what I've been up to

October has been one long, fun month.

Tons of writing.

Tons of reading.

Tons of work on a certain secret project that I won't mention other than to say that it's a secret.

I've gotten to meet and interview some great writers.

(I'll never forget the three hours Reed Farrel Coleman spared me while he was here in Phoenix.)

And now the Rawson household is gearing up for Halloween

But, honestly, I don't have all that much to say.

(Oh, except if you haven't already, head on over to Patti Abbott's blog and check out the newest Flash Fiction Challenge. It should be a blast, so if you've never participated in one, this just might be the one for you.)

So instead of writing a long blog post about what I've been up to, I thought I'd pass along some video clips of the author events I've attended this month.

I hope you enjoy.

First up is Phoenix Noir editor, Patrick Millikin, introducing the line up for the anthology.

Here's Reed Farrel Collman talking with Barbara Peters about Tower.



And here's Michael Connelly making the scene



And last but not least, Stuart Neville, author of the Ghosts of Belfast

Hey, wait a second. . . .I know I'm forgetting something?

So I'm sitting at my usual spot on the couch, my Friday night 9 PM cup of coffee close at hand, the laptop's open, I'm half watching a movie and gearing up for a weekend night of the usual. But something keeps nagging at me. I keep thinking that I've forgotten to do something; something that's been working at me like an itch I can't scratch, like an amputee's ghost arm. Whatever it is can't be that important, right?

And then it slowly dawns on me. . . old Bloody knucks. Yeah, it's been a few weeks since I jumped on here and taken the old girl out for a spin. As usual, it's nothing personal and it's not that I don't care about maintaining the old girl, it's just, Hell, I'm busy. . .

Wow, deja vous, I don't know how many times I've said that when it comes to the old bloggy blog?

Anyway, I know this is old news by now, but Geoff Eighinger decided to close up shop on Eastern

Standard Crime and move on to other things. It's a bit of rough news as far as losing a market is concerned, but in the same breath, I have to applaud Geoff for calling it quits when he did, because it was pretty obvious he wasn't enjoying the gig anymore and it takes some balls to admit that he wasn't into it. Because let's face facts, gang, this writing gig--whether you're making the stories, editing them, reviewing them, whatever-- it doesn't pay all that much. Sure, most of us make a few bucks here and there, but all of us have our motivations for what drives us to do what we do. But, because of the low pay and long hours involved with this stuff, I think the #1 motivation for all of us should be that we have fun putting one word in front of the other and the same thing goes for the people who publish those cleverly arranged words and if this shit ain't fun for you, if it becomes a chore, something that you have to force yourself to do, chances are it's time to hang it up and call it quits.

(By the way, folks, if you haven't done so lately, you should drop a line to folks like Christopher Grant, Aldo Calcagno, Col Bury and Matt Hilton, David Cranmer and Elaine

Ash, Anthony Neil Smith, Todd Robinson, et cetera, and give 'em an electronic five second frencher for all the hard work they do.)

But our little world moves on and the new replaces the old, which brings me to the first of my linkage. It appears that Lyman Feero has started up what looks like a sweet little cross genre zine called the Feral Pages. It appears that the first official issue is going to go live as of October 15th, but Feero offered up a couple of stories for the type of fiction he's looking for by giving us a brief taste of new tales by Patrick Shawn Bagley and Chris Holm. The zine has a great layout and I'm looking forward to submitting to Feero in the near future and reading what the zine has to offer. Make sure to click HERE for submission guidelines if you're interested in sending in a story or two.

Alright, now onto my shit.

First up, new Short Thoughts on Short Fiction. . .Well, kinda new.

Click right HERE for my mini tribute to the hardass women of noir.

(Ladies, I know I didn't do you justice, but I'll say it right here and now, all of you scare the shit out of me with your amassed talent.)

Click HERE for my reviews of a few single author short story collections I dig

(And if you haven't already, we've been having a pretty lively discussion over at BSC, so if you haven't stopped by and added your two cents, go ahead and add a suggestion or three.)

And one last review link, click HERE for my review of the Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville

(And, yeah, after you read the review, go and buy the book.)

And onto stories.

Click HERE for my 3rd place story in the Watery Grave Short Story Invitational over at the Drowning Machine (And Click HERE for Sophie Littlefield's 2nd place entry and HERE for Hilary Davidson's 1st place piece. BTW, ladies, it was a true pleasure having my ass kicked by you.)

Next up, click HERE for my newest piece over at A Twist of Noir.

And last but far from least is my debut over at Full of Crow right HERE.

And one last bit of info for all my Phoenix peeps.

On Saturday October 3rd, the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, AZ is turning 20 years young and in celebration the store is also having a special event featuring the roll out of Phoenix Noir, which just happens to be edited by the Poisoned Pen's own Patrick Millikin. The anthology received a started review from Publisher's Weekly, so it promises to be one of the very best in Akashic publishings long running anthology series. But. I'll be down at the store around five PM to interview James Sallis (who is only one of the many, many author's who will be appearing at the event.) and then, of course, I'll be sticking around to have my copy of the anthology signed by Patrick and the authors in attendance. Click HERE for all the details and I hope to see you there.

updates & I promise not to mention Dan what's-his-face

Ah, is there anything more satisfying than blogging on your lunch break?

Maybe eating?

Writing fiction?
Reading?

Surfing the web?

Shit, just about everything sounds more satisfying than cranking out a blog post on my paltry fifty minutes of lunch before I punch out, pick up the toddler from Grandma's house and then streak home to read and nap before the wife makes it home. But I know if I don't do this now, it ain't gonna happen later. So I'm just sucking it up and counting the minutes until I can slip on my ear buds, crank some Johnny Cash and head out the front door of the job and out to my piece of shit Saturn.

As you can guess, I'm officially back from vacation. We had a great time and I'm already itching to go back to old SD for some more quality R&R. (Yeah, I've only been back two days and I'm already thinking about another trip, but isn't that the way?) I will say that I feel pretty rested and coming back to the job actually wasn't all that bad.

Okay, let's get down to the shits and giggles portion of my post where I shove a few new links up your nose.

First up, in case you didn't read it over at the Drowning Machine, my friend Michael Moreci had to drop out of the Watery Grave short story invitational, so Cory went back to his magic salad bowl and drew my name out of it.

So now I'm in and raring to throw down with the rest of my short story writing peers.

The major issue is that I already sent out the story I was going to submit to Cory, which means I had to start from ground zero with a new piece. I've been jamming it out over the past few days and I'm almost finished up with it. At this point I can't really say if I'm happy with it or not? (But then again, I'm never 100% on anything I've ever written.) All I'm really hoping for is that it doesn't suck.

If you haven't seen the finalists yet, check out the other 9 bad asses right HERE.

Link #2

New story time.

Check out my first collaborative story, Pictures of You, with Midwestern hard man, Chad Eagleton, over at Darkest Before the Dawn. It was a blast to work with Chad and we're writing on our second piece right now in between other projects and the whole day job thing.

Check out Pictures of You right HERE.

Link #3

Yup, week #3 of Short Thoughts on Short Fiction. Check it out right HERE.

And yes, if you haven't noticed, that guy who wrote that book six years ago that sold, like, a whole shit load of copies and was then made into a really crappy movie staring Tom Hanks finally released a sequel to the book he wrote six years ago.

Needless to say, folks are either flooding the Mcbookstores for their copy or folks (especially us writer or wanna be writer folks.) are burning it--both figuratively and literally--in the streets.

Here's my two cents and then I'll drop it.

Meh.

The book that's got my nips hard as titanium is about to hit in one week and you know the ten years he's made us wait are gonna be totally be worth it.

Yeah, you know what I'm talkin' 'bout:

Come get some!

Super quick post and poetry no one will publish

Yep, still on vacation, gang.

But it's turning into one of those vacations where I'm going to need a vacation to recover from it.

However, despite my sheer physical exhaustion, the old noodle still isn't ready to wind down, so I thought I'd share a quick link and a tiny piece of poesy I composed while hitting (or being hit) the surf yesterday.

First the link.

My second Short thoughts on Short fiction column hit today, so if you haven't already, check it out right HERE.

Okay, now onto the poetry. . .if you can call it that.

Quick warning, folks, I'm no poet.

Yeah, like every youngish writer, I spent my fair share of time mimicking poets like Bukowski and William Carlos Williams (and doing so while I was very, how should I put this. . .loaded would probably be the best word for it.)

But for better or worse, here it is:

If rain is the tears

Of God,

than the Ocean must be

His piss?

if it is, I became one with Him

today

when I swallowed

a stomachful of

His foamy

urine.

Yeah. . . . Time for bed.

My big fat nothing of a blog post AKA I'm on vacation

I'm staring at the computer screen, my fingers want to move, but the brain just isn't willing them into action. Saturday's are usually my hot night. I'll stay up until 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning pounding the machine, writing and revising, maybe watch a movie or two, read thirty or forty pages in between typing and watching whatever unoriginal piece of cinematic trash I've chosen as my Saturday night brain rot. But tonight I'm in San Diego, CA, a half a block away from the Pacific ocean. The air is cool and wet and I've been coated in a light sheen of sweat since we arrived here. I'm not use to the humidity yet and I doubt I will in the seven days that we're scheduled to be here. (I'm a desert guy, folks, I like my weather hot and dry.)

Not that I'm complaining.

Other than the obligatory visit to Seaworld and loose plans to hang with Jimmy Callaway, I've got shit to do except revising 75 or so pages of manuscript and parking my fat ass on the beach. But I guess that's why they call it vacation. You ain't suppose to do anything but rest and relax and be thankful you don't have to get up to an alarm for a few days.

But since it's Saturday night, I just can't help myself, even if I'm tired as all get out, I still have to hit the machine, even if it is to write about nothing other than being tired and not being able to stop myself from writing.

Anyway, here's a couple of pieces of news to pass along.

First up, much like myself, Jed Ayres is a complete fucking maniac for James Ellroy and it goes without saying that the brother is chomping at the bit to get his grubby, greasy fingers on a copy of the Dawg's newest opus, Blood's a Rover. But St. Louis' second favorite pervert is so excited that he's running a contest and giving away swag in celebration of BAR's release. Click HERE for all the details

Business at hand #2

In case you haven't been paying attention to Corey Wilde's updates regarding the Watery Grave short story invitational, things are starting to heat up just a wee bit as far as the competition is concerned, and not just because Patti Abbott and Sandra Seamans (which has already got me shaking in my literary boots a wee bit.) threw their hats into the ring, but because none other than Sophie Littlefield has decided she wants a shot at $25 bucks and bragging rights that she bitch slapped the shit out of 10 of the best writer's on the web.

So, yeah, I'm really starting to think I'm not going to make the initial cut for this thing? Oh well if I don't, because I know the ten writer's who do make it are going to put out some hard charging, balls to the wall crime fiction in order to grab the #1 spot. But if you're still interested in getting in on this thing, you've only got three more days to get the link to your published story into Corey, which you can do right HERE.

Alrighty, folks, that's it for me, I got to get busy staring at the walls and pretending that I'm actually going to accomplish something tonight.

A cool contest and everyone's a critic, even me

Alright, folks, I'm going to make this quick, because I'm writing this blog post on my lunch hour, and, honestly, I'd rather be working on stories rather than blogging. But, I do have a couple of links I want to pass along to you, so I'll make this quick, brutal, and to the point.

Okay, first off, in case you didn't know about it, Eric Beetner's first novel with collaborator JB Kohl

One Too Many Blows to the Head is about to hit and in celebration of the novels release, Eric and JB are running a contest where you have the chance to win a whole shitload of free signed books plus the chance at some publishing glory. So make sure to head on over to Eric's blog right HERE to find out all of the details. I'm 99% sure I'll be participating in the contest, so all of you motherfucker's be warned right here and now.

And now for my second link.

Okay, if you haven't seen it yet, I am now writing for BSCreview and I've taken over the Short thoughts on Short Fiction column from Brian Lindenmuth. So go ahead and take a look at my first column right HERE after the jump. . .

A quick note & a big FAT retraction

Yeah, I know I said I wouldn't be back for awhile, but I thought I'd do a quick pop in to pass along two quick pieces of news and then I'm gone, maybe? Alright, first the news and then the retraction. Corey Wilde of the review blog, the Drowning Machine is running an short fiction contest that he's calling the Watery Grave invitational. The contest is pretty unique because you essentially have to apply in order to compete. Here's the deal: If you've had a short story 2500 words or less published within the calender year in a zine, Corey wants you to e-mail him a link to the story. (And it has to have been published, not self published on your blog.) What Corey is then going to do is select 10 author's to write an original short story of 2500 words or less and he'll then select the top three of the bunch and award them a cash prize. Make sure to get your links in quick, because anytime a contest like this pops up where there's cash involved, us money hungry short story writer's tend to pop up out of the wood work. (Shit, 25 bucks is a brand new hardback.) Go HERE for all the details.

Now for the retraction it seems that I jumped the gun just a wee bit regarding the demise of Crime Always Pays. It seems due to popular demand, Dec is going to keep the blog going with weekly posts. So go right HERE to read Mr. Burke's newest piece on the isle of Erie's other Declan, Shamus nominated Declan Hughes.

Good night.