Books & Stories you should be reading tuesday

Tuesday night.

Shit.

I'm just about as tired as you can get. My head feels like its floating around in the clouds somewhere and the body is firmly planted like a stone two or three hundred feet underground. 

This is pretty much the first night in about ten days that I've had completely to myself and I can barely lift my fingers high enough above the keyboard to type. 

I know it's not going to be a productive night.

I know I'm going to sit here at my little corner of the couch staring 

at the laptops flickering screen and not do much of anything but stare. Maybe I'll 

pop in over at Twitter or Facebook or Carol Parker's blog, That Killing Feeling, to stare at the pictures of hot chicks with guns she posts and try to get caught up on her screenplay in progress.

Maybe?

But then again, maybe I should try to be at least a little productive? Maybe I should go over to old Bloody Knucks and pass on some links and book tips? Yeah, that sounds good.

Okay, first to the links:

A Twist of Noir is huge favorite around these parts, (And not just because Christopher stuck a 

money order in the mail for me today.) but since the end of the March contest, Christopher has been releasing a deluge of new stories including the newest one from good friend of Bloody Knucks, Patti Abbott. As usual, Mrs. Abbott just plain creeped me out and broke my heart all in 

the same breath with On Paladin Road. Check it out if 

you haven't already.

And speaking of creepy, another great friend of Bloody Knucks, Greg Bardsley, has a new one up at 3 AM magazine called Somekind of Rugged Genius. As you can usualy expect from Mr. Bardsly, the story will make you giggle like a school girl and barf like a high school cheerleader with a middle finger shoved down her throat all in the same sentence.

Alright, onto the books:

First up is The Coldest Mile by Tom Piccirilli. I've long been promising myself that I would write a review of this excellent follow up to Piccirilli's 

  The Cold Spot for a pretty long time now, but I think this is about as close as I'm going to come to accomplishing this. Let me just tell you this, if you're a 

fan of Richard Stark's classic Parker novels, you will absolutely love Piccirilli's second installment in what I hope will be a trilogy.

Speaking of Parker, the University of Chicago Press has reissued the first six 

Parker novels in handsome trade paperback editions. I just finished up The Man With the Getaway Face a couple of days ago and I'm planning on starting the Outfit in the next couple of days. Stark is a huge favorite of mine from back in the day when I was a teenager, so cruising through these books has been like taking a trip down memory lane of back when I was a lonely, lonely teenager.

And Last but far from least is Rogue Males by Craig McDonald. No this isn't the newest Hector Lassiter novel, but a great collection of interviews with various crime writers. I started it right as my family got into town so I haven't had much of a chance to really get into until after I got home from work today. But let me tell you this, if you want to learn a thing or two about the craft of crime writing, I really can't think of a better place to start. Besides, the James Crumley and extensive Daniel Woodrell interview are worth the price of admission alone. Also, Craig let me know that he was retiring from interviewing other writer's to concentrate on his own fine novels, which, after reading the first three interviews in the book, I find this more than a little disappointing, but understandable.

Anyway, I'm feeling much better now and actually feel like doing some writing. Unfortunately it's 9 PM and my 4 AM wake up call is right around the corner.

Shit.

Good Night.

Another one going out to the Homies, kind of. . . .

So I'm laying in bed on a Saturday night at 10:30 PM.

I can't remember the last time I was in bed on a Saturday night at 10:30. But the weekend has been very busy with family fun, (My brother, sister-in-law, and niece flew into Phoenix last night.) and I'm just about wrecked from running around all day and waking up at 5:30 in the morning on top of that. So I've decided to call it day and type up a quick blog post before I pick up my copy of the Man with the Getaway face and the wife shakes me awake and tells me to stop snoring.

But before all that, I wanted to plug a few more links concerning my stuff and push some Homies stuff as well.

Okay, first I'll depense with my stuff. In case you don't know about it, Brian Lindenmuth from Bookspot Centeral has started running a series of Q&A's with short story writer's called Conversation's with the Bookless. The Q&A's are going to run 30 days. Three have gone up so far featuring Sandra Seamans, Anoyonmous-9, and your's truly. Go ahead and take a gander if you haven't already. We got to give it up to Brian, the man's really been going above and beyond for the short crime fiction crowd lately.

Alright, item #2: Elaine Ash has posted the next draft of my story, Life on the Mesa, over at her blog. It contains both my original rewrite and the rewrite with her edits. I'll admit that I haven't had a chance to take a look at it today (It posted last night and all I really had time to do was post a link on my Facebook page.) but I'll be taking a look at both once the family is gone and my house belongs to me again. I am really looking forward to it. Elaine is an excelent editor, so I know her edits will have only improved the story. But go ahead and have a look yourself and let me know what you think?

Item #3: If you haven't figured it out by now, me and old Bloody Knucks are pretty big fans of Frank Bill. So when the man has a new story up, I'm more than happy to push the dude's stuff. So go on and take a look at his new one at Beat to a Pulp and give Tweakers a read.

Item #4 Yeah, I'm also a big fan of Jedidiah Ayers and his blog Hardboild Wonderland. I'm also a big fan of the guy he's interviewing this week, Kyle Minor. Just in case you don't know who Mr. Minor is, take a look at his story, They Take You, over at Plots with Guns #3. The was one of the best short pieces from last year: Freaking breath taking good.

Anyway folks, the wife just nudged me to turn off the light.

Goodnight.

Oh what a perfect day. . . .

I woke up this morning with a smile on my face.

No particular reason. Well kind of no reason other than it being a Friday morning and I wasn't getting up at my standard 4 AM because I didn't have to be at work, so I got to sleep until six. 

Anyway, I got up and crept downstairs with the dog, let him out, drank a cup of coffee and enjoyed the still and quiet of my predawn living room. The baby was up 30 minutes later, which was awesome because she actually let me have those 30 minutes to myself. (Normally she's up and ready to get out of her crib as soon as she hears me stir.) I got her ready to go to day care and she was in absolutely awesome mood. I got her and the wife off to work and then Grandma Joann came out of hiding, (My mom's been staying with us the past week, and the kiddo goes absolutely buggy if Grandma is around and won't leave the house unless Grandma comes with her.) came down stairs, and we had a nice breakfast before heading out to my Mom's future retirement apartment (My mom's finally moving out here to AZ, which the family's thrilled about.) for the official tour. Afterward the tour, we drove over to both me and my mom's favorite used bookstore, Bookman's, where my mom insisted she buy me a mountain of new books. (Scored a shit load of Larry Brown and pristine copy of In the Miso Soup.)

After the bookstore we went and picked the baby up from day care, had lunch, drove home and both me and the baby went down for a two hour long nap.

A Nap, on a Friday, awesome.

Next up, I walked to the mail box and found that the Mail person had left me an Amazon delivery containing I was Dora Suarez by Derek Raymond and Last Days by Brian Evenson.  

Walking back to the house, I thought to myself, how can this day get any better? Seriously, awesome book scores and a mid-day, work day nap, that's pretty much downright perfect in my book.

But then I got home where Grandma was reading the baby Yummy Cookies for the 100th time in 7 days, and I went upstairs and had this little e-mail from Christopher Grant waiting for me:

Keith,  It is my sad duty to tell you that you were up against Sandra Seamans (Yeah, Sandra scares me.) and 

you were up shit creek without a paddle.  It is also my sad duty to tell you that you won the fucking contest!  It came down to you and another author and IN THE SHOWER, THINKING was one  of the two that had two votes but inverted results.  I sent a request for  the third judge to please choose one over the other on Wednesday night and I  still haven't heard back from that judge.    So, this morning, I made the executive decision to make a choice.  And that choice was to flip a coin.  Heads, you won!  Since I made the announcement that I would reveal winners today, I had to  make a decision.  I hope you're not too broken up about taking the win.  All I require from you now is an address and a preference on how you'd like  to get paid.  Personally, I'd prefer sending a money order, as opposed to  $25 or a personal check, but let me know how you feel and I'll send it your  way.  In addition to winning the cash, Aldo Calcagno of Powder Flash Burn and  Crimewav.com has asked me if I would allow the three winners to be podcast.   Considering it is your story and I have always said that the authors retain  the rights to their stories, if you would like to go ahead with the  podcasting, let me know.    This is just more cake on the icing (or is that the other way around?) and  a great way to get your story even further out there.  (I know you have had  one of your stories podcast by Crimewav already to say nothing of stories  posting on Powder Burn.)  Congratulations again!  Christopher

So that little E-mail from Chris just shot me straight into orbit! I had to rub my eyes and read it again another two times before I grasped that I'd actually won the A Twist of Noir Alienation comp. I worked on that story for nearly two months, tweaking it re-tweaking it, think there wasn't a chance in Hell I'd win. But there I was reading that I had.

So, anyway, here's a link to IN THE SHOWER, THINKING. I scored 25 bucks, my third appearance in A Twist of Noir, and my second appearance on CrimeWaV.com.

Fucking sweet

And next up, I get an e-mail from Aldo "the Mystery Dawg" letting me know the next part in my flash fiction experiment, Pervert #16, was live.

Here's the link to Part 2

And to Part 1 if you haven't read it already.

Any way, folks, thanks for listening to me squeal like a teenage girl.

Cheers, bitches.

(PS. Yes, I apologize for calling all of you bitches.)

A quick one about the Elaine Ash Challenge

Anyway folks, the final (hopefully) draft of my story, Life on the Mesa, from the Elaine Ash challenge has been completed and copies of the story have been sent out to both Elaine and one of the zines that expressed an interest in publishing the final product. The re-write and the challenge were very much a learning experience for me and I want to thank everyone who participated. And as Sandra Seaman's says, I owe all of you a great big Snoopy Dance

This One's going out to the Homies! The Easter edition

It's Easter weekend, gang, and what this weekend means for yours truly, is that my overall writing/reading time will be severely curtailed due to family obligations and visiting relatives. (My mom drove in from California yesterday and will be spending the week and my brother and his family will be here soon.) Not that I won't be writing, I'll just be pulling the hour here, an hour there routine, and chances are I won't be doing much in the way of blogging.

But I figured I'd stop in to old Bloody Knucks and raise a glass or two to some friends who's little bastard short story children are raising Hell all over the Internet.

First up is Frank Bill.

Yeah, Frank's been all over the place for the past year or so, and this week has been particularly kind to the man. First up, to start the week off, Frank made his second appearance in Pulp Pusher and then the guy gets himself the first ever double issue of Beat to a Pulp (The link's not live yet folks, the "Double Bill" of Frank Bill won't be going live until Sunday, but make sure to check out the other cool stories already posted there.) and last but not least, the brother went ahead and started himself a blog. Frank's little piece of the Internet pie is called Frank Bill's House of Internet Grit and looks like it's going to be pretty damned entertaining.

Alright, next up, I'm sure you noticed last week, but if you didn't, the thirtieth issue of Thuglit went live and as usual the zine is its usual super special self, but what else makes the issue extra special like a short bus of psychotics singing ring-around-the rosy is Screenwriter/short story writer/media blogger extraordinaire Jedidiah Ayres

makes his second appearance in Thuglit with his story 1998 was a bad year. It's the only story in the issue I've had a chance to take a gander at yet, but the issue looks pretty solid overall.

Also, as you know, me and Old Bloody Knucks are pretty big fans of A Twist of Noir

e-zine, largely because Christopher publishes some of the best Noir/Crime stories on the web right now. (Plus he's just a pretty all around nice guy.) But I tend to get really excited when Twist puts up stories by Homies like my man Chad Eagleton.

Me and Chad appeared in the debut issue of Bad Things. His stories are always entertaining as Hell, so give it a gander when you get the chance.

Alright, two more things and then I'm gone.

First: Geoff Eighinger, editor of Crooked e-zine and Eastern Standard Crime is a huge wrestling fan, and the man also writes a wrestling fantasy league blog called ACE

and the man turned me and Paul Brazil into a tag team called the Wise Guys. Check out the Carnage of April Showers HERE

And, Aldo "the Mystery Dawg" has created a new URL for Darkest before the Dawn

the new site looks awesome so make sure to check it out!

And it wouldn't be a proper blog post without pushing my own stuff.

Recently over at Patrick Shawn Bagley's blog, a fierce debate was held on the overall value of flash fiction

Now I'm not going to restart the debate, but what our little discussion did was get me thinking about flash fiction and about stretching the overall boundaries of the sub-genre. So, most likely starting this Easter Sunday, I'll start my little experiment based off of THIS story.

Anyway, gang, cheers and all that happy shit.

Still Pimping the Challenge. . .But, right now, some amatuer thoughts on Publishing

So if you haven't been over there already, go ahead and take a peak at Elaine Ash's blog for some fine writing on Frank Bill's part and take a look at his horrible first attempt at writing a Query letter. (Yeah, folks, I'm pretty much going to be pimping the experiment all weekend.) 

But before I started in on finishing up a couple of  stories I've been working this week,  I thought I'd wind down after a fairly stressful day at the job and at the same time wind myself up to write with a quick blog entry.

So I was looking through the comments in the current challenge and writer/blogger Charles Gramlich  had this to say about Frank Bill's excerpt:

"What I see is a kind of experimental word play and sentence structure. I can see why small press magazines might like this but the big publishers are notoriously conservative and this might be an issue with them."

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not going to bitch about Charles here. Frank does have a very experimental style. I like it. Frank's the type of writer who isn't afraid to write how he wants to write and in my very humble opinion it makes his stories highly readable, (I can name more than a few authors around the web--Abbott, Bagley, Ayres, Bardsly--who are doing the exact same thing.) but the question is, would an editor at one of the major New York houses go for Frank's style?

Chances are. . .No.

 

It sucks, but it's true. Charles says it straight up: The big publisher's are notoriously conservative.  And, well, I might be shooting myself in the foot here when I say this, (I doubt it, but I just might.)but it's my belief that this conservatism is straight up killing the publishing industry. At least the big New York houses.

If your like me, a good portion of your disposable income goes towards buying books. It might sound kind of geeky, but I more less live and breathe books. But when I look at my most recent purchases, and the publishers of those purchases: St. Martins, Bleak House, Serpent's Tail, Hard Case Crime, Dell.

Only two titles from major publishing houses, why is this?

No, I'm not your average reader, I tend to like material that's a little more challenging. 

I don't like vampires, I don't like boy wizards, (or any kind of wizard for that matter.) I don't like write-by-the numbers political/forensic/legal thrillers, I don't like sentimental weepers meant to invoke pity or reinforce my faith in humanity. I don't do chic lit, or guy- whatever- the- hell- they-call-the-male equivalent of chic lit, and I don't do (fictionalized) memoirs.

But for some reason, the major houses think this is all that the "average" reader wants. The average reader wants the same thing over and over again, only slightly reworked and recycled by another writer, until the average reader is sick of whatever they were briefly interested in and move on because they've become so  inundated with the recycling of "product".

So they move down the aisle of their local Mcbookstore and pick up another book with an interesting cover, read the back,  decide that it sounds interesting, pay for it, possibly enjoy it, and then they recommend it to a friend, and goes on from there.

There's no marketing involved in this, but yet, the major publishing houses spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions marketing, trying to create trends, instead of just letting it grow through word of mouth.

But here's the other thing that I think is wrong with the major publishers.

I don't think it's being run by people who simply love books, I think it's being run by marketers who think they have to compete with video games, DVD's, movies, television. . .They feel that the only way to make money is by building brand names out of their authors.

Anyway, I'm starting feel like I'm rambling, and my story is starting to draw me away more and more so I'll wrap things up with one more plug.

I imagine Elaine will be posting the transcript of her and Frank discussing how to go about writing the new query letter tomorrow or Sunday, so get on over there and blast Elaine with some questions

Cheers, folks

 

Part Two of the Elaine Ash challenge is Live

So it's 5:30 in the morning here in AZ.

I'm working on my first cup coffee and some minor admin. stuff and half listening to a conversation a few of my co-workers planning a team breakfast.

And as is my usual early morning routine, I check my e-mail, and I'm greeted by this face:

In case you don't know who this is, this is my man Frank Bill. Frank has appeared in such zines and print publicatins as Thuglit, Plots with Guns, Pulp Pusher, Darkest Before the Dawn, , Talking River review, Hardboiled, and Lunch Hour stories.

If you read this little slice of Internet meat pie on a regular basis or follow me on Facebook, you'll know me and Frank are like Peas and Carrots. Plus, I really dig Frank's writing style and the vivid characters he crafts.

Frank also happens to be the subject of Part #2 of Elaine Ash's Fiction challenge.

Unlike my part of the challenge where Elaine and I worked on improving a story, with Frank's end of the challenge, Frank and Elaine are working on writing the type of Query letter an agent/publisher will actually take notice of instead of just chucking the letter and sample chapters into the out box.

So, if you're like me and you're planning to start shopping your first novel and are more than little intimidated/mystified with the prospect of writing a query letter, cruise on over to Elaine's blog and take a look at the sample pages of Frank's early novel and Frank's original Query letter and remember to post some comments