author of ASSASSINS ANONYMOUS, THE PARADOX HOTEL, and THE WAREHOUSE
No, I have not been compulsively checking the Amazon sales pages, hoping to see the cover for Kwik Krimes, the anthology hitting August 20 that contains my short story, ‘The Gun with Two Triggers’.
Nope, just stumbled across it completely at random.
It’s pretty sweet though, right?
Check out the latest episode of Unprintable, the LitReactor podcast. It features a special guest, literary agent Bree Ogden, and we cover a lot of good ground, re: finding an agent, publishing, etc.
We also talk about the two least controversial figures in modern literature—Orson Scott Card and Bret Easton Ellis. And also I geek out of The Hard Bounce by Todd Robinson, a book that you should be reading right now, at this moment, and if you’re not, then you are making mistakes I can’t help you with.
Also, interested in being a class facilitator for LitReactor? It’s a paid gig, plus you get access to the lectures from our instructors. Details here.
Finally, Craig Clevenger wrote a fantastic essay for LitReactor: The Safety of Transgression versus the Risk of Honesty. Also would be good of you to drop what you’re doing and read it right now.
I’m teaching a class on marketing and social media over at LitReactor!
It’s going to be fun. I’ll share my experience as the associate publisher at MysteriousPress.com, a reporter, a publicist, and a writer. There will be lectures and assignments and Q&A’s. And maybe cake? I don’t know about the cake yet. Don’t hold me to it.
Seriously though, check it out. If you have any questions, let me know.
The new issue of Crime Factory is out—and it includes my new short story “The Best Job in the World”!
This was inspired by a posting I read on Craigslist years ago, from a guy claiming to be a stripper inspector. It was almost the opening of the novel I’m writing now, and while fun, it didn’t fit the rest of the story. I was excited to be able to salvage it.
The issue is available in print, Kindle format, and also for free, if you’re into free stuff. Check out my story but then stay for the rest. There are some very groovy stories, interviews and articles from some very talented folks. Company I’m honored to included with.
My KDP experiment is over. The Last Safe Place: A Zombie Novella is, once again, available at Barnes & Noble and Kobo.
I’ve resigned myself to the fact that this blog will only ever feature collections of links to stuff I’m doing and haven’t had time to talk about otherwise. It’s cool. I have plans for original content soon. Maybe someday! Anyway…
The lastest episode of the LitReactor podcast is up. Shit gets real.
I stumbled across this blog where I am beaten to shit in the comments section over at article I wrote at LitReactor. It is great.
We’ve got a collection of very cool classes coming at LitReactor. Maybe check ’em out and sign up for one?
Also, we’ve kicked off our latest writing challenge at LitReactor: Teleport Us. Get in on the fun!
Here is an article from Mashable, about print vs. eBooks, in which I am quoted. Woo!
Over at Amazon, the sales page is up for an anthology I’ve got a story in. Somehow I was billed on the main sales page, and am next to Ken Bruen, one of my idols. I don’t even know what to say or do about this. When I first saw it I wanted to cry and vomit at the same time, in a joyful way. It hits in August. You will hear more about it between now and then.
My publishing house just re-released 12 novels from James M. Cain as eBooks. We don’t have the big three (Double Indemnity, Postman, Mildred Pierce), but we have pretty much everything else. Which, still, awesome.
Finally, the KDP window on my novella is up on Feb. 4, at which point I’ll make it available at Barnes & Noble and Kobo again. I’ll let y’all know when that happens.
More TK.
Episode 4 of Unprintable is live. And it features our first guest: Craig Clevenger, author of The Contortionist’s Handbook and Dermaphoria.
We talked erotica, the books we’re reading, and whether writers should get paid for their work. It was a lively conversation, despite the fact that I had taken Ibuprofen PM the night before and it hit me pretty hard, so I was a little spacey during the recording.
But, hey, still fun!
Check it out here. And if you could subscribe and review and rate that baby, it’d be greatly appreciated.
Got a very nice review of the novella, from fellow zombie-writer Leah Rhyne. She’s the author of Zombie Days, Campfire Nights (Undead America), and is generally a pretty cool person, so I was thrilled to get featured over at her site.
Here’s an excerpt:
This book is something more than your standard zombie-fare, though, at least in my opinion. Stylistically, it’s almost…noir-ish. Noir-zombies? Sure! It follows a hardened cop, the people he protects, and his deathly-ill wife, all dark images and long-shot descriptions of the battered Manhattan skyline.
Zombie noir. Love it.
We’ve got a very cool slate of classes coming up at LitReactor. I wanted to share this one, which I’m very excited about.
Patrick Wensink is the author of Broken Piano for President, a pretty fantastic novel that’s best-known for being the “Jack Daniels letter book.”
He’s also an accomplished improv comic, and has some pretty cool ideas on how to apply the rules of improv to fiction writing—in particular, how to use them to build momentum and spark inspiration in plots.
So he’s going to teach a class about it.
I was excited to develop this two-week course with him, and the first lecture is amazing. Interested? Click here to learn more about it.
The fourth installment of my column, Adventures in Self-Publishing, is live. In it, I talk about the Amazon KDP program.
Also live: The third episode of Unprintable, the LitReactor podcast. This is our best one yet. Probably because I was a little drunk. Check it out. If you could pop over to iTunes to review/rate it, that would be greatly appreciated.
The LitReactor shop is open for business. We are selling a very handsome t-shirt and a snazzy mug. Just in time for the holidays! Nothing says love like a mug.
Hey, also, I’ve been promoted to Class Director at LitReactor, which means that I’m now in charge of developing all those online writing classes the site hosts. I’m thrilled to be doing it.
We’ve got two classes coming up that are pretty great: One with Suzy Vitello on dialogue, and one with Taylor Houston on grammar and style. Check them out here. And there’s going to be more to share in the coming weeks.
And, on a final note, this week I got my very first check for a piece of fiction—a short story that’ll appear in Kwik Krimes, an anthology of flash fiction edited by Otto Penzler, to be published by Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer imprint.
It is gratifying beyond words to get paid for making something up in my head. Also, there’s a ton of really amazing authors in it. I don’t know why they let me in.
Kwik Krimes will hit in the spring, I believe. Don’t worry, I will tell you when.
Rob Hart