9 Days of Madness

It's that time of year again. Following on the success of Chris Allonotte's EIGHT DAYS OF MADNESS contest last year, he has graciously decided to do it again this year. The theme is "unsettled", max word count 1,500, and you can find out all the deets HERE

Charles Gramlich is over at Novel Spaces ( a great site) talking about the element of  "surprise" in writing. Charles has a great way of breaking things down so they are easily understandable. Check it out 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?

Seana, we hardly knew ya

What a good surprise I got when I read Seana Graham's blog post. She did a really excellent podcast at KUSP 88.9 in California, where she talks about her writing, GRIMM TALES, books, and Ebooks. She did a tremendous job with the questions and the quality of the audio is crystal clear. So cool to put a voice with the pic and the virtual personality. Be sure to give it a listen HERE (Seana comes on at about the 45 minute mark) and check out Seana's blog HERE. If you would like to have a look at GRIMM TALES, click on the cover on the left side of this blog.

While I'm on the podcast theme, Steve Brewer, who I became a huge fan of in 2011 was a guest on the Morning Show with Larry Aherns KIVA.AM (New Mexico).Very entertaining and well worth a listen ( Steve comes on at about 6:50 mark)  HERE.

Steve also has a new short story, PAYOFF available for free at Smashwords HERE

On a more personal note, I have 3 short stories available today for FREE on Amazon: THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE BLOOD FARM, and THE MONKEY TREE. If interested, just click on the book covers on the right side of the blog to take a look, and perhaps download.

News From John McFetridge

John is one of my favorite authors. He writes the kind of crime / suspense stories I really, really love. His novel, TUMBLIN' DICE will be on my e-reader the minute it comes out in March. He also shared an exciting, innovate, marketing strategy his publisher ECW Press has come up with. Check out John's post on the topic HERE



And.......I have made my novel MINDJACKER available for FREE download at Amazon today and tommorrow. I have also, since yesterday, made all my crime / suspense short stories free at Amazon. This will continue through end of today.

You can click on any of the covers on the sides of this blog to find them in the US, and click HERE for the Amazon UK store.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone!