The Whole Bleedin' Lot @ Flash Fiction Offensive

When Dave Barber invited me to have go at coming up with a story for the monthly Guest Writer feature over at the Flash Fiction Offensive, of course I accepted. As part of the Guest Writer spot, you get an additional word count (2000, instead of 1000 words), a picture accompanying  the story, and an extended bio. Big time thanks to Dave B  for the opportunity and the Nice intro he did.  If you would like to give the story a read,  check it out HERE

Spent some of the weekend reading all the of the tremendous 38 stories in the highly anticipated OFF THE RECORD collection. All proceeds from the e-book sales will go to children's literacy charities in the UK and US. It's available on Amazon US / UK, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.  Big time kudos to the mastermind and publisher Luca Veste. Check out all the details at his site HERE

LEBANON: A Movie Recommendation

One of the best things about having On Demand through my cable provider, is sometimes you stumble across movies that you would not have found out about. I hit the jackpot Weds night whan I decided to watch a foreign movie called LEBANON. Here's the description that I read and made me give it a try:

"June, 1982 - The First Lebanon War. A lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town - a simple mission that turns into a nightmare. The four members of a tank crew find themselves in a violent situation that they cannot contain. Motivated by fear and the basic instinct of survival, they desperately try not to lose themselves in the chaos of war."

Think DAS BOOT, but it takes place in a tank.

This movie was excellent. The story, film technique, and huge amounts of tension and suspence, all added up to a great experience. This does have subtitles, but that has never been a problem for me. After a few minutes, I dont even realize I am reading them.  I give it 5 STARS, and a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Two From Charlie Wade

Charlie Wade, who blogs over at SpiesLiesandPies has couple of excellent stories on the web today. Each one, left me wishing there was more. Charlie is surely a writer I will be following closely in the future. He  has mucho talent, and the diversity in style and writing on display between both stories is very impressive.

Check out "School Daze" now showing at Thrilllers Killers-n-Chiller's HERE

And over at Shotgun Honey, you can find "Route A66 Diner" HERE 

News From Two of The Goodfellas

Tonight is the Irish Book Awards. Talented writer, Crime Always Pays blog host, and great friend to his fellow writers, Deckan Burke, is up for the Crime Fiction award. His post today over at CAP provides a bit of insight into what the event will be like. ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL is a tremendous novel and one of the best I have read this year. He's facing some stiff competion, but my fingers are crossed and I cannot wait to find out the results. Best of luck to one of the good guys! Details HERE

Sticking with the theme of writers who are very talented as well as nice, generous people, Col Bury posted a review of Lily Childs' MAGETA SHAMAN over at his site. Now, at face value, I would not normally read this genre, but because Col provided such an excellent review, he highly recommended it, and I know how talented Lily is as a writer, I will surely be reading it. You can check it out HERE

The Beat On The Street

Charlie Stella is an author that has always been on my list, and thanks to Peter Rozovsky who posted a review of Mr. Stella's novel CHARLIE OPERA, I got the kick in the ass I needed to start digging in. I just down loaded JIMMY BENCH-PRESS. I wanted to start with JOHNNY PORNO, but it is only available in paperback. Check out Peter's review HERE

Just finished Julie Morrigan's CONVICTIONS, and posted this review at Amazon and Smashwords:

5 stars: A Terrific Mystery Story
"Convictions is an excellent story that mystery and thriller fans will surely enjoy. As hard as I tried to guess the ending, I was not able to. This is a character driven, emotional ride, that avoids the usual cliches associated with law enforcement, as they try to get to the bottom of who's abducting the children. Investigator Karen Fitzgerald was a favorite of mine, but there are many other excellent players on both sides of the law throughout. The story, top notch writing, and excellent editing, all add up to "highly recommended" for me."

The Nerd of Noir posted  a great interview with Allan Guthrie over at Spinetingler HERE

AJ Hayes really knocked my socks off with his story BERTINO'S HEAD over at Absolutely * Kate's Place HERE

I'm all about music, so when Adrian Mckinty, after reviewing Rolling Stone Mags top 500 albums, listed his top 25 HERE, I just had to check it out. Very diverse selections from the commenters as well.  3 of the ones Adrian listed would have made my list:
3. Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin
4. Let It Bleed - The Rolling Stones
16. Are You Experienced - Jimi Hendrix

And without boring you with my list, here are just a few:

-Appetite For Destruction - Guns-n-Roses

-Live Bootleg - Aerosmith

- Exile on Main Street - Stones
-Van Halen 1 & 2 (tie) - Van Halen


Patti Abbott has a very entertaining story BLACK WHITE AND RED ALL OVER, at the Flash Fiction Offensive HERE

The Great God Pan and....

After reading a post regarding suspense, by Charles Gramlich, that he did over at the Novel Spaces blog, The novel "The Great God Pan" by Athur Machen popped into my mind. This is an old novel, but perfectly defines a form of horror based suspense, for me at least. Anyone else ever read this? If not, might want to give it a go. Charles' post can be found HERE and info about the novel can be found HERE

-Over at Adrian McKinty's place, he's listed his top 25 "Micksploitation" ( great term ) movies that are condesending toward the Irish folk, and a few that truly depict how things should be portrayed. Tons of interesting comments and def worth a look HERE

- Found a couple of short stories that I really enjoyed reading, and you might too. Nick Bolduck's "Exposure" is over at A Twist of Noir HERE and Graham Smith's "Shooting Stars" is at Thriller's Killer's -n- Chillers HERE

The Beat On The Street

Finally, we were able to have Trick-or-Treat this Saturday, after the powers that be in my town postponed it, because of the ice/snow storms that brought most of Massachusetts to its knees. We were lucky to have not lost our electricity, but a whole lot of people went up to five days without it. The official hours of T-or-T were 4:00pm to 6:00pm. Very strange, as it was sunny out the whole time. $10.00 at the Salvation Army got me the above Disco Dan get-up.

Here's a few things of note that I checked out on the web.

- It's November, so that means it's Noir time over at Absolutely * Kate's place. Already some great stories have been posted by some familiar names. Today, it is Chris Rhatigan. Bop on over to The Bijou HERE

- Speaking of Mr. Rhatigan, he provided links to some very good stories by Erin Cole and Julie Morrigan HERE

-Darren Sant provided an excellent review of Paul Brazill's "Drunk On The Moon" series HERE

- Over at Tony Black's Place, Ray Banks is talking to Allen Guthrie about "Dead Money" Not to be missed, HERE

- Editor at the Flash Fiction Offensive, Dave Barber, has announced that the FFO has re-opened for submissions HERE

- Seems like Mr. Barber also has some competition in his house. Check out his daughter's first published piece of writing, and be sure to take a look at all the comments  HERE

- Top writer and overall good guy, Nigel Bird, has an interview over at Luca Veste's blog HERE

- Last week, Sandra Seamans had an excellent post regarding the lack of women getting published in crime fiction, and self- promotion HERE.  Well, Chris LaTray has taken the baton from Sandra and posted a candid, well thought out post HERE

- I had never heard of film director Jim Jarmusch before, but thanks to Paul Waters' Blackwatertown blog, I am very intrigued by the films he has made, especially "Dead Man" starring one of my fave actors, Johnny Depp.  Check out another well written and interesting segment of "The Day I Met..." HERE

- Finally, author Lee Goldberg of "Monk" fame, and Joe Konrath share some intesting stats regarding their print vs ebook sales at Joe K's blog HERE

The Monkey Tree is at Thriller's Killer's -n- Chillers

Thrillers Killers -n- Chillers was the first online story site I discoved that focused on crime and horror stories.  It's been over a year now and because of that site, I have met so many talanted writers, who more importantly, are just damn nice people, always willing to lend a helping hand, ear, or offer encouragement. My first online story was featured there. What a thrill that was when I got the news from editor Col Bury!

I have had a few stories featured at TKnC since then. The thrill never gets old, for me at least. The latest is "The Monkey" which is being featured as part of their Hellicious Halloween special. I'm in some great company, for sure. So, if you want to give my story a read, and check out the others that have already been featured, Click HERE

Special thanks to Lily Childs, editor at TKnC, and one hell of a writer herself, for putting this special Halloween feature together. Well done!