Interview: Julia Madeleine

Julia Madeleine is a force in the crime fiction world and writes some of the best short stories around, including a disturbing tale in Pulp Ink 2. She's here with us today talking madness, writing, research, and tattoos.

DBK: Many of your short stories are about crazy people. The characters may seem semi-normal at first, but by the end, it's obvious that they're batshit. What draws you to writing about the less-than-sane?

JM: I swear I could be in a room of fifty people and I’ll attract the one wack-job who’s there. But maybe that’s because I love crazy people. They’re so fascinating. I know quite a few of them, got a few in the family. They are an endless source of material for my writing. One of my crazy friends recognized herself in my novel—a brief reference to her showing up to lunch with her mother with a shaved head, wearing a tiara and a feather boa—and laughed out loud. I always feel a little guilty writing people into my stories but they seem to enjoy it when I do.

DBK: How much research do you do for your stories? How about novels?

JM: As much as necessary. I spent hours on research for my novel The Truth About Scarlet Rose, combing through newspaper archives on microfiche down at the Toronto reference library (it takes place in the 80s). But the research was fun. Short stories don’t seem to require too much in the way of research.

DBK: Your work alternates between crime and horror. Do you see yourself as a crime writer, a horror writer, a pulp writer, or just a writer?

JM: Oh, probably a crime writer with a love of noir.

DBK: Whose work are you into right now?

JM: I just finished Don Winslow’s Savages and went to the movie (both are brilliant) and picked up Kings Of Cool. Love his style. I recently read Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. I’ve read all of her books and love the way she writes. I’m currently simultaneously reading Meagan Abbott’s Dare Me, and One Good Hustle by Canadian author Billie Livingston.

DBK: Are you working on a novel? Any new short stories coming our way?

JM: Yes to both questions. I’ve got a few short stories coming out this year including one in Noir Nation’s next issue, and in Shotgun Honey’s new anthology. I’m about 40K into my latest novel about a woman who murders her husband’s mistress and frames him for it.

DBK: Your "Tattoo and a Review" series is fabulous. How do you coax people into reading pulp who might not otherwise be interested?

JM: I pretty much trick them. I offer them the use of my lovely iPad and the invitation to distract themselves from the pain of their tattoo by indulging their mind in some dark little tales of crime and mayhem. What I’m really doing is subcontracting reviewers so I can feature some of my writer friend’s work on my blog. It’s a lot of fun for everyone I think.

DBK: How much does your work as a tattoo artist influence your writing?

JM: I don’t know if my tattooing influences my writing so much as competes with it for my time and creative energy. It’s always been that way with me between the two mediums; art and writing. Everything in my life suffers for my writing. It always will and I’m good with that.

Author's Bio: Julia Madeleine is a thriller writer and tattoo artist living in the Toronto area. For a year she lived in the country on a 30-acre property in the middle of nowhere which became the inspiration for her novel, No One To Hear You Scream. Find out more about her writing at www.juliamadeleine.com

Beat to a Pulp: Round Two

Beat to a Pulp: Round One might be one of the best crime fiction anthologies I've ever read--and Round Two follows in its footsteps.

The variety and quality of stories is remarkable. So is how emotionally effecting these stories are--this is an excellent demonstration of how pulp fiction isn't just about sex and violence. (Though there's plenty of that too!)

It kicks off with Bill Prozini's "The Space Killers." I usually dislike pastiches, but this is very well done. The punchline is a doozy--and it's revealed in a gradual, controlled manner.

The legendary Vin Packer's "Far From Home" might be my favorite in here. It's a sad, lovely story about family loyalty and discrimination. And the writing will make you be afraid to pick up a pen again.

I dig Chris F. Holm's crime fiction, but his short horror is so freaking good. "An Open Door" is sure to give you the creepy crawlies, but it goes beyond that and delves into our lack of understanding of how the world works. I think horror's best when it's exploring our base insecurities, and Holm does that here.

Alec Cizak's "State Road 53" shows just how messed up small-town life can be. He's knows how to create flawed, likeable characters. And the atmosphere is perfect--felt like I was back in the Midwest.

I don't exaggerate when I say that there are several other stories in here that will floor you. Jodi MacArthur, Patti Abbott, Sean Chercover--the list goes on. There's only one solution--and you can find it here.

Guest Post: Jim Wilsky

Excited to have Jim Wilsky here today, whose story at All Due Respect is kinda legendary. He also has a novel coming out TODAY from Snubnose Press. It's called Blood on Blood and is co-written with Frank Zafiro. You can find out more at their blog, Harboiled Partners in Crime.

First and foremost, I want to thank Chris for letting me do a guest post on Death by Killing. I consider it an honor to be here. I was going to try and write something clever and witty or maybe write a barely disguised attempt to push my new book - but then the other day, I read one of the saddest quotes I think I’ve ever come across. So here is something else, a tribute maybe or,

A Toast

We all have our favorite authors and I’m betting that some of them don’t necessarily write in the same crime fiction genre that a lot us do. My own personal favorite really has nothing to do with what I try to write, or the sandbox I play in. But he loves writing and books, books of all kinds.

My guy is Larry Jeff McMurtry. Born 1936, in Archer City Texas. Son of a rancher and his wife. That’s about all you need me to say because it isn’t like I’m talking about a guy that you don’t know much about. Anybody who can write, with such excellence, in such a range from Lonesome Dove to Terms of Endearment doesn’t need much of an introduction. Just a little side trivia: his novel Horsemen, Ride By inspired a little movie called Hud starring some goof named Paul Newman. His hometown of Archer City was the model setting for his novel and resulting movie, The Last Picture Show. Anyway, there you go. He had game.

He said this back in 2005, "The world we created that book shop for is gone. It doesn't exist anymore. I will soon enter my seventieth year and would like to travel a bit before I become too decrepit. The books will stay right where they are -- they can slumber in their majesty until the next turn of the wheel." And if you have any emotion in you, any at all, you have to love those beautiful sad words. 

The books he was speaking of then were housed in his four Booked Up bookstores and buildings. He had a dream of opening up used book stores in several cities around the U.S. including Arizona, Chicago and D.C. as well as his home base of Archer City. He did exactly that, fulfilling his dream in the late 80’s and 90’s. Hundreds of thousands of books were stacked on unending shelves. He wanted the book to survive, the bookstore in general, to survive. And not the chain stores that have racks and racks of the latest bestsellers in maybe 8 or 10 sections, but a real honest to God bookstore with the most unbelievable collection you could ever imagine. 

By the time he made the statement above they were all closed except Archer City and it was going away too. 

Did he originally do it for money? Of course not. Did he decide to open it in his hometown because of the demographics and predicted explosion of growth of the Archer City population….at under 2,000 people and a stop off on the way to nowhere, probably not huh? No, he did it because he loved books. 

Then, later in 2005, he reconsidered and decided to stay open. The decision to keep things going was driven purely by the heart and by an outpouring of public support. In what used to be 4 buildings, all Booked Up in tiny Archer City is now boiling down to one and they are having a public auction (August 10^th and 11^th in fact). McMurtry has an unbelievable book collection spanning across vast sections of art, children's literature, collecting and crafts, fiction, military history, poetry, science fiction, 18th and 19th century books, classical studies, fiction before 1925, foreign books and pamphlets, ancient history and mythology. Some 450,000 books that will go down to around 150K.

McMurtry isn’t just a great author and my personal favorite because of his tremendous string of award winning novels and movies adapted from those novels, or his numerous screenplays. Not just for his Guggenheim grants, Stanford fellowships, Pulitzer Prize and Academy Awards. In my mind, it’s also because he loves the written word. Loves the pure art that represents. Larry McMurtry is a romantic at heart. His books are like videos to me and they have come with a built in soundtrack that I can hear. Yes, he’s a romantic and I would argue that all great writers share that trait, among others. 

If you are close enough and if you have the means I would encourage the trip to Archer City. If not now, make that trip someday. It will be worth it. 

Just remember, “The books will stay right where they are -- they can slumber in their majesty until the next turn of the wheel." 

I hope I can write a sentence like that someday.

At All Due Respect

Fiona Johnson's got a dead dog, a couple of dumb criminals, a tough-as-nails old woman, and a healthy serving of Scottish slang over at All Due Respect. You don't want to miss "Never Too Old for Fun."

Eric Beetner

Eric Beetner's one of the best short story writers in the game. Now he's (finally!) got a short story collection with his name on it: A Bouquet Full of Bullets. You should check it out.

At Hardboiled Partners in Crime

I'm over at Jim Wilsky and Frank Zafiro's place today talking about what I've learned about editing. I tend toward the terse so it's quite a short list.

I've been a bit incommunicado recently with moving and preparing to teach classes in less than week (aggghhh!) but I hope to have everything back up and running soon. 

News and Notes

-- First, great story over at All Due Respect by Thomas Kearnes. A little Texas whorehouse plus a college kid with girl problems. Check it out.

-- I have signed on with Full Dark City Press as an editor. This outfit is lead by CJ Edwards and Alec Cizak, so I'm very confident that we'll be putting out good work. Check out their new web site here. We already have an anthology with some big names in the works. Then we'll be working on releasing a few books per year. 

-- Received my print copy of Pulp Ink 2 in the mail the other day. It looks freakin beautiful. So, if you buy the electronic version, I'd be happy to send you an electronic version in the format of your choice, too. Check it out at Amazon here. 

-- I'm moving to India. Tonight. So things are getting a bit crazy. DBK will probably go dark for a little while. But don't worry, I'll be lurking in the shadows...waiting. 

If you're curious at all about my worldwide travels, check out How Do You Get To?, a blog that my wife, Melanie Reichwald, and I are working on.

Pulp Ink 2 FREE

That's right--get a helping of pulp fiction completely free.

First five people to leave their email addresses in the comments (or to email them to me at chris dot rhatigan at gmail dot com) will get Pulp Ink 2 for the device of their choice.

And, no matter what you think of it, we here at Pulp Ink HQ (currently a dining room table in Long Island) would be overjoyed if you post your thoughts somewhere on the interwebs.

Pulp Ink 2 is now live at Amazon, Amazon UK and CreateSpace! We've got beautiful killers, visions of the apocalypse, blood-thirsty rats, and one severed arm on a quest for revenge.

Some of the best crime and horror writers today contributed to this collection--you won't want to miss it. Featuring stories by Kevin Brown, Mike Miner, Eric Beetner, Heath Lowrance, Matthew C. Funk, Richard Godwin, Cindy Rosmus, Christopher Black, Andrez Bergen, James Everington, W. D. County, Julia Madeleine, Kieran Shea, Joe Clifford, Katherine Tomlinson, R. Thomas Brown, Court Merrigan, BV Lawson, and Patti Abbott. 

Big thanks to co-editor Nigel Bird and the team at Snubnose Press for all their hard work getting this one out to the world.

Pulp Modern III

What I dig about Pulp Modern is the variety and quality of stories--and the latest issue has plenty of both.

Amy Bloom has a gorgeous, complicated story of friendship and loss. Every line is loaded with rich details and sounds perfect. And the last paragraph is heartbreaking.

I also enjoyed "Cinnamon's Solace" by Joseph Walker, a hardboiled tale of loyalty betrayal. This one's like a sharp blade to the kidneys--an unflinching portrait of career criminals.

William Dylan Powell's excellent as ever with "Cutthroat Business." All that stress from living the corporate life eventually starts to wear on you...and then you go on a murderous rampage. Maybe someone should do a corporate noir anthology--Jim Wilsky had a story a while back at All Due Respect that would fit in nicely too.

In W.P. Johnson's "White Light, White Heat," a couple of college kids in Philadelphia are trapped in an apartment while a zombie apocalypse consumes the city. With its abundant pop culture references that drive the story forward, this is a horror mash-up that fits this magazine perfectly.

Ron Sheer's "Bikers" is an original western about a new, seemingly harmless cult that rolls into town. Dale, our even-keeled protagonist and local newspaper editor, is determined to give these folks a fair shake. I'd never read Sheer's work previously, but I'll be looking for more--this is an oddball tale with a smart, ambiguous ending.

Pulp Modern is setting the standard in terms of multi-genre publications. Get yours today at CreateSpace or Amazon.

At All Due Respect

If you haven't met Diana Andrews, now's your chance. Albert Tucher with a savvy, funny story at All Due Respect.

At The Flash Fiction Offensive...

The good folks at The Flash Fiction Offensive have published my story, "Glug, Glug, Glug." It's about one liquor store owner's quest to make a living in a world of assholes. I had fun writing this one, as I am a sadist.

Pulp Ink for free

Okay, so you read this blog and, somehow, I still haven't convinced you to buy Pulp Ink.

Because I'm a shitty salesman.

Anyhow, now you don't have to bother with any of that "paying for it," as it is free at Amazon and Amazon UK. Until Saturday. Then you'll have to pay for it.

Jason Armstrong

Writing funny is hard. There are plenty of good writers who sprinkle in humor here and there to good effect, but to actually write funny stories--like Woody Allen or Douglas Adams or PG Wodehouse or David Sedaris--is one tough feat.

But Jason Armstrong is up to the task.

Bad as Fuck, Armstrong's collection of short stories, is nothing short of hilarious. I first read Armstrong's work over at Thrillers, Killers n Chillers, which published "Man Changes Mind." In this story, a guy who seems like an undeclared college student considers becoming a serial killer because it seems like the easiest way to become famous. Then he considers how difficult being a serial killer actually is and eventually abandons his half-baked plan. This one cracked me up when I first read it and it's my favorite in the collection.

I also loved "Look Who's Fucking Talking." Ah, the joys of parenthood. Here's a two-year-old buttmunch who terrorizes his poor father in a surprisingly (and somehow appropriately...) mature manner. And Armstrong manages to somehow pull off a touching and genuine ending.

Much of the humor in here is in the absurdity of the premises, such as "Ass to Mouth," in which a frustrated clerk mugs a very emotional ATM. This works very well in "Rejected," too, as we hear one side of an email conversation between an editor and an increasingly insane writer.

This one's only 99 cents over at the Amazons so you better check it out.  

Andrez Bergen

Last year, Andrez Bergen leaped onto the scene with Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat, with a cover and title that thoroughly convinced me of the book's appeal before I'd ever read a page.


This summer, his second book, One Hundred Years of Vicissitude, will be released, and I was lucky enough to get an early look.

In some ways, these are two very different books. TSMG is a sci-fi noir thriller set in post-apocalyptic Melbourne, while One Hundred Years is a more literary venture about one man's swim through purgatory with an obtuse, lovely Japanese guide.

Yet both books are smart, filled with dark (and light) humor, littered with cultural and media references both popular and obscure, and told from the perspective of cynical, sensitive, likable, alcohol-loving protagonists trying to navigate their way through confusing, morally questionable worlds. Both are told in the author's inimitable narrative style--Bergen relishes wacky tangents and dives head-first into philosophical dialogues that prove to be some of the most satisfying parts of his books.

Bottom line is that both of these are highly original, challenging yet thoroughly enjoyable novels. Bergen has a voice all his own and I'll be on the look out for wherever he pops up next. TSMG is published by Another Sky Press, a Portland organization that takes a very different (and welcome) approach to publishing. 100 Years is published by Perfect Edge Books.