Crime Factory Con' Challenge

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

PS

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

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

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

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.