At All Due Respect -- Tom Pitts

Over the last year, I became one of the many fans of Tom Pitts. He's at All Due Respect this issue with a story about the San Francisco underground, "Soldier Boy," and has another in the upcoming ADR anthology, "The Biggest Myth."

Five You Can't Miss -- Jane Hammons

Dedication
Smokelong Quarterly
Stephen Graham Jones
I love the incantatory prose and the way the events are listed to create a sense of dread. The repetition of "This is to . . ." is hypnotic: we can not look away.

Speaking French in Kurtz Territory
Atticus Review
Guinotte Wise
Stories in which the setting is a character are high on my list of favorites. The descriptions of the Marais des Cygne wild life refuge in Kansas with its "womb-warm weirdass water" where the characters grow and smoke their "LaCygne Green" set the stage for a violent family story. We know from the opening that the narrator fears his father, with good reason, so what happens in the end isn't a surprise. Waiting for it to happen is the killer.

Boys
Josh Medsker
Verbicide Magazine

This story had a similar affect on me as "The Perfect Day," a story by Patti Abbott that I chose for last year's list. The situation the two brothers are in is heartbreaking and realistic. I almost felt as though I was watching a home movie--a terrifying one. The sadness of it lingers.

The Tractor Thief's Jacket
Gita M. Smith
MudJob: Stories and Observations

I'm a big fan of Gita's writing and don't see near enough of it, so I was delighted to come across this story about the "laws of the prairie." The climate is harsh and so are the people. The narrator invites us to "Come see our laws in action," and once we read about the dentist with the Polaroid camera, we are anxious to have justice done. The voice was the first thing to hold my attention. The details and setting are also terrific.

Confession
Care Santos
Words Without Borders

Who can resist a story about an author who murders a "cultural journalist" you know the kind "those specialists dealing in rehashed press notes, in the distortion of statements and in the savage copying of previous articles, fished from the Internet and always penned by someone more brilliant." I've been making an effort to read more writing in translation and use the website Words without Borders in one of the classes I teach. I was really delighted to find the "(Non-Scandinavian) Crime" issue this past December.

Bio: Jane Hammons teaches writing at UC Berkeley and also writes stories and essays. Two of her most recent stories, one published in All Due Respect and the other in Protectors, a Lost Children anthology, are part of a longer work in progress. A story inMetazen was nominated for a 2012 Pushcart Prize. She also has an essay forthcoming in the anthology California Prose Directory: New Writing from the Golden State

Five You Can't Miss -- Cindy Rosmus

1) “Riding the Union Pacific” by Kip Hanson, published May 22, 2012, in A Twist of Noir: <http://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/search/label/Kip%20Hanson>

I’m a sucker for “train” stories, and this is the most unusual one you’ll ever read, especially in a noir zine.

2) “Black Velvet” by Jim Wilsky, published Aug. 15, 2012, in Yellow Mama: http://blackpetalsks.tripod.com/yellowmamaarchives/id314.html

I’m also a sucker for stories about Elvis lookalikes, especially when this one’s a sadistic killer.

3) “The Man in the T-Shirt” by Richard Godwin, published Aug. 15, 2012, in Yellow Mama: <http://blackpetalsks.tripod.com/yellowmamaarchives/id295.html>

Godwin’s “don’t miss” story of a voyeur who witnesses a double murder originally appeared in Pulp Metal back in 2011, but I loved it enough to reprint it in my own ‘zine.

4) “The Night Mandy’s Car Broke Down on 539” by Jen Conley, published Aug. 6, 2012 in Shotgun Honey: http://www.shotgunhoney.net/2012/08/the-night-mandys-car-broke-down-on-539-by-jen-conley.html

I love Jen Conley ‘cos she writes like a man. This unsentimental story is a whole new take on the “damsel-in-distress” theme.

5) “New Jersey-Revisited” by Kenneth James Crist, published June 15, 2012, in Yellow Mama: http://blackpetalsks.tripod.com/yellowmamaarchives/id10.html

Barry Wilder’s “paranormal” adventure is a tribute to a local Bayonne, NJ hero, who died in March of 2012.   Rest in peace, Jack!

Five You Can't Miss -- Katherine Tomlinson

I've always read a lot of short stories, but thanks to my participation in Brian Lindenmuth's "365" Short Story Challenge, I read even more this year, and I read more widely than I would have on my own. Crime fiction remains my first love, but speculative fiction has always run a close second. This was a really good year for speculative fiction and the three spec fic stories I've included have a lot in common--beautiful language, lovely imagery and a sense of the magical. The other two stories use humor to fantastic effect and I've found that's difficult to pull off.  So here are five terrific stories by five great writers:

"Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu--This story (and Liu's work in general) has won a slew of awards, including this year's Nebula for short story. It is completely magical, a bittersweet story of a mother and a son. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. You can read it online here. You can read more of his work here.

Link for the story: http://escapepod.org/2012/05/17/ep345-the-paper-menagerie/

Link for more of his stories:  http://www.freesfonline.de/authors/Ken_Liu.html

"The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees" by E. Lily Yu--This story was nominated for this year's Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards.  We'll see her work nominated again and soon. This story has a fantastic premise rooted in fact (she keeps bees) and the language she uses is gorgeous.  It was published on Clarkesworld Magazine and you can read it here.

Link for the story: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/yu_04_11/

"Letter from the Understudy" by Kathryn Simonds--The author is an award-winning poet and short story writer based in London. In this story an understudy writes to the director of a play, complaining about the leading man and apologizing for his actions in regards to the narcissistic twit. It’s funny and tragic at the same time. You can read the story here.

Link for the story: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LettUnde.shtml

“Worlds like a Hundred Thousand Pearls” by Aliette de Bodard--This is the first story I’ve ever read by the speculative fictionista and it won't be the last. In this story a bereaved parent is offered a choice and the consequences of that choice are terrible. You can read the story here, and you can sample her other works at the free speculative fiction online site.

Link for the story:

http://dailysciencefiction.com/hither-and-yon/the-numbers-quartet/aliette-de-bodard/worlds-like-a-hundred-thousand-pearls

Link for her entry in the free speculative fiction online site: 

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/DeatScra.shtml

"Death by Scrabble" by Charlie Fish--The word that comes to mind when you read this story is "clever," the kind of clever that you can only pull off with a lot of skill. I found this story on the East of the Web site (read it here) so I don't know exactly when it was written, but it's the kind of story that should be anthologized and taught in English class. 

Link: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/DeatScra.shtml

Five You Can't Miss -- AJ Hayes

 I went down to the night side this year (Like Bonnie Raitt says in that song: Down where it's tangled and dark. Way on into it, baby. Down where your fears are parked.) 'cause that's where Noir belongs. Horror too. Threw in a prediction also. And a donut.

(okay, I lied about the donut)

The Wait by Chris Benton at A Twist of Noir.

Brutal poetry of the human soul in agony. Nobody writes that dark music better than Chris Benton. http://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/

Santa's Crack by Richard Godwin at the Yellow Mama Christmas edition.

Another savage tale of a different kind of Santa Claus by a master of horror.

http://blackpetalsks.tripod.com/yellowmama/id904.html

Smiling Cyrus by Lily Childs at Thrillers Chillers and Killers

Lady Death at full steam. You'll never again hear silver bells tinkling without a chill running up your spine.

http://thrillskillsnchills.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-10-30T21:02:00Z&max-results=10

(Another pair of the 'zines top line editors who let loose in the same issue of TK'nC with scary good stories of their own are: David Barber in, Dare To Dream and Col Bury with his, Writing On The Wall in the same issue.)

Return Of The Tingler by Paul D. Brazil at Shotgun Honey

PDB takes a walk down the cinema memories highway and proves, in his own unique style, that the pencil is a mighty weapon indeed when used in conjunction with the legendary electro-ass shock of B movie fame.

http://www.shotgunhoney.net/2012/12/return-of-the-tingler-by-paul-d-brazill.html

The Deviation Jones Trilogy by Christopher Grant at All Due Respect.

Outlandish heroine in a fever dream world, Devi Jones will kick you where it hurts, throw you off a roof, steal your car, call your Momma names and still make you forget all about Pam Greer.

http://www.all-due-respect.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-04-02T15:25:00-07:00&max-results=1

(Prediction. The next thing in fictionland: Bizarro is launching an attack. And with soldiers like Godwin, Grant, Rhatigan Callaway and dozens of other writing gods joining the Army of WTF, it's liable to make a great big noise in 2013)

BIO:

AJ Hayes makes stuff up and writes it down. Guess that's it.

Five You Can't Miss 2012 -- James Everington

What Water Reveals - Adam Golaski

Adam Golaski was probably the best author I discovered in 2012, and this story is just one of the many highlights from his Worse Than Myself collection. Recommended to all who love intelligently written, evocative horror.

The Room Upstairs - Sarah Pinborough

Another author new to me, and another where I think I must have been missing out. This is from the haunted house anthology House Of Fear, and I loved the way the story dovetails together the reality of the haunting and its metaphorical aspects, so that whether the ghost is 'real' almost doesn't matter. The ending is inevitable (and brilliant) either way.

Love Songs On The Radio - Iain Rowan
This comes from Iain Rowan's 52 Songs, 52 Stories project, which basically involved Iain writing a story based on a song title every week for the entire year. Iain's taste in music is almost as good as his writing, but he also opened up the blog to requests, and this song was mine. It's by Mojave 3, it's a beauty, and Iain's story really does it justice.

The Long Sheet - William Sansom

I read this in the absolutely vast anthology The Weird; it's a truly odd story about people forced to spend their life wringing dry a vast sheet of linen. The phrase Kafkaesque is chucked around a lot, but this story truly is Kafkaesque (or perhaps Kafka is Sansom-esque). 

Mal De Mer - Robert Dunbar

From the author's Martyrs & Monsters collection, from which I could have picked a number of different stories for inclusion here. This story certainly features some monsters, but exactly how many and who they are, is another question. As is that of whether it features any martyrs, too...

Bio: James Everington reads more short stories than can be healthy. Somewhat predictably, he also writes his own. He rambles on about both those he's read and written on his Scattershot Writing blog.

Five You Can't Miss 2012 -- Naomi Johnson

I didn't read as many short stories in 2012 as in years past, yet I still had some difficulty trimming this must-read list to just five. Stories you really should read, for their originality and their can't-get-it-out-of-you-head quality are:

THE BRIDGE PARTNER, by Peter S. Beagle, appears in print in The Best American Mystery Stories 2012, edited by Otto Penzler and Robert Crais. This is a brilliant tale about a timid woman whose new bridge partner openly wants to kill the mousy creature. But stress can transform some people. And reincarnation is a bitch.

Also in print, in the premiere issue of GRIFT magazine, is Todd Robinson's PEACHES, a moving story about a transvestite babysitter who knows you can’t go home again, but has to, just one last time.


In Patti Abbott's IS THAT YOU?, published online at All Due Respect, a cafe owner tries to help out a homeless teenager. This is a quiet tale, almost gentle, that leaves the reader either screaming or crying.

Available in digital format only is Roger Smith's ISHMAEL TOFFEE. Written in the harrowing, cinematic style that is a hallmark of Smith's prose,  this is the story of a murderous ex-con who wants, with all his being, to be able to ignore the pleas for help coming from a little girl being sexually abused by her father. Getting involved will get him killed. But the person who can turn a blind eye to a desperate child is already dead.

And I came across a paperback anthology from 1977, Clarion SF, edited by Kate Wilhelm, that contains a stunning science fiction gem from bestselling crime fiction writer Robert Crais, WITH CROOKED HANDS, a poignant tale about what one man will endure and sacrifice for beauty. I have no links that will guide the interested reader to this story. Used bookstores and online sites such as Alibris are your best bets for finding this book.

Naomi Johnson is the on-again/off-again blogger at The Drowning Machine. Her most recent published story is HERO, about a boy who sees a kind of nobility in killing. You'll find the story in Shotgun Honey Presents: Both Barrels.

Five You Can't Miss 2012 -- Sandra Seamans

There were so many great short stories this year which makes it hard to pick just five, but here we go and in no particular order:

1.  Domestic Violence by Gwen Mullins.  Pank Magazine is full of some of the best short stories around.  "Domestic Violence" just tears your heart out as you step into the life of a battered girl and see the patterns she's building in her life.

2.  Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Art Taylor.  This is such a subtle story about the preparation of a murderous meal that the ending just knocks you off your feet.

3.  Sharing a Ride on a Rainy Morning by Jim Harrington.  Ah, the things we do for love!  One very scary story.

4.  Aftermath by Jake Hinkson.  So often with crime fiction, readers are only shown the crime itself.  Mr. Hinkson takes you one step beyond and reveals what comes after the crime.

5.  Grease Monkey Bokor by Ryan Sayles.  Scary look at a man off his meds.

At All Due Respect -- Travis Richardson

I first read Travis Richardson's work at Shotgun Honey. I was so impressed that I asked him to write one for All Due Respect. He didn't disappoint with "The Wisdom of Soghomon," a slick, brutal piece about Armenian gangsters and a couple of people at the wrong place at the wrong time, and one man who seems to be getting pretty sick of his career choice.  

Five You Can't Miss from 2012 -- Paul D. Brazill

I haven’t done as much online short story reading this year, as I have done in the past. But there are some sites that always deliver. So, I thought I’d pick from those sites some stories from writers that were new to me in 2012 and made immediate impact. All of these stories are lean and mean and deliver short, sharp, shocks.

Fishing by Dyer Wilk at Shotgun Honey.

Dark, intense.

http://www.shotgunhoney.net/2012/11/fishing-by-dyer-wilk.html

A Redheaded Woman by Chris Leek at The Flash Fiction Offensive

Harboiled, funny.

http://www.outofthegutteronline.com/2012/07/redheaded-woman_12.html

Rundown Dog by Gareth Spark at Near To the Knuckle.

Vivid, brutal.

http://www.close2thebone.co.uk/wp/?p=613

The Banyan Tree by Joe Clifford at Near To The Knuckle

Harsh, nasty.

http://www.close2thebone.co.uk/wp/?p=558

A First Time For Everything by Bill Baber at Shotgun Honey

Cruel, gritty.

http://www.shotgunhoney.net/2012/07/a-first-time-for-everything-by-bill-baber.html

Bio: Spinetingler Award nominee Paul D. Brazill has had bits and bobs of short fiction published in various magazines and anthologies, including The Mammoth Books Of Best British Crime 8 and 10,and he has edited the anthologies True Brit Grit & Off The Record 2– with Luca Veste - and Drunk On The Moon 1 and 2. His ebooks Red Esperanto, Death On A Hot Afternoon, 13 Shots Of Noir, Vin Of Venus (with David Cranmer & Garnett Elliot ) and Snapshots are out now, and his novellas The Gumshoe and Guns Of Brixton will be out pretty damned  soon. His blog is here.

Five You Can't Miss from 2012: Chris Rhatigan

Here are my top stories from 2012. Five from the internet (just by chance...) and two more that appeared in publications I edited.

In the coming weeks, writers and editors will be picking their favorites, too, so be sure to check those out.

"The Day We Shot Jesus on Main Street," by Travis Richardson at Shotgun Honey. For some reason, surreal stories involving the Jesus Christ were big with me this year. This story's got a healthy dose of Southern insanity that shoves down your eating pipe.

"Baby Jebus' Big Score," by Heath Lowrance at Pulp Metal Magazine. Baby Jebus as a gangster. I don't think I need to say anything else.

"Blackbird," by Dakota Taylor at Slit Your Wrists Magazine. This guy's only 19 and he's already writing poignant fiction. This story's basically how I remember...except add more meth.

"A Best Friend is the Hardest Thing to Come by," by Ryan Sayles. This guy's quickly becoming one of my favorite writers and this here is what he does best--funny and nasty as hell.

"Waiting Her Chance," by Patti Abbott. I could make a list of just stories she's published this year. But I didn't do that. Anyway, this one is pure Patti--quiet menace, like a snake in a dark cave or some shit like that. 

And here's two I published....

"7 Seconds," by Erin Cole at All Due Respect. Maybe the most suspenseful story I've read since Bradbury's "The Whole Town's Sleeping."

"Kingdom Come," by Kevin Brown in Pulp Ink 2. Another surreal story involving old-time religion... Don't know why that was striking a chord with me this year, but I assure you that this crazy-ass vision of the apocalypse and it's no-good atheist narrator will win you over.

The Best Bizzaro Fiction of the Decade

The problem with an anthology like this is the name. Anything that claims to be the best of an entire decade sets up ridiculous expectations about how good it will be. It also creates problems for the editor--do you try to represent all sides of the genre? If so, will your anthology have any coherency, or will it seem like a grab bag?

In this case, editor Cameron Pierce has mostly represented what I would call the literary side of bizarro. Stories that stick to traditional narrative techniques based in some kind of "weird" element, such as all the characters being animals. There are a few that fall outside of this category, like Kevin Donihe's hysterical "Traveling Dildo Salesman" and a number of speculative fiction pieces, but this brand of story dominates.

My favorite in this ilk is Ben Loory's "The Octopus." The Octopus, who is living an average middle class man's life, is visited by his nephews from the sea and awkwardly interacts with them, eventually leading him to question his decision to move away from home. It's a simple story told in simple language--and its gorgeous in a Ray Bradbury kind of way.

Blake Butler's "We Witnessed the Advent of a New Apocalypse During an Episode of Friends" is as funny as it is strange. It's perfectly executed, with a standard, boring episode of this soul-sucking show becoming more and more disturbing, until it descends into complete chaos. Really, when you think about it, when else could the apocalypse take place other than during an episode of Friends? I first read this story in Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens, and found it even more satisfying on a second read. 

Garrett Cook's "Mr. Plush, Detective" is a hardboiled PI story featuring a man trapped in the body of a teddy bear. He's not the white knight type, but a lowdown, no-good, stab-you-in-the-back-and-take-your-stash PI. It's good, dirty fun and has inspired me to pick up the novel, Jimmy Plush, Teddy Bear Detective.

Anyway, The Best Bizarro Fiction of the Decade is a fantastic compendium that anyone who enjoys this genre should check out.  

At Slit Your Wrists and Drunk on the Moon 2

Slit Your Wrists Magazine is a cool hangout and has featured some very fine fiction. I'm happy to have my story up there, thanks to editor Laramore Black. It's called "Harlot X and the Chestray" and it's straight bizarro, which is the direction my writing has veered toward as of late.

Drunk on the Moon 2, from Pulp Metal Fiction, is also out now, with this slick cover. For those uninitiated, these are stories about Roman Dalton, Paul D. Brazill's werewolf/detective/drunk creation. This edition has entries from the likes of Richard Godwin, Ben Lelievre, and Chad Eagleton.

My story, "The Birds Are Dead," also found its way in there. 

At All Due Respect... and Yellow Mama

Eric Beetner's got this issue of All Due Respect with "A Job for Two," proving that even small-time robberies can go terribly, terribly wrong. Another fine effort from a top crime writer.

And I have a story in the xmas issue of Yellow Mama, "Small Bites." While you're there, be sure to check out work by AJ Hayes, Richard Godwin, Christopher Grant, and Cindy Rosmus.  

Love Me by Danger Slater

Do you like tales of Cold War espionage? Taut psychological thrillers? Science fiction as a metaphor for U.S. foreign policy? How about cute angst-filled teenage vampire toyboys?

Well, too bad. None of those things are in this book.

So reads the description for Danger Slater's debut novel, Love Me, which sets the tone perfectly. Instead of all that crap, Love Me is an epic, inter-dimensional quest for contentment through the eyes of one viking who (some of the time...) lives in a castle constructed from skulls. 

It's absurd and hilarious. While the book brings up big issues--what is the purpose of life? how does one find happiness? what is identity?--thankfully, it never takes any of those questions particularly seriously, because where the fuck would that get us. Mostly Danger Slater is concerned with entertaining and baffling readers as his viking romps through a surreal world. Highly recommended.