Editing by Elizabeth

May 13, 2011

The Gravity of Mammon by Dan O’Shea

He was pushing 50, and, after almost 20 years schlepping around the Sahel, 50 was pushing back. It was time for an exit strategy. – Nick Hardin

With 8 years in the Marines as a sniper, including two tours in Gulf War I, and 10 years with the French Foreign Legion under his belt, Nick Hardin is a genuine badass. Unfortunately, even badasses have a sell-by date, and given all the mileage he’s racked up in conflict zones Hardin is fast approaching his.

Working as a “fixer” in Darfur – someone who escorts foreign journalists into conflict areas, making sure they and their gear get in and out safely – Hardin somehow finds himself tasked with ensuring the safety of a Hollywood feel good charity event, Dollars for Darfur. And he almost pulls it off.

Until, that is, hotshot actor Shamus Fenn feels the need to try and out badass Hardin, a move that earns Fenn a broken nose and a video clip of his humiliation endlessly playing on the internet and late night talk shows. Exercising what little clout he has left, Fenn gets Hardin blackballed by the networks, effectively drying up Hardin’s source of income. Time for that exit strategy. →

May 12, 2011

‘Throwing Shit into the Monkey House’ by Dan O’Shea

I am giddy about having author Dan O’Shea here today, and those who know me will attest that “giddy” is not a word that applies to me often, if ever. In addition to numerous short stories you can find at his website, Dan has written two novels, The Gravity of Mammon and Unto Caesar, both of which are with an agent and looking for a publishing home. In addition to being a very talented author, Dan is blessed with a silky smooth voice that he puts to good use making recordings of his short stories. (I highly recommend “Thin Mints” to start.) So awesome are his dulcet tones, he’s become the official voice of Steve Weddle’s Oscar Martello character. In fact, my only regret about having Dan here today is that I didn’t think to ask him to do his guest post as a recording. Well, that and the piss everywhere.

Dan in 1977…

This guest blogging gig is weird. I’ve been writing for a living one way or another all of my adult life, but I always had a topic. Granted, a lot of the topics sucked – topics like, say, give us 3,000 words on the ramifications of pending international tax treaties on transfer pricing for US-based multinationals. That topic sucked. But I knew where to start. Besides, what do you think drove me to write about killing people in the first place?

But this guest blog thing? Ms. White dropped me a line saying she’d like to review my online novel experiment, The Gravity of Mammon, and, as part of that exercise, could I send her a guest blog post. Of course, I said, sure. I mean, I’m as narcissistic as the next guy. Somebody wants to talk about me, but wants me to talk about myself first? Hell yeah, I’m all over that. It’s like a threesome – me, myself, and somebody else talking about me and myself.

But then I ask her what she wants me to cover, and she says whatever I want. That she likes to let writers off their leashes. Which tells me that Ms. White must like the smell of writer urine everywhere, because, as a group, we’re really not housebroken and we do like to piss all over everything. But that still doesn’t give me a topic. →

May 11, 2011

Chasing Filthy Lucre by Jarrett Rush

I fought. Not by choice, but necessity. – Weber Rexall

Fighting is a way of life for Weber Rexall, literally and figuratively. Literally, Weber earns money as a boxer in an underground fight club, often through fights the outcome of which are fixed in advance.

Figuratively speaking, as a resident of New Eden Weber fights like everyone else just to stay alive in a dystopian future that has seen the government and military fall, leaving no central power structure to serve the needs of the populace.

What sounded like a good idea to the rebels and revolutionaries initially, returning the power to the people, quickly turned into a disaster once people realized that for better or worse some form of centralized power was required in order for society to function. Without it, life in what was supposed to be New Eden quickly descended into a new kind of hell with people living a hand-to-mouth existence in an every man for himself shadow of society.

Poverty and anarchy, not prosperity and utopia, are the realities of New Eden. Beyond poverty and anarchy there is one other fixture that has emerged in New Eden: widespread addiction. Not to drugs, but to data. →

May 10, 2011

‘I’m not the book I wrote.’ by Jarrett Rush

May 05, 2011

‘Short Stories: Fewer Words, More Work?’ at Criminal Element

Heads up, crime fiction fans, Macmillan has a new community website you need to check out: Criminal Element.

Featuring original short stories, excerpts from upcoming crime and mystery novels, as well as daily blog articles, Criminal Element is a great place for fans of crime fiction and mysteries to come together and share their love of the genres.

They’ve even let me have the floor today to talk about short stories and crime fiction: “Short Stories: Fewer Words, More Work?” So pop over, read my article (feel free to leave a comment, too), and then take some time to explore the site.

May 03, 2011

A World I Never Made by James LePore

I don’t owe you or anybody an explanation, but I think you’ll appreciate the irony of a suicide note coming from a person who has abhorred tradition all of her life. – Megan Nolan

That Pat Nolan was semi-estranged from his adult daughter, Megan, does little to soften the blow when he receives a call that she’s committed suicide and he needs to travel to Paris to formally identify and claim her body.

Upon his arrival, the Parisian Detective in charge of the case informs him the autopsy revealed his daughter was in the final stages of ovarian cancer. Despite their strained relationship, Pat is confused as to why Megan kept something so significant from him.

His confusion turns to shock, however, when he’s taken to the morgue to make the official identification; the body the Parisian police have identified as Megan is not his daughter. Having seen the suicide note found with the body, and recognizing that it was written by Megan, Pat realizes she must have staged her death.

Knowing only that his daughter must be in serious trouble, and that her cryptic suicide note was her way of reaching out to him for help, Pat acts on instinct and lies to the police, identifying the body as Megan. When two men try to kidnap him at gunpoint shortly after he begins making inquires about Megan to people she knew in Paris, Pat realizes he’s not the only one who knows she’s still alive and is looking for her. It’s also not much of a stretch to conclude the other people trying to find his daughter are the very reason she faked her death, a death that will become all too real if they find Megan before Pat does. →

May 02, 2011

Sons and Princes by James LePore

Like all true believers, he saw his point of view as the morally correct one. He was perfectly justified in returning hurt for hurt, death for death. – Ed Dolan

Ed Dolan is a man on a mission, and that’s bad news for Chris Massi. Friends for a time when they were teenagers, the two boys’ lives were forever altered when Chris’ father killed Ed’s. The fact Chris’ father, Joe Black Massi, was a mafia hitman and Ed’s was acting as hired muscle trying to protect the target of Joe Black’s mission would seem to complicate the matter a bit. Not for fifteen-year-old Ed, who swore revenge against the Massi family, no matter how long it took.

Fast-forward 25 years and both Chris and Ed have become successful attorneys, Chris working at a prestigious defense firm, Ed as a United States Attorney. Despite having married the daughter of a powerful mob kingpin, Chris has managed to steer clear of “the life” otherwise. Even that association was short lived, when Chris and his wife divorced after only 5 years.

Things start seriously falling apart for Chris when he’s falsely indicted for securities fraud. The prosecuting attorney? Ed Dolan, of course. When that trial ends in acquittal Dolan pursues an ethics complaint with the New York State Bar, succeeding in having Chris disbarred for his alleged “mob ties.” His life already on the ropes, the knock-out punch comes in the form of the murder of his father, not so surprisingly as a result of a mob hit. When his former father-in-law tells Chris he knows who killed his father, Chris has a soul-searching choice to make: try to rebuild his normal life, or embrace the one he’s spent his whole life trying to avoid? →

April 29, 2011

Sergeant Zero by Anthony Schiavino

Sergeant Zero by Anthony Schiavino When you face down the devil, there’s always a price to pay. – Joe Sinclair

OK, I’m going to do something a little different today, a comic book review. Once upon a time I did a fair amount of comic reading, though I must admit at this point once upon a time was many years ago. I’ve purchased the odd comic or graphic novel here or there over the years since my serious reading days, but for the most part it’s not something I keep up with anymore.

Then Anthony “PulpTone” Schiavino mentioned he had something he thought I may be interested in, a comic he’d created called Sergeant Zero. I’ve gotten to know Anthony a little bit on Twitter, have read some of his short stories, and figured I’d give it a look-see. Damn, am I glad I did!

Sergeant Zero: Reigning Fire introduces the story of Sergeant Zero/Joe Sinclair, a soldier who has a near superhuman memory for everything…except his past. Initially seeming to be a straightforward scenario of G.I.s fighting Nazis in WWII Germany, things take a turn for the weird when Sinclair and the rest of Zero Company encounter an abandoned village littered with corpses ravaged by radiation. Things go from bad to worse, and before you know it Zero Company is decimated by mutated werewolf-like creatures, Sinclair is captured, a mysterious tentacled creature makes a brief appearance, and the reader is left with one hell of a cliffhanger. →

April 29, 2011

Death by Sarcasm by Dani Amore

There were people who got her. And there were people who didn’t. She’d long since given up trying to figure out who was who. – Mary Cooper

Los Angeles private investigator Mary Cooper is armed and dangerous. She also carries a gun. Her primary weapon, however, is her quick wit and razor sharp sarcasm. Be it family, her on-again-off-again boyfriend, a Police Sergeant who’s brought her in for questioning, or even witnesses she’s trying to get information from, no one is safe from Cooper’s withering quips.

Lest you get the idea Cooper’s a total bitch, however, it soon becomes clear that sarcasm is the shield she wields to keep people from getting too close, and that she actually cares very deeply about her family. It’s that family bond which gets the ball rolling in Death by Sarcasm when Cooper is informed that her uncle, a has-been comedian, was murdered in an alley behind the comedy club where he was working.

Despite specifically being warned off the investigation by the Police Sergeant in change, there’s no way Cooper is going to sit back and wait to see if they get results. And when she’s approached by a group of her uncle’s old running buddies, also comedians, and learns that another member of their comedic fraternity has also been killed Cooper realizes there’s something bigger than just her uncle’s murder going on. As her investigation deepens, Cooper begins unearthing skeletons that someone would rather stay buried, someone who’s willing to bury Cooper to keep her from getting too close to the truth. →

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