Nightfalls

I'm thrilled to be part of Nightfalls, an anthology from editor Katherine Tomlinson, who edited the dearly departed Dark Valentine Magazine. This one is all about the apocalypse, a great concept for a collection. So many of my favorite authors in here too--Nigel Bird, AJ Hayes, Jimmy Callaway, Patti Abbott. Snatch it up on Amazon straight away.

On another note, Matt Funk has a knockout story at All Due Respect, "His Girl." With so many hold up stories out there, you might wonder how this could be original, but trust me that it is. Funk is always great, but this one of my favorites of his. The struggle for power between these players and an unexpected yet believable twist make for great storytelling. 

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."

The Driver's Guide to Hitting Pedestrians

Andersen Prunty's The Driver's Guide to Hitting Pedestrians has to be one of the finest single-author collections of bizarro out there.

The cover and Prunty's hilarious description sold me on the book right away. Then I read it and that was good too. I make smart decisions.

Anwyay, the title story is a wonderful bit of macabre about a contest to see who can injure the most pedestrians. The contest comes complete with an oddball set of rules and a desperate, deranged cast of characters. This story is probably the closest to a standard narrative in the whole book, but it's still wild, weird, and fatalistic.

 "The Laughing Crusade" might be my favorite. After finishing his treatise on the New Anarchist Revolution, a man retreats to his back porch for a beer and a cigarette. He soon stumbles upon the fact that the entire neighborhood is filled with people maniacally laughing and that they're going to crush all the non-laughers. The ending is truly disturbing--images I won't soon forget.

"Princess Electricity" is a surreal journey into a world where one buys loaves of bread with 10 ideas or gets a job by having the name Terry. And some random girl controls all of the electricity.

Every story in here is the real deal--unpredictable, imaginative, often funny. I like the variety in this collection--some of the stories lean toward horror, others toward fantasy, others are straight bizarro. Prunty's an author I can't get enough of.

Death Takes a Snow Day by Cindy Rosmus

I like writers who know their strengths and play to them. Cindy Rosmus is one of those writers.

Her short story collection, Death Takes a Snow Day, is all about that wonderfully fucked up state, New Jersey. Jersey hit men, Jersey bars, Jersey relationships. The setting becomes a full-fledged character, present on every page.

Rosmus maintains a focus on dysfunctional relationships between men and women throughout. Sometimes a wife is hiring out the murder of her husband. Sometimes a woman is in love with a man she knows is evil. Every scenario is doomed from the start. If noir characters fall from the curb to the gutter, then Rosmus is a noir writer.

Yet, unlike many noir writers, Rosmus crafts sympathetic narrators--people who are trying to do their best. But in Jersey, your best isn't enough.

Death Takes a Snow Day is genuine fiction you need to read.

At All Due Respect -- Richard Godwin

Richard Godwin's got a feel-good love story over at ADR, "Atrocious Acts." It's the kind of feel-good love story that ends with a lot of death.

Godwin has one of the most distinctive voice in crime writing, so you'll want to check this one out.

All Due Respect Anthology Submissions Open

I'm reopening All Due Respect submissions for the zine and for an upcoming anthology.

I'm looking for the same thing for both the zine and the anthology: gritty, no-nonsense crime fiction, 1000-5000 words.

The collection will be released in early 2013 by Full Dark City Press. They're open for longform submissions as well, so check that out too. 

Send your stories to allduerespectcrimeblog@yahoo.com. Please let me know if it's a simultaneous submission. I'll consider any story submitted for both the zine and the collection.

Submit, or a middle-aged white guy from LA who's mad about not being able to get breakfast at a fast food restaurant will hunt you down.

They Had Goat Heads by D. Harlan Wilson

"I go to a movie and notice that I'm starring in it. I don't remember shooting the movie, let alone auditioning for the part. I am not an actor." -- D. Harlan Wilson, from "The Movie That Wasn't There"

They Had Goat Heads is a masterpiece of the surreal. It's the kind of short fiction collection that hangs together perfectly. Each story is brilliant on its own, but together they resonate beautifully. Wilson blends micro, flash, and short stories to great effect.

The result is chaos--a world where you no idea which way is up or down. You expect to be assaulted by elbows, giraffes, and monster trucks. At the same time. Or at separate times.

Summarizing the plots of these stories is pointless. It's safe to say that you'll go for a strangely pleasing ride in each.

Instead, I'll drop in some random lines:



"'Dad's dead,' said my father. 'I better put him in the freezer.'" -- from "Fathers & Sons"


"Timeless lint blizzards should be wrangled and punished with the same efficiency and enthusiasm as cautious men. The fact is...

...Lithuanian tourists cannot be trusted." -- from "The Kerosene Lantern Tour"


"When he finished telling the story, he left my office.

He came back, told me the same story, and left again.

He cam back again and told the story over, pausing to emphasize the importance of attention-grabbing introductions.

He left.

He came back a forth time and told the story over, twice, back to back." -- from "The Storyteller"

Octopope!

Octopope! is a great example of a book that sets rules and sticks to them.

It is a also a great example of a book about octopi selecting a new pope.

Yep, that's what it's about. They drink, they swear, they randomly pick a new pope by stuffing a bunch of names into a hat. They pick who they think is a dud and then it turns out he is awesome... and then it turns out he is a dud.

John Smallberries tells us none of the "why" and sticks to the confines of this beautifully simple and nutty premise.

This is a short, fast, and hilarious read. 

As soon as I saw the name, I said "Hell yes!" I said the same thing after reading it.

At All Due Respect: Benoit Lelievre

Benoit Lelievre is up at All Due Respect with a tough boxing tale straight from the streets of Oakland, California. Check out "Droppin' Plates."