700 Words or Less

I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Shotgun Honey. One year ago today, they published my story “12 Before 9″ — the first fiction piece I wrote since 1998. They went on to publish “Fortune” (which has since been picked up by Otto Penzler for inclusion in his upcoming Kwik Krimes anthology), “Twitter and Coke” and “Blow Out the Candles.”

So I’ll be forever grateful to SH’s head honcho Ron Earl Phillips and the editors who approved my stories (even if they did also reject a few).

Now, I’m honored to be returning the favor. Ron contacted me a few weeks back and asked, “Have you ever considered the fast-paced world of submission editing?” No, I said, I hadn’t. But less than 48 hours later, I was signed up. (The contract negotiations were intense. Eventually, I convinced Ron to pay me in “future considerations,” which is a term I learned from reading reports about NFL trades, so it must be a lot of money!)

Now, I’m working with Ron and the amazingly talented Jen Conley & Chris Irvin to review all of Shotgun Honey’s submissions. So write something and submit it. 700 words or less.

Off the Record 2 for $0.99

The Kindle editions of the charity anthologies Off the Record and Off the Record 2: At the Movies are now available for just $0.99 (or £0.77 in the U.K.) each.

Both books are packed with great short stories. The original Off the Record features stories sharing titles with classic songs (including “Free Bird,” “American Pie” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit”), while Off the Record 2: At the Movies features stories which borrow titles from classic films (including “Weekend at Bernie’s,” “Dead Man” and my contribution, “American Beauty”).

The sale ends Thursday, April 4, so get your copies now:

• Off the Record 2: At the Movies (U.S.)
• Off the Record 2: At the Movies (U.K.)
• Off the Record (U.S.)
• Off the Record (U.K.)

In more Off the Record news, editor Luca Veste recently posted an update on the forthcoming Off the Record 3.

Kwik Krimes Cover Revealed

When it comes out later this year, Kwik Krimes, an anthology edited by Otto Penzler, will — this is still stunning to me — include my short story “Fortune.” It won’t be available until August 20, but for now check out that amazing cover! (Click on it for an even bigger version.) I love the beat-up look, the the fedora, the seedy motel, the colors, the font… Everything works.

I can’t wait to hold a copy in my hands.

If you’re interested in reading ultra short stories (all under 1,000 words) from great authors like Ken Bruen, Reed Farrell Coleman and Lyndsay Faye, you can pre-order Kwik Krimes from Amazon.com right now:

U.S. paperback

U.S. Kindle

U.K. paperback

U.K. Kindle

h/t to Rob W. Hart for being the first to notice the book cover being added to Amazon’s website. Or at least the first to notice who posted something about it that I noticed…

Four Questions With… Merry Jones

Few writers will have more novels published in 2013 than Merry Jones.

Winter Break, the third in her series of crime thrillers featuring Iraq War veteran Harper Jennings (following Summer Session and Behind the Walls), was released in January. In it, a pregnant Jennings sees a young man dragged into the woods near her house, but the police write it off as kids playing around — or Jennings’ hormones. She knows it’s something more.

The Trouble with Charlie, a standalone thriller, was released in February. In it, Philadelphia schoolteacher Elle Brooks finds her husband Charlie (who was soon to be her ex-husband) dead on her sofa, stabbed with her kitchen knife. She can’t remember killing him, but she also can’t say for sure that she didn’t.

Outside Eden, the fourth Harper Jennings novel, will be released in July.

Jones — who’s also the author of the Zoe Hayes mysteries, which include The Nanny Murders, The River Killings, The Deadly Neighbors, and The Borrowed and Blue Murders (and that doesn’t even get to her non-fiction!) — lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia and teaches writing at my alma mater, Temple University. When you meet her in person, it’s easy to see that she has the energy needed for such an ambitious publishing schedule. She’s smart, engaging and fun to talk to.

Here are Four Questions With… Merry Jones.

You’ve had two novels published already in 2013, Winter Break and The Trouble with Charlie. What’s it like to have two new books out in such a compressed time frame — and will you continue averaging one per month through the rest of the year?

Hahaha. I wish I could be that productive.

It’s insanity, trying to promote two books at once. I ended up hiring a PR firm — I’ve never done that before. But they wanted to emphasize The Trouble with Charlie rather than Winter Break, which is the third Harper Jennings book; they preferred not to start their promotion in the middle of a series.

I try to get attention for Winter Break, but I feel like a neglectful parent, paying more attention to one book than the other, even though I love them both. Bottom line, it’s been a busy time.

I love the premise of The Trouble with Charlie: A wife finds the body of her soon-to-be ex-husband and is pretty sure she didn’t kill him, but really can’t account for the time in question. Do you think that kind of situation — not being certain that you haven’t done something horrible — would be among the most terrifying a person could face?

Yes, I think that not being able to trust your own perceptions, not being able to rely on your own mind would be terrifying. External danger and bad guys are scary, but I think it’s even scarier when you can’t even be sure whether you can trust yourself and your own sense of reality.

I think there’s a shadowy place for all of us where our senses are tricked, whether by emotions, contradictory sensations, imagination, superstition, expectation, or whatever. In The Trouble with Charlie, Elle finds herself deep in this shadowy state and she has to find her way out, figuring out what’s real, what isn’t. She has a dissociation disorder that occasionally causes her mind to wander, leaving her with gaps in her memory. But even without an actual disorder, I think most everyone can relate to the fear of not being able to trust your own self.

My Favorite Five Books of 2012

As is the case every year, there were far more excellent books published in 2012 than I had time to read. And, truth be told, one or more of the books on my list may have actually been published in 2011 (or earlier… I think the first edition of The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson came out in 1999). But these are all incredible books I read for the first time in 2012, and which I recommend without hesitation.

    

Dead Harvest by Chris F. Holm

Sam Thornton is a wonderful protagonist, flawed and heroic. And I love how brilliantly Holm explores the overall theme (heaven vs. hell) with an incredible pulp sensibility and in a gritty urban environment. I’m eager to read book two in the series, The Wrong Goodbye, which is out now.

Hell & Gone by Duane Swierczynski

I loved Fun & Games, the first book in Swierczynski’s Charlie Hardie series. But Hell & Gone took things to a new level (literally: much of it takes place in a secret underground prison) and added approximately 800 percent more crazier-than-crazy twisted-ness. I’d like Christopher Nolan to direct the movie version, please. I’ve already pre-ordered book three, Point & Shoot, which comes out in April.

The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson by Douglas Lindsay

This novel about a serial killer is flat-out hilarious. Barney Thomson is a mediocre (at best) barber and an all-around sad sack. I can’t remember laughing out loud while reading a book as often as I did during The Long Midnight of Barney Thompson. I’m certain that says something disturbing about me, but there you have it.

Big Maria by Johnny Shaw

Poor Harry Schmittberger. He’s been picked on his entire life. Rather obviously, his name didn’t help in that regard. But while he starts Big Maria in less than healthy conditions (the first chapter is very … memorable), Harry soon meets up with a pair of men he has enough in common with to launch a search for long-forgotten treasure in a gold mind that happens to be in the middle of a U.S. military training ground. Big Maria is funny, touching, badass and brutal.

The Informationist by Taylor Stevens

Including this book is cheating, because I haven’t read The Informationist yet. But my wife Beth has, she loved it, and she has great taste in books — so I know I’ll totally dig it when I do. Protagonist Vanessa Munroe can track down just about any kind of information. In this first book, she’s hired by a Texas oil billionaire to find his missing daughter, who disappeared four years ago in Africa. The second book, The Innocent, is available now. The Doll is scheduled to be released later this year.

2013 Derringer Finalists Announced

Congratulations to the finalists for the 2013 Derringer Awards! The Derringers were established by the Short Mystery Fiction Society in 1997 to honor excellence in short mystery fiction. All four categories have a strong lineup of authors.

I was especially pleased to see stories nominated which were published by BEAT to a PULP, Grift Magazine, The Flash Fiction Offensive at Out of the Gutter Online, Off the Record 2: At the Movies, and Shotgun Honey, all outlets that have published (or, in the case of Grift, will soon publish) some of my stories. The editors and publishers involved at those outlets are excellent to deal with, and the recognition is well deserved.

Four Questions With… Peter Farris

I first ran across Peter Farris’s fiction at Shotgun Honey, a website dedicated to crime-themed flash fiction. (Be sure to check out “Disney Noir”.) His first novel, Last Call for the Living, was published last year (the mass market paperback comes out on March 26) and has been described as a “gritty and fascinating Southern noir gem” and “a debut that demands attention.”

I agree with both descriptions. Last Call for the Living probably shouldn’t be as easy to read as it is. Many of the characters are despicable, the situations they find themselves in astoundingly brutal. But the skill of Farris’s writing keeps you turning the page.

Farris is from Cobb County, Georgia. The sense of place injected into Last Call for the Living is another reason the book succeeds. Imagining yourself in the rural Southern landscape he paints is effortless.

If it’s not already clear, I highly recommend Farris’s first novel and I can’t wait to read his next. Here are Four Questions With… Peter Farris.

Last Call for the Living features completely memorable characters, both the “bad guys” and the “good guys,” if you will. How hard was it — and how fun — to come up with this cast?

It was a challenge, to be honest, especially with a character like Hicklin, who’s not only a criminal sociopath but a white supremacist. I can’t say I enjoyed writing about folks who harbor such extreme prejudices, who operate with a blind superiority in their own race, but I knew even the most despicable characters have to be drawn without any sympathies or antipathies, and without any judgement from the author.

I knew if I wrote Hicklin straight, then I might have a shot at manipulating reader allegiances by book’s end. I’ve heard from quite a few people “angry” at me for getting them to root for such an awful person. Gotta admit I’ve taken some satisfaction in that.