All Due Respect Anthology

Submissions are closed for the All Due Respect anthology. Submissions remain open for the zine.

Twenty-seven smoking crime stories for the antho. Patti Abbott, Nigel Bird, Christopher Grant, Alec Cizak, Richard Godwin, and many more. Release date is early 2013. 

Off the Record 2: At the Movies

I have a chat with Luca Veste over here about Off the Record 2, the smashing sequel, appropriately enough, to the first Off the Record. My story in there is titled "Jaws," and it's about a truly psychotic corporate type who goes completely off the rails.

Unfortunately, I busted my Kindle while in the middle of reading this collection. The first several stories I read were quite good, including Steve Weddle's "Windows," a Raymond Carver-ish story that has a quiet desperation about it.

Pubs you should check out

So I want to post a review of the new Needle, but I'm not exactly convinced I will ever receive it here in India, where the postal service is rather unreliable. Anyway, it's a safe bet that you'll be getting your money's worth--CJ Edwards, Court Merrigan, Brad Green, Thomas Pluck, Matt Funk. It's a great lineup for their first double issue.

I also have a story in there, "Creator/Destroyer." It's about a guy who is jealous of the golden boy living across the street. So he murders him and takes over his life. Then things get weird.

I've also found a number of excellent bizarro publications. To be honest, not enough, but some very good ones.

First is Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens. Unfortunately, they folded recently. But you can get all the back issues for cheap on Amazon. This is the best I've seen--Sam Pink, Kevin Donihe, Andersen Prunty, Gina Ranelli. Edited by Bradley Sands. Mostly straight bizarro, a lot of flash, some very good poetry, too.

I've also been enjoying Unicorn Knife Fight, which apparently hasn't been published since 2011 (according to Duotrope). The first story, "Surf Grizzlies," is hilarious.

The Dream People is also quite good. Edited by D. Harlan Wilson.

Phantasmacore seems to straddle the line between bizarro and speculative fiction. "Dying Day" by Michael C. Keith reminds me of a Philip K. Dick story.

I also dig Slit Your Wrists, which publishes a range of dark genres.  "Blackbird" by Dakota Taylor is quite good--and he's only a 19-year-old kid!

Overall, however, it appears that there are not too many venues devoted to surrealist shorts. There is, of course, The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction, which I will probably invest my money in at some point. 

"Parking Tickets" at Linguistic Erosion

For the first time in quite a while, I have a story up on the interwebs. It's at Linguistic Erosion and it's called "Parking Tickets." It's an attempt at low-key bizarro--no ninjas or surfing grizzly bears, just one guy's weird life and a mustache hat.

At All Due Respect: Jane Hammons

Jane Hammons is at All Due Respect with a haunting historical fiction piece, "Dust Clouds." If you like this story, you should check out her other work at A Twist of Noir and Shotgun Honey.

Patti Abbott at Shotgun Honey

Patti's always great, but this  story, for me, is as good as it gets. The menace in her stories is always so quiet--maybe that's why it's so affecting.

Check out "Waiting for Her Chance" at Shotgun Honey.

At All Due Respect: Erin Cole

Erin Cole is a top writer of horror fiction. She's at All Due Respect with one of the most terrifying pieces of crime fiction I've read. You need to read "Seven Seconds."