Great News For Luca Veste

Luca Veste, crime writer based out of England, shared some exciting news. He has signed a 2 book deal with Harper Collins imprint Avon.

Details of Luca's good, and well-deserved fortune can be found HERE

Luca is also the publisher / editor of the short story crime collections OFF THE RECORD I and OFF THE RECORD II, which can be found HERE Best of luck and success to Luca!

Killing Pandemic & Off The Record II

Talented author and good guy, Kevin Michaels contacted me a couple weeks ago asking if I would be interested in being "tagged" by him as the next author to follow him on the Killing Pandemic blog. I checked out the site, very cool, and accepted, although I was very apprehensive because I had not written anything in about 6 months since my dad got sick. So, I took a week or so to come up with some ideas and eventually started writing it. It was not easy, but I chipped away at it and just sent it in (760 hard earned words)

The story is called "The Sex Machine" and not sure when it will be on the site, but of course I am very nervous about what readers will think. I will say it was fun to write.

So, you can check out the Killing Pandemic site HERE. It's well worth a look and Kevin M's story The Edge Of The Road is currently featured.

A couple months ago Luca Veste contacted me, asking if Iwanted to be part of the OFF THE RECORD sequel he is putting together. My story "Redemption Song" is in OTR-1. This time the theme is movie titles, rather than song titles.

I chose "Boogie Nights" as my title, a movie I love. Due date for submissions is AUG 31, and I should have it done before that. It has a 2,500 word count limit, so that is the arena I like to write in for short stories, although 3,500 really is ideal.

To find out all the deets about OTR-2 check out Luca's post HERE

Ray Banks: California & Arlene Hunt: Black Sheep

Loved Ray's story "GOD ONLY KNOWS" that was included in the OFF THE RECORD collection, so I asked him via his BLOG which should I read first California or Dead Money. He said, California, as it is short, and if I dug it, I would most likely dig Dead Money. I did, and DM is up next after Arlene Hunt's BLACK SHEEP (more about that below) 

CALIFORNIA is up for best novella of 2011 over at Spinetingler, and you can vote for your choice HERE. I posted the below review on Amazon US & UK, and you can check out, and hopefully purchase CALIFORNIA HERE

5 star: You Think YOU Had A Bad Day?

Ray Banks has been on my list of writers that I wanted to read. After recently being very entertained by a short crime story of his that was part of a collection, I decided to read California. The other two reviews of this novella length piece, pretty much summed up my thoughts. The characters and the dialogue are what really made this work. The opening scene reeled me in and the story, pacing, and excellent banter between all the various players, kept me interested right to the end. This was a quick, very satisfying read and I will most certainly be reading more from the author.

Arlene Hunt is an Irish crime writer, who I have wanted to read for some time now, I just didn't know where to start, or what to expect. I decided that BLACK SHEEP would be it. There was no Ebook version available (big bummer) so I ordered via Amazon. I'm 3 chapters in, and it is money very well spent. What the Hell was I waiting for? Killer opening, down and dirty writing, and I am hooked, big time! This is the kind of writing and style that reminds me of when I first discovered Julie Morrigan- the kind a lot of lads could take a lesson from ;) . You can find out more about Arlene HERE

And finally, watched this movie for the umpteenth time last night. Never gets old, and a kick-ass soundtrack. Have you seen it? What did you think?

OFF THE RECORD

Tough day at work yesterday ( thanks to staying up too late reading The Cold Cold Ground ) followed by a late Board of Directors meeting for the youth lacrosse league I'm invloved with, but when I arrived home, my print copy of OFF THE RECORD was waiting for me. Luca Veste did a great job with this! If you are not familiar with OTR, it is 38 crime stories based on "classic" song titles, written my 38 UK and US writers.  What really mattters though is, every single penny ( or pence ), is going to children's literacy programs in the US & UK.

If you feel so inclined to support this cause, you can take a look, and perhaps get yourself an electronic or print version:

Ebook at Amazon US HERE...Amazon UK HERE or in print at Lulu HERE

A huge thanks to Luca Veste for putting this all together. He hosts a great site HERE and you can check out his Ebook publishing venture, Guilty Conscience Publishing HERE. 

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