This one is not actually noir. A lot of sites call it noir, but it's not - it's a JD (juvenile delinquent) movie, from 1955, about a young cop infiltrating a car-theft ring run by a teen gang.

​Well, that said, how is it? 

It starts off a little deceptively, with some Mamie Van Doren dancing and flirting (with the camera and her co-stars) while a group of kids dance to that new-fangled rock and roll stuff, but then takes a turn to JD-style crime and undercover justice. It's... well, it's not really going into. It's a fairly rote film.

What might interest a few folks, though, are some notable Star Trek connections.

​Right near the start:

Yep, that punk leaning on the gas pump is William Campbell, who is quasi-legendary for playing Koloth, on "The Trouble With Tribbles," and reprising the role decades later on DS9 (my favorite ST series).

​Also, we have:

A very young John Saxon, who was on Gene Roddenberry's Planet Earth and Strange New World.

The film itself? Skip it.

I revealed the big news last week, that I sold my novel Burn Me Out to publisher Black Rose Writing.

​Aside from revising/polishing my final MS, here's some other things in the works.

I'm looking for home for a swamp-noir of 6,000 words featuring a new P.I. character. Currently under consideration by a market which has previously published another of my crime stories.

I'm also looking for home for a flash-fiction crime story of 1,000 words. I've been waiting to hear back for quite some time from a relatively-famous crime fiction market. Fingers crossed...

I'll be polishing up and looking for a home for a new western story of (currently) about 4,500 words as soon as I'm finished with the Burn Me Out polishes. The only markets I know of who pay for western fiction are currently closed, though, so if you know of someone looking, please let me know.

Lastly, some sad news: the Kickstarter for Eight Gunshots was not successful. Published Luke Foster tells us that he has a plan and we will hear more in the New Year. I really love the story I wrote for the anthology, entitled "To Hell With It," so I hope the book sees the light of publication soon.

That's all for now. Enjoy your week, everyone.

That I sold a novel!

My second novel, BURN ME OUT, has just been accepted by a publisher and I couldn't be happier. This is a story I've tried to tell in the past, in different media, that I was never really happy with the final outcome of. It took me a while to realize that I was only hitting the surface of that story and that the only medium that would allow me to fully delve into the story I wanted to tell was prose, where I was free to do whatever I liked in as much depth as I needed.

Now, finally, after a long road, that story is ready to be told to all of you.

Here is the back-cover blurb I've written:

Al Vacarro is a made man, with all the honors and responsibilities that entails. But after a literal lifetime of violence in service to the Castella crime family, Al’s past is catching up with him and neither his present nor any future he can imagine seems to hold any hope for salvation.

For the sake of his family and his very soul, he needs out of "the life."

But how does a man escape the only world he's ever known?

This is a story of blood and desperation, and these are the last twenty-four hours of life as Al knows it.

If that sounds like anything you'd be interested in, keep watching this space for more details. 

The novel is set to come out late summer of 2020 from Black Rose Writing.

​Stay tuned for more and have a happy holiday!

As some of you probably know, my friend and publisher Sam Gafford unexpectedly passed away over the summer, leaving the future of Ulthar Press, including the magazines it published, in doubt.

Occult Detective Quarterly, which has published both some of my Thomas Carnacki work and the first of my Azuma Kuromori stories, is in the process of relaunching as Occult Detective Magazine. It's still under the guidance of editors John Linwood Grant and Dave Brzeski and the goal is to keep the feel of the magazine the same, including keeping ODQ's numbering.

John recently put up a post about the "new" magazine and included in it excerpts of some pieces from past issues, as well as future issues, including the second of my Azuma Kuromori stories, "Beyond the Faded Shrine Gates," which delves into Kuromori's first encounter with the Other Shore, during his childhood. The story is scheduled for Occult Detective Magazine #7, but you can read the opening right here.

I hope you'll enjoy this excerpt, as well as the other three from other authors that John has made available, and consider buying back issues or maybe even subscribing to future issues. As many of you probably know, small press publishing's lifeblood is readers, especially when it comes to keeping magazines viable. 

Recently, I reread Harlan Ellison's first novel, WEB OF THE CITY.

The first time I read this, I was not Harlan Ellison fan. The only one of his novels I'd previously read was THE DOOMSMAN, and I didn't care for it. People kept telling me, "He's a short story guy. Read his short stories." Since that first read, I've found several short stories of Ellison's that are brilliant and I loved. I wanted to revisit this novel and see how it felt in light of my new thoughts on Ellison.

Well, I liked it. It's not brilliant, but it's good.

This was Ellison's first novel, based on a novelette he'd written about the same main character. In fact, the first quarter of the novel is almost word for word the original novelette, except where the novelette ends, Rusty Santoro makes a different choice, leading us to the path that becomes the novel. And it's okay, but it's kind of messy. The novelette's story about juvie gang revenge and posturing doesn't segue especially well into the main story of the novel--which is basically a detective story featuring a J.D. out for revenge--but it works, in a sort of ham-handed kind of way. But it's a first novel, so it's all good. Ellison certainly grew from there.

As when I first read it, it did brought to mind a few questions, such as why Ellison strayed from the crime fiction path. He wrote a number of short stories, but I believe this is his only crime novel and it makes me wonder what kind of writer he'd have become if he stuck with it, instead of branching out to science fiction and fantasy.

I have a feeling that he'd be a writer whose work I'd enjoy more, but I also have a feeling that he wouldn't have made the impact he did on the literary world. Maybe he knew that his future wasn't in crime fiction, but I do wonder what other crime novels a more-polished Ellison the storyteller might have written.

Two reminders:

First, you can read my western mystery, the first story about Marshal Ernie Farrar, for free right here or by clicking the image below.

Second, if you like my western fiction, please remember to support and share the Eight Gunshots Kickstarter, as it includes a new western story by me, plus seven more works by seven other authors, each accompanied by an illustration.
​
Please check it out, pledge and share it!

Earlier this year, I was invited to submit a story a western anthology. The result was a piece I'm very proud of called "To Hell With It," about a man running from himself who finally tries to do the right thing even though he knows it'll cost him more than anyone else. The organizer of the anthology, Luke Foster, is now running a Kickstarter campaign to publish that book, Eight Gunshots: Stories of the West.

"Eight Gunshots" is a prose anthology magazine with eight short stories by some of the best writers in the modern pulp scene. 

It includes a wide variety of stories with action, emotional depth, and a lot of fun and each story is accompanied by an illustration.

These stories include:

• "Chief Hokomon," by Alverne Ball, illustrated by Eraklis Petmezas
• "To Hell With It," by Brandon Barrows, illustrated by Keith W. Cunningham
• "Gold Hen," by Christopher Charlton, illustrated by Jason J. McCuiston
• "The Sins of Peste Negra Rodriguez," by Luke Foster, illustrated by Keith W. Cunningham
• "A Miracle in Anderson," by Robert Jeffrey II, illustrated by Eraklis Petmezas
• "Bitter Springs," by Jason J. McCuiston, illustrated by Jason J. McCuiston
• "To Meet and Kill a Devil," by Shawn Pryor, illustrated by Stephen Reid
• "Bad Medicine," by David J. West, illustrated by Wolly McNair

Plus, a full-color cover by Ariela Kristantina, with colors by Bryan Valenza!

I'm a big fan of the western genre (if you follow my twitter feed, you know every week it's Western Wednesday for me) and I was thrilled to be invited to participate in this anthology.

Your support is needed to make this book come to life, though! Get in on the ground floor and get some excitement!

Please check out more details and pledge your support by clicking here!

This week, my offering for you is THE CASTLE-TOWN TRAGEDY, my collection of Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder stories.

'Tis the season, so how about some horror?

Let's start with MYTHOS, the four-issue Lovecraftian horror series I did with artist Hugo Petrus. 

Duane Pesice interviewed me for Grey Dog Tales recently and sitemaster John Linwood Grant put in his own 2 pence about some of my work.

Head on over and read for yourself as we talk about fiction, truths, beer, pizza and everything in between!