds a bit…weird, but you get what I mean). Another has already been announced, specifically June’s Crime Factory 3 1/2 (following hot on the heels of May’s CF #3) an all-fiction supplement featuring some awesome stories we don’t want to hang on and hog to ourselves any more. Finally, right now, I can announce one of our upcoming, one-off specials.

The idea behind the specials is to apply the CF manifesto to other genres we love. The issues will not be throw-aways or novelties, they will be crafted with the same care that goes into the regular CF and will have the same quality of content. We want our contributors to have some extra fun and also stretch their creative and journalistic wings a little bit.

One of these specials will be Kung Fu Factory, and this is where I get to the whole point of this bloggery stuff.

Kung Fu Factory will be a very rare opportunity to write some pulp potentially very different from what you may normally crank out. Specifically, we are actively seeking stories that are martial arts or even just fight based.

It possibly sounds crazy, but hear me out. For those of you familiar with the work of Joe R. Lansdale (and if you’re not you really should be), please recall a particular couple of stories: The Pit and Master of Misery. Joe crafted two very distinct pieces of cross-genre work with these two stories, both of which are basically fight-based. The Pit is obviously a horror mash-up, Master of Misery is very much a martial arts piece, but they both contain those amazing Lansdale touches that make both stories quite distinctly his. If you haven’t read these works, do track them down and you’ll see what I mean. Then, we would like you to do the same for us.

The Kung Fu Factory special is seeking:

Stories ranging from full-on martial arts fight-fests, to Fu Manchu-mastermind style stories, to boxer with a heart of gold stories, to stories about Luchadors or washed up MMA fighters or schoolyard bullies or ninjas, or all of the above crammed into the one story. If you have a tale with punches, kicks, nunchucks, a cracking plot and some memorable characters, bring it. We want it. If you work some crime into it somehow, you’ll be even more awesome. Cross-genre pollination will be held in high regard, however, if you want to write a historical piece featuring a 16^th century master of Wing Chun, or whatever, that would also be brilliant. Variety and originality are vital.
4,000 words is your absolute limit. Bolo Yeung will come to your house and give you a beat down if you go so much as one word over this. Sure he was born in 1938, but he’s Bolo Yeung. Yeah. That’s right. Best stay way under to be on the safe side.
Unless you’ve been specifically invited, please follow the regular CF guidelines. i.e.: send a query/synopsis along with your details to crimefactoryzine@gmail.com with KUNG FU FACTORY in the subject line. Trust me; I’ll be getting back to you. We will have a limited number of spots available, so the sooner you get in, the better: even if you haven’t written the story yet, please register your interest so we can reserve a ringside seat for you should we like the cut of your jib. Please also spread the word and help us get this unique ass-kicker of an issue scheduled.
DEADLINE FOR STORIES: AUGUST 15, 2010. See the Bolo stuff above should you blow it. Sonny Chiba might join him. Sure, he was born in 1939, but...ahhh, you get the idea.

On the design front, Liam and I are already working out how to make the CF specials distinct, yet still very much a CF product. We have some cool ideas for Kung Fu Factory, so your story will look sexy, trust me.

That’s it. Thanks for your attention. Thanks also for your support and enthusiasm for CF and for allowing us the opportunity to put this stuff together. Keith, Liam and I are having a blast. Quite clearly, we couldn’t do this without the stuff you give us to publish.

Right. Go roundhouse kick something to calm down from all this awesomeness and write us something.

Cheers,

Cameron Ashley.

Master of the Deadly Art of Beer Drinking.

(This post was brought to you by CRIMEFACTORY issue #2, Which you should download immediately, or we'll come and kidnap your puppy.)

PLOTS WITH GUNS #8 IS LIVE!!!!!!!!!

2010-03-30T15:03:00.000-07:00

New stories from:

Scott Wolven

J. Merrill Motz

Johnny Zephyr

Colin Heintze

Tim Wohlforth

Jason Duke

Lance Levens

Adrian Magson

Issue #8 also features stills from the short film, Underdogs, which is based off of Wolven's short story and directed by Jordan Bloch

CHECK IT OUT ALL RIGHT ............HERE!!!

It's that time again.....Crimefactory issue #2 is LIVE!!!

2010-03-26T20:56:00.000-07:00

CRIMEFACTORY ISSUE #2 IS LIVE!!!!!

New fiction by:
Ray Banks
Dave Zeltserman
Kieran Shea
Patti Abbott
Josh Converse
Stephen D. Rogers
Gerard Brennan

With features by:

Jimmy Callaway
Reed Farrel Coleman
Craig McDonald
Charlie Stella
Chad Eagleton
The Nerd of Noir

126 pages of pulpy goodness brought you by Cam, Liam, and myself!

And the nominees are...

2010-03-24T07:15:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't seen them yet, here are the nominees for the Spintingler Award for Best Online Story over at Spintingler Magazine:

A Wild and Crazy Night by John Kenyon from Beat to a Pulp
At Least I felt Something by Sophie Littlefield from The Drowning Machine
Blurred Lines by Michael Moreci from A Twist of Noir
Flesh Rule by Frank Bill from Plots with Guns
Insatiable by Hilary Davidson from Beat to a Pulp
My Father’s Son by Alan Griffiths from A Twist of Noir
MSM by Anonymous 9 from Plots with Guns
The Present by Mark Joseph Kiewlak from A Twist Of Noir
Survival Instincts by Sandra Seamans from Pulp Pusher
The Tut by Paul D Brazill from Beat to a Pulp

Congratulations to all the nominees! And thank you for the amazing stories!

Another one bites the dust

2010-03-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

Running a zine can be tough.

Much like writing, it's a labor of love and at times, it can be frustrating as hell
People get busy, they lose interest, they move onto other projects.
I hate it when I see yet another zine go down. In the last three years I’ve been reading crime fiction online, I’ve seen Demolition, Hardluck Stories, Flashes in the Gutter, DZ Allen’s Muzzle Flash, Shred of Evidence, Mouth full of Bullets, Crooked, Eastern Standard Crime, the Feral Pages all go down for various reasons.
Some of these publications were down right groundbreaking.
Some were so-so efforts.
But all of them served a purpose.
They provided an outlet for emerging writers, a source of entertainment for readers.
And once again, I get it, people get busy, but I still hate to see it.

And it makes me even sadder to report that Tony Black’s Pulppusher is now kaput.

Shitty.

In the past when this type of thing happened, you shrugged it off and moved on. Maybe you sent it out for reprint at a zine like always excellent A-Twist of Noir, or the story just sat on your hard drive.

Well, I’m going to offer to do something for those authors who formerly had stories, interviews and articles on Pulppusher.

If you’d like, I will convert your story into a PDF and I will archive it on the Crimefactory website.

If the response is great enough, I’ll gather the stories together and edit them into an e-book anthology so that these stories will never disappear.

If you’re interested, contact me at rawsonkeith_at_gmaildotcom

CONTEST part 2: Gischler's revenge

2010-03-19T20:27:00.000-07:00

Alright, folks, as I mentioned in my review of the Deputy by Victor Gischler over at Spinetingler Magazine earlier today, I'm going to be throwing another contest to celebrate the release of the Deputy, where the prize is going to be an Advanced Readers Copy of the Deputy and just like my last contest, I'll throw a mystery book your way to spice up the deal.

So, much like the last contest, you've got to do a little something in order to qualify. But, of course, I like making it fun.

For those of you on the Twitter, most of you are aware that Victor does this little thing four or five nights a week called 'Ask Gischler' where he invites his Twitter followers to ask any question of him (but please, no math.)

Here's some gems I've asked the all knowing, all seeing Gischler in the past:

WHY DOES THE BURGER KING KING MAKE ME NOT WANT TO EAT BURGER KING?

WHAT ARE SPAGHETTI-O MEATBALLS MADE OUT OF?

You get the point, right?

Anyway, what I want you to do, my dear readers, is post your 'ASK GISCHLER' questions in the comments section of this post and on April 5th, I'll randomly select the winner.

Now, just in case you don't win the copy of the Deputy (and by the way, folks, it is an uncorrected ARC.) you should think about heading over to one of these fine, fine retailers and pick yourself up a copy. (And, hey, as much as I like free shit, but I like supporting my favorite authors by buying their books just as much.)

TYRUS (Shipping and handling is free if you order direct from Ben and Allison)
AMAZON (Yes, still the evil empire, but fuck it.)
B&N (Really, they're just as bad.)
INDIEBOUND

Alright, gang, get cracking!

Oh, and one last thing before I go, folks. Spinetingler (Yeah, I'm full of all kinds of Spinetingler stuff tonight.)Magazine will begin running a new series of Conversations with the Bookless. Lindenmuth and I have been sending out invitations the past couple of weeks and we're geared to start things up again in the next couple of weeks. The series of interviews was a ton of fun last year when Lindenmuth ran it over at BSCreview, so I'm really excited to see it this year over at Spinetingler. So make sure to keep your eyes peeled on the site in the weeks to come.

And the winner is.....

2010-03-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

So we had 23 entry's in Old Bloody Knucks first ever contest and there were some great ones(All except for Jed's, of course.) and last night I numbered twenty-three slips of paper and allowed the daughter to pick the winner out our magic salad bowl.
And the daughter choose.....

Chris Holm's dandy little blurb:

"This shit just got raw, son."

Chris, to claim your prize of a copy of Roger Smith's Wake Up Dead and a mystery book, email me your address at rawsonkeith at gmaildotcom

Now, for those of you that didn't win, don't despair, I will be running a brand new contest starting on Friday, so stay tuned for details.

The story behind #3

2010-03-12T20:46:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks back I participated in the whole creative writer/compulsive liar meme thing that John McFetridge tagged me with, and I’ve actually gotten a few e-mails regarding #3 of the meme.

As revealed in the comments section of the post, #3 is a true story.

I got to thinking about the experience and thought it might make a decent blog post.

So here we go.

First off a little background.

Back when the wife and I were getting ready to tie the knot after five years of living in sin, I’d spent four years working at a gas station about a mile away from our apartment. I started out in that job as the part time graveyard shift attendant and eventually found myself working there full time on the 6-to-2 shift as the assistant manager.

It was a fun job.

There wasn’t much responsibility involved in it, the money wasn’t all that bad, and it was within walking distance of our apartment. (The wife and I shared a car, and since she worked in downtown Phoenix at the time, obviously she needed it more than I did.)

Now, along with getting married, the wife and I were also buying our house, and the money we earned was more than enough to qualify for a decent size loan, but we’d still be stretching our wallets a wee bit in order to make the mortgage.

We needed more money to be coming in.

For those of you who’ve ever taken the leap and purchased a home, you’ll know that your finance company doesn’t want you making any erratic money moves—things such as opening new credit cards, financing a new car, or changing your job—while they’re procuring your funding, and saying that the home we were buying was a new build, we had a long time to wait before we could change jobs and start making more money.

So what I did was get a part job and that part time job was working with developmentally disabled kids.

I had worked with developmentally disabled individuals before while living in Flagstaff, AZ, but with high functioning adults in an independent living situation. The job in Flag was an easy gig, like the gas station, there wasn’t much involved with working at my first job for the developmentally disabled. Like I said, the clients I worked with were very high functioning. They worked during the day and the staff would be there at night to help them with things like grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning their apartments.

To be honest, the clients I worked with were so high functioning that most of the staff didn’t do anything except sit around, watch TV, and occasionally sneak away to get high or grab a few drinks.

My part time job with the kids was pretty similar, except it was an after school program and my job was to pick the kids up after school and then take them out for various activities until it was time to run them back home. Of course, by the time I’d started working with the kids I’d been clean going on four years and instead of thinking of the kids as a burden—like I did with the adults back in Flagstaff—and actually enjoyed the job. I felt I was making a difference in these kids’ lives (and I’ve come to find out I actually did. I ran into one of my junior high kids—who’s now 21—while I was at the local craft store with my wife and my daughter and he instantly recognized me. I gotta admit it felt pretty damn good.

Anyway, I liked the job so much, that after the wife and I were finally moved in, a manager position became available for the adult program. The position paid the same as my two jobs combined, so I decided to apply for it and I was hired.

Great, I thought, no more fourteen hour days and home at a reasonable hour every night.

Wrong.

As I was soon to find out, being the manager of the adult day program was a little slice of hell on earth and the reason why I got hired on for the job so quickly was because there was only one other applicant, and the upper management of the company who ran the day program had their eyes on him because they suspected him of palming drugs out of the meds closet.

Here’s why the adult day program was such a nightmare. Like most mental health programs, they’re operated by private corporations and like most private companies, the one I worked for liked to make money—gobs and gobs of it. Well, how they went about doing this was by taking on the most disturbed, radically violent clients—or “consumers” as the company called them—they could find. And, of course, the company I worked for cut corners anyway they could, which meant they didn’t pay the support staff shit, which meant lots of turn over, which meant every time a staff member walked off the job after taking a punch, the manager—me—had to take over that former staff’s shift.

Long story short, I continued to work fourteen hours day, but now I only had to drive to one location instead of two.

And of course I was miserable beyond all reason and making everyone else in my life just as miserable. (Yeah, it was mostly the newly minted Mrs. Rawson who I was driving batshit.)

But let’s fast forward to the day I took the punch.

I’d been doing so well at my new job (i.e., I was willing to work a 14 hour day) that that management decided to put me in charge of its newly created pre-school program. I didn’t mind too much because it was a chance to work with kids again, which I loved doing. The major issue was that we couldn’t have the kids in the building at the same time as the adults. Most of the time this wasn’t an issue because my preschool kids showed up at seven in the morning and most of the adults didn’t start showing until nine.

Except the morning I took the punch.

It was six am and I had just unlocked the doors to the center and I was out front grabbing a quick smoke before the day began when I spotted one of the group home vans pull up at the corner of the building and someone got out the passenger side and started walking towards me. I thought maybe it was a group home staff coming by to see if I needed any extra help with filling the day’s shifts. (I always needed the extra help no matter what.) but to my surprise, it wasn’t staff, it was a client. My most reviled client walking up the front steps of the center unaccompanied, which was a big no-no with a capital N-O!

For the purposes of this post, I’ll call the client, “Doug”.

And the reason why Doug was so disliked was because the dude was a rapist.

A repeated rapist

And Doug, the big, retarded sick fuck, he liked raping kids.

He’d been caught raping or attempting to rape 3 kids—both girls and boys between the ages of 10 and 15—and the only reason he got away with it (No, he was never convicted.) was because of his disability. No body liked working with the guy and for obvious reasons. Yeah, he was chemically castrated and he was on enough anti-psychotics to choke an elephant, but he was still enormous and he made you feel creepy as hell just by eyeballing you.

Anyway, here’s big Doug, making his way up the steps, saying good morning me and telling me that he felt like going to the movie room. I tossed my smoke and led Doug into the office I shared with the afterschool supervisor, locked the door, and got on the phone to try and get Doug’s day staff to come in early.

By having Doug in building I was breaking all kinds of rules. If it was just me with none of the adults coming in until later on in the day, everything would’ve been fine, or even if I had extra staff to greet the preschool parents I could’ve taken Doug out in one of the vans and driven the sick fuck around until his staff made it in. But I didn’t have any of that; I was alone until the preschool staff and Doug’s regular facilitator made it in. So I did the best that I could, keeping Doug locked in my office, ushering the kids into the TV room as soon as their parents left, and going between the two rooms to make sure nothing was out of order or that nobody went AWOL.

Luckily Doug’s staff had agreed to come and the preschool staff would be there any minute. But old Doug, Doug was getting pissed. The motherfucker wanted in that TV room; he wanted to watch the Lion King, or one of the dozens of Disney flicks we kept in the video closet. I tried calming him down, redirecting him, none of it was working. He was pacing the tiny room, a string of obscenities boiling out of his mouth, knocking small stuff off of my desk, ripping posters off of the wall. I was tensing up, getting ready for the worst.

He finally made a move for the door and I grabbed his upper arm.

That’s when he swung on me.

The punch was a clumsy swing, no real force behind it, but it rocked my head back and knocked off my glasses. I think it was old Doug knocking my glasses off that pissed me off the most. Like most people who read and write a lot, my eyesight is for shit and the wife and I, neither of our jobs offered health insurance as an incentive, so if this drooling shitheel broke my specs, it was going to cost me an arm and leg to replace them, especially with my complicate prescription.

So I’m not too ashamed to say I reeled back and threw a hard punch into Doug’s chest. There was something damn satisfying listening to the dude’s breath rush out of his lungs. I was getting ready to throw on him again when Doug’s regular staff opened the door. He knew what was going on, I’d seen him almost get violent with Doug a time or two, and I was pretty sure they’d punched each other up a couple of times when it was just the two of them. Doug was recovering his breath from my punch and decided to come at me, this time, however, me and Doug’s staff restrained the big man and took him to the floor.

I lucked out and Doug ended up not telling a soul that I’d punched him. If he had narced me out, I would’ve lost my job, and probably would’ve been charged with assault.

Not that any of this mattered. A couple of months after, I was fired from the job for not reporting a bite I’d taken from one of our nonverbal autistics. The afterschool supervisor was the one who reported it to our supervisor.

To be honest with you, it was a relief. I hated that job.

A month later, I got a temp job working tech support, and then I got hired on permanently at my current gig.

Anyway, that’s the story behind #3.

* * *

Okay, folks, a couple of things before I sign off.

First up, if you haven't seen my interviews with Craig McDonald over at BSCreview yet, you can take a gander right HERE for part 1 and right HERE for part 2. I'm really proud of the interview and I hope you take a couple of minutes to give them a watch.

Also, on the fiction front, some of my wayward stories are finally starting to find homes. Aldo Calcagno of CrimeWaV.com, Powder Burn Flash, and Darkest Before The Dawn, picked up my story, "A Clip Joint Romance" for DBTD and should be coming out some time this week. Also, Full of Crow picked up my story, "Shit Detail", and an old favorite zine of mine will be making its return into the world soon with my story, "Flaming Shits". (I've been fond of using 'shit' in my titles lately.) And last but not least, Steve Weddle picked up a story of mine for the debut issue of Needle magazine. Pretty excited about that one. And on a sad note, in case you didn't know it yet, the Feral Pages is no more

And to round out the evening, as most of you know, I'm a pretty big fan of New Pulp Press. Jon Bassoff runs a pretty tight ship and is publishing some vastly entertaining and innovative books. I'm also a fan of one of Bassoff's writer's, John Woods, whose debut short story collection, Bad JuJu & Other tales of Madness and Mayhem, will be coming out in April. I appeared alongside John in issue #7 of Plots With Guns and Crimefactory will be publishing John's story, "The Old Man" in an upcoming issue. Anyway, John's put out a pretty awesome trailer for Bad JuJu, so I hope you enjoy it and buy the book when it hits the stands.

BTW, hat tip to Anthony Neil Smith posting this clip over at First Offenders

Super quick Saturday night post

2010-03-06T18:58:00.000-08:00

I spent the day moving my in-laws into their new house.
Needless to say, I'm falling down and pass out on the carpet exhausted, at least physically. My old hamster wheel of a brain is running full tilt, though. Mentally, I could stay up all night writing, editing and prepping for a few upcoming interviews.

But chances are that's not gonna happen.

Chances are I'll be in bed within the next couple of hours trying to keep my eyes open so I can read a few more pages.

But for the time being, I'm chugging away.
I'm hot and bothered, so I'll get this post done and move onto the next project.

Okay, as far productivity for the week, if you haven't read it yet, check out my first print interview to appear at S pin etingler magazine with the extremely talented and gracious Roger Smith. (And don't forget about the contest to win a copy of Roger's newest novel, Wake Up Dead, right HERE.) Roger is the first in a series of print interviews I'm hoping to conduct for Spinetingler in the coming months. I'll still be doing video interviews for BSCreview, but I'll largely be doing the print interviews with authors who don't normally make it out as far west as Arizona while they're on tour for their books. The Spinetingler gang also has some pretty exciting stuff going down in the next couple of months, so make sure to stay tuned to the site for further developments.

Okay, more contests.
If you're a regular reader of my delicate flower of a blog, you'll know I'm a big supporter of Dennis Tafoya. The man is one of the most talented novelists to come around in quite some time, and I've been strongly anticipating Tafoya's second novel, the Wolves of Fairmount Park. Now, the hardcover won't be out until the middle of June, but if you're as excited about the novel as I am, you'll want to head over to the man's blog, Dennis Tafoya's Bad Neighborhood, and you can enter to win an Advanced Readers Copy of the Wolves of Fairmount Park.
And do it now. because copies of this are bound to be going fast!

Alright, another Pennsylvanian writer I'm quite fond of is Duane Swiercynski. Duane's one of the truly nice guys of noir and when I first started dipping my toe into the icy waters of becoming a writer, Duane was one of the first authors I ever contacted to ask for advice. (He still gets the occasional harassing e-mail from me to write something for Crimefactory and I still have no issue with asking for advice.) So when Duane puts out a new novel, it always ends up being a book that I try to push into the hands of others so they can get hipped to one of the most original fiction writers out there. And Duane's Publisher, St. Martin's/Minotaur, are also big into promoting Duane's stuff, so if you want the chance to win a signed copy of Duane's newest, Expiration Date, and some amazing artwork to boot, click right HERE.

Okay, last but not least, if you haven't seen Steve Weddle's newest baby (and I'm not talking about his new dog.) you should check it out immediately!

Yeah, Needle magazi ne, a straight up print hardboiled/noir journal.
It looks bad ass and it's hard to believe the whole idea only started a week ago when Steve, Anthony Schiavino of Pulptone, Anthony Neil Smith, John Honor, Dan O'shea, and myself were talking about the lack of places to publish as a hardboiled/noir writer over on the Twitter. But Steve being Steve, the man decided to move it beyond good conversation and take it to the next level with the incredibly talented John Honor and get things rolling.
It'll be interesting to see what happens with this bad boy, but both John and Steve know they can count on me to support the project in anyway that I can.

Anyway, folks, hit the bricks, it's time for me to get to get along to other shit.