CRIMEFACTORY ISSUE #4 IS LIVE!!!!

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

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

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)

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.