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.
Writing's been good, but there never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done that I want to. (But isn't that the way it always is?) Plus the daughter has been feeling a little under the weather off and on all week (Ah, the perils of public pools and preschool.) so the combination of these three factors have made the week drag ass for me.
But it's Friday, (the start of what I consider my real work week.) the weekend is almost
completely free of any organized activities (outside of the obligatory Saturday night dinner with friends and taking the wife's car in for an oil change.) so I figured I'd start off the weekend with a quick visit to old Bloody Knucks before I wade into the hard stuff.
Alright, before I start passing along all the good links and fun news, I figured I'd pass along a bit of bullshit that made me shake my head and mutter, "that sucks." Declan Burke has decided to close up shop on his perennial Irish crime fiction blog, Crime Always Pays. This is particularly sad for me because Dec introduced me to a whole slew of crime novelists and when it comes right down to it, the entire online crime writing community. Dec's blog was always a fun little sublet of the web filled with cool reviews, unique interviews, and goofy contests. But I more than understand Mr. Burke's motivations, writing and family will always come first and if I had to make the same decision, I don't think I'd give a second thought to cutting old Bloody Knucks loose to free up some time. But all the same, hat's off to you and my glass is raised: Thanks for the fun read and all the free books you floated my way. (It still puts a smile on my face when I pulled up to my mailbox on my birthday last year and found all four volumes of David Peace's Red Riding Quartet waiting for me.)
Okay, now on to the fun stuff.
The Private Eye Writer's of America announced the short list for the Shamus award and you can
find all of the nominees right HERE. (Hat tip to Mr. Bill Crider for the listing.) The Shamus awards will be presented at this year's Bouchercon.
Now, for those of you out there who know me know that I'm not the biggest fan of the P.I. genre, but I have to say I was pretty happy to see Dave White's sophmore effort, the Evil that Men Do, included in the best paperback original category. Outside of Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor series and Reed Farrell Coleman's Moe Prager novels, I just don't go near P.I. novels. But Dave's Jackson Donne novels are some seriously engaging books. I read Dave's first, When one Man Dies, in a couple of hours and then went out and immediately picked up the Evil that Men Do. The books are good shit, so if you haven't
picked them up yet, get yourself to Amazon or the McBookstore closest to you (I found both at my local Borders.) and find out what all the hubbub is about. Also, you can find Dave along with the rest of the Twitter mob over at Do Some Damage.
Next up, short stories, and trust me folks, there have been a whole shitload of them over the past week. (Yes, it goes without saying that I'm going to pimp issue 7 of Plots with Guns right HERE. And, folks, thanks for all the great feedback on the issue. It goes without saying that I like both kinds of comments, positive and negative or even in the Meh category, believe it or not this helps me out a lot on what I'm writing and how I'm writing. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to write the kind of story I want, but ya know I don't mind hearing what you really think.)
First up:
Survival Instincts by Sandra Seamans over at PulpPusher (I personally think this is Sandra's strongest effort to date, straight up menacing.)
More stories over at A Twist of Noir than you can shake a dead cat at:
New shit from Jason Hunt and David Price, plus a bunch more that I just don't have the time or patience to list. But it goes to show you what a hot zine (and, yeah, still my favorite of the post
Demolition zines.) ATON is with all the great material that comes through it.
Eastern Standard Crime is also starting to shape up and find its own voice, although, I still think it would have benefited from going with the original PDF format to set itself apart from the herd.
But, hey, a good story is still a good story, right?
Also, incase you didn't notice, the Mystery Dawg himself Aldo Calcagno has slightly changed the formats of his zines PowderBurn Flash and Darkest Before the Dawn. PBF is now Bi-weekly and DBtD is weekly, which I actually think is a good idea on Aldo's part because it allows the reader more time to catch and comment on the stories being featured. What I'm really looking forward to from Aldo is season 3 of CrimeWaV.com, he's promising it's going to be the strongest season ever.
I can't wait, Aldo, so bringing it on, brother!
Okay, so I'm going to switch up gears a little bit for this edition of old Bloody Knucks and focus on a format that I normally don't cover, Comic Books. Like most crime writer's
(at least the male ones.) I am a former comic book geek. I collected comics for 13 years and had well over 3000 books in my collection when I quit cold turkey (Okay, I'm not completely over it, I'll still pick up omnibus editions here and there.) and sold the entire collection in order to fund my early life on the road. But sometimes a particular project catches my eye and makes me want to buy it and one such project is Anthony Schiavino's, Sergeant Zero. The premise and the art look cool as Hell. Plus, Anthony did the whole project DIY style, coming up with the scratch out of his own pocket in order to produce the preview issue of Sergeant Zero. So if you're looking for an exciting new Comic Book talent to spend some time with, you can check out Anthony and his work over at Pulptone.com and you can buy the Sergeant Zero preview over at Indyplanet for the better than low price of a $3.50. Make sure to check it out!
Alright, back to the Crime Fiction.
As you all know, Sophie Littlefield was here in the valley of the sun to promote her first novel, A Bad Day for Sorry. Well, needless to say, I made the 45 minute trip down to the Poisoned Pen to meet and hang out with the young lady for the evening. It was a fun evening filled with some great conversation. Now, I haven't gotten a chance to read a Bad Day for Sorry yet because my wife snapped up the copy I bought as soon as I walk through the door. She's at about the halfway point right now, so I figure I'll get to read it some time in the next week or two, and if the prologue of the novel is any indication, I get the feeling I'm going to really enjoy it. And like every Noir/crime novelist who's been coming through Phoenix lately, I had to sit down with Sophie for a Crider routine. Oh, and if you haven't already, check out Sophie's interview with my favorite Irish beach bum, Kieran Shea over at Pulppusher.
Now, it's going to be a about a month before I attend my next author event at the Poisoned Pen, but I'm telling you right now it is really going to be something special. The event I'll be attending is scheduled for September 18th and will feature Michael Connelly and Reed Farrel Coleman. It goes without saying that Mr. Coleman will be in town promoting his newest effort from Busted Flush Press, Tower. Now, I'm not one to participate in rumors, but there is one going around that a certain. . . . someone may be accompanying Mr. Coleman for the appearance. (Yeah, I know it's a rumor, but how fucking cool would that be?)
Alright, now I've been getting a few e-mails asking me where my Crider routine with Megan Abbott is? Why haven't I posted it yet? Well, here's the deal folks, I downloaded the interview to my computer and then started to upload the video onto Youtube, well, about half way through uploading the piece, the upload stalled and wouldn't continue. I shut down the page and tried doing it again and got the same result. So, what I was able to upload is a partial introduction that was interrupted by Will, the Poisoned Pen's web guy. So here's what I got:
Yeah, I know, I suck.
Anyway, folks, that's what I've got for you tonight, I hope you enjoyed it, because chances are I'm going to take a couple of weeks off from old Bloody Knucks to concentrate on some longer and collaborative projects that I've been working on. But I may pop up to do a little something when a new story hits, plus, I've kind been of itching to do another Forgotten Book Friday review along with reviewing some other books I've read this summer.
I like blogs. In fact, I'd say at least 10% of my casual reading time is dedicated to scanning various author blogs. Some of them I go to just about every day, (I pretty much start off every morning before the day job gets hectic scanning Patti Abbott and Bill Crider's little slices of Internet pie.) others I'll only check out once every couple of days to see if there's an interesting article or interview I may have missed, and some of them I only go to once in a blue moon because a particular piece of writing catches my eye. Today was one of those blue moon days when I decided to head over Sandra Ruttan's blog, on life & other inconveniences. First off, let me tell you that I dig Sandra. I like her novels, I like all the shit she's involved in like Spinetingler and BSCReview. She's a serious asset to the writing community. And no, I'm not here to slam Sandra. I'm here to praise her, and here's why: Sandra's been slapping the living shit out of the complainers lately. Let's face facts, gang, most writers are a bunch of bitches. And this seems to be especially true of crime/mystery writers. It seems to me every time I turn around someone is complaining about some shit or other that just shouldn't even matter, (This is particularly true of a certain social network set up especially for crime/mystery writers that shall remain nameless, but which I refuse to participate in any longer because all that seems to go on there is a handful of writer's complaining about the lack of money in the crime/mystery genre, or how their agents aren't working hard enough to sell their latest James Crumley/Ross MacDonald pastiche. And folks, I know you need to vent sometimes, but seriously give the bitching a rest.) like writer's who normally don't write crime novels having the sheer audacity to tackle the genre. Case in point: John Banville aka Benjamin Black. Case in point: Dennis Johnson Case in Point: Michael Chabon and the newest case in point: Thomas Pynchon. Mr. Pynchon's most recent effort is his (I'm sure) surreal take on the P.I. genre, and there are some folks who're more than a little pissed that America's most reclusive novelist (outside of Salinger, that is) decided to write a crime novel. From a personal stand point, I could care less, in fact, I am down right excited Pychon followed up so quickly after his last effort, Against the Day Same thing goes for the three novelists listed above. True, I'm not the biggest fan of Banville (as far as post structureless novelists are concerned, I'm really more of a Delillo/McCarthy man.) but I do really like his Benjamin Black novels. And I can honestly give a shit less if the man said he was slumming when he was writing as Black. But neither Johnson (who, let's face facts, is a crime writer) or Chabon has stated that they were slumming when they wrote their fine examples of hardboiled fiction. In fact, both writer's have professed a deep love of the genre; and yet, the mystery/crime complainers found a reason to give these two highly (and justly) decorated novelists a rash of shit. What the fuck? And then what pisses me off even more is when the complainers go after crime novelists who decide to try their hand at writing in genres outside of the one they'd become well known in. Truly great writers such as Dennis Lehane, George Pelacanos, James Ellroy, etc., Once again, what the fuck? Yeah, there's a point to all this ranting, gang, and here it is. I don't give a shit. I don't give a shit about genre. I don't give a shit about the little niches we put writers in. As far as I'm concerned, fuck the audience! And fuck the boundaries they try to hold you down with. I don't give a shit what other writers write as long as the author is happy with the end result and tell the best story they can. And I've gotta tell you, every day I'm starting to have more and more respect for novelists like Joe Lansdale and Tom Piccirilli who've never pigeon holed themselves and write whatever the Hell they want. Yeah, they might not have the biggest audiences on the planet (Although they both should, because both gentlemen have some serious chops.) but at least they write the kind of story they want to tell and can care less what the bitchers and the whiners and the complainers want. Whew! Yeah, Sandra's posts got me kind of worked up today, so thanks lady!
Anyway, before I wrap it up for the night, I wanted to throw out a quick plug for an upcoming author event I'll be attending at the Poisoned Pen on August 13th at 7 PM. The event will be featuring Sophie Littlefield promoting her debut novel, A Bad day for Sorry. The Poisoned Pen is billing the event "A night for the Ladies." in their e-mail newsletter. Well, I've got a bit of a surprise for the ladies who'll be attending the event, because Sophie is about as hard-boiled as they come. Seriously, Sophie appeared alongside me and Frank Bill in Pulp Pusher with her story, Granny Panties, back in March and made both me and Frank look like a couple of sissies. My guess is Sophie is going to be scaring the shit out of some suburbanite house wives on the 13th. Yes, I will be there with the web cam and hopefully Sophie will be willing to sit down with me for a minute or two so I can conduct one of my "shirtless" interviews (This is a term the Nerd of Noir came up with--trust me, I'm fully clothed-- personally I still prefer my original title of the Crider routine.) and take a couple of pictures with me as well.
Speaking of Mr. Bill Crider, the gentleman himself ran this little book trailer for Pynchon's newest novel, Inherent Vice, earlier today and I felt it was worth rerunning. So please enjoy. From what I understand, Pynchon is providing the narration.
I usually don't get all excited and bent out of shape when an author interview hits the web, but this one has got me hopping up and down like I'm about to piss myself. Good friend of old Bloody Knucks, Jedidiah Aryes, interviews one of my favorite writer's Donald Ray Pollock over at Jed's site Hardboiled Wonderland. You can check it out right HERE. Don's an amazing writer and I can't say enough good things about his debut short story collection, Knockemstiff. So if you haven't read it already, make sure to beg, borrow, or steal a copy (or maybe you should just buy it, the man's gotta make a living, ya know.) as soon as you can!
What can I say, folks, the summer here in good old Phoenix, AZ is really starting to get to me.
The average temperature for the last few weeks has been hovering well above the 110 mark and you would think that after near living here nearly 15 years I would get use to it? You would think that I might even grow to love the summer heat?
Wrong.
I don't mind it being in the 90's,(we we're pretty lucky this year as far as June was concerned, the temps actually stayed way below the average, hovering around the high 80's and low 90's) that's actually pretty comfortable. It's not go outside and have a picnic in the park weather, but you don't really mind taking a 15 or 20 minute walk in it. But then July rolled around. . .
July was Hell on earth.
Everyday the temps managed to hit at least 115 by 3 o'clock in the afternoon and it never drops below the 100 mark, even after the sun's gone down. (In fact, the current temp at 11:00 PM is 107.)
And now we're at the beginning of August and things are not getting any better.
Usually August is when our monsoon season hits and we get a little relief in the afternoon from a thunderstorm or two.
The monsoons are no where in sight.
No where.
And if we get any kind of cloud cover, it usually dissipates by 11 or 12 and makes the rest of the day a humid mess.
And why, you ask, am I spending so much time fixating on the weather conditions of my adopted home town?
Easy answer: This time of year, all we Phoenicians do is talk about the weather.
My reason: All this heavy weather is making me lazier than a three toed sloth.
Everyday I come home exhausted, sweating, my clothing soaked through and my body begging for a two or three hour long nap. (This usually doesn't happen, if I'm lucky and the baby is cooperative, I maybe get an hour in tops.)
But what the heat is really doing to me is demotivating me, this is especially true when it comes to old Bloody Knucks.
It's not that I'm not writing, far from it, it's just that what little energy I have is being focused on new fiction, both the short stuff and the long stuff.
So I figured I'd take a break from writing both the short stuff and editing the long stuff and pass along some links to my recent stories and other stuff I've been occupying my time with.
First up, my horror story, Marmalade, appeared last week over at Beat to aPulp. I enjoyed toying around with the horror/supernatural genre and have a few more stories along the same vein I'm currently working on and hope to have finished up around the end of September. I'd like to thank David Cranmer and Elaine Ash for running the story and all the good folks who stopped by to comment. (By the way, if you haven't already, Patti Abbott's got a great one over there this week, so make sure to give it a read.)
Next is my new story, What I lost along with my Keys, over at A Twist of Noir. The piece stems from an incident that happened on a hairy commute me and the daughter experienced on the way home from the day job a few weeks back. The story was both fun and kind of terrifying for me to write, but I've got to say I was pretty happy with the overall result.
Also, in the coming weeks (and in some cases, months.) I'll be making my second Plots with Guns appearance in the August issue (Along with Mr. Frank Bill and hopefully Jason Duke), and a appearance in PowderBurn Flash and in September my first every collaborative story (Yes, I'm still keeping the identity of my co-conspirator secret until the story hits.) coming from Darkest before the Dawn in September. (also I'm hoping to have a couple of stories I have over at Bad Things to pop up soon) And last but not least, I'll be appearing in October in the E-zine, Full of Crow and in January, I'll be making my print debut in the Northern Arizona University literary magazine, Thin Air.
And then, well, I'm busting my ass to wrap up a long project I started a few months back that I'm really excited about. . .but more on that as I come a little closer to finishing it up over the next two or three weeks.
But before I wrap it up for the night, in case you haven't seen it yet, the guys I fondly refer to as the Twitter mob (All of them Tweet except for Scott Parker, who I'm sure will be goofing around on the net's second biggest time suck.) have started a brand new group blog called, Do some Damage. It made it's official debut on August 1st and I have to say it's been pretty Goddamn entertaining so far, so make sure to check it out if you haven't already.
Okay folks, I'm whipped, and I have a full day of yard work tomorrow, so good night.
