End of the road for Fast Lane

Fast Lane is a book I have a lot of affection for, and given emails I've received over the years from members of the hardboiled/noir reading group, Rara Avis, it's a book that hardboiled and noir fans really dig also. This was not only the first book I ever wrote, but it was also the first piece of fiction I ever wrote that I intended for publication, and in some ways its also one of my more ambitious books with it being both psychotic noir and hardboiled PI deconstruction, while also being thematically about the corrosive effects of child abuse as its passed from one generation to the next. While the writing at times is kind of rough, it's also very high energy and it fits the book. Given all that, I've decided to take it out of print, and purchasing of new copies should be turned off by middle of January.

I have no qualms with the publisher, Point Blank Press. They are what they are--a small POD house that has very limited distribution and almost no marketing, but my hope is to someday be able to find a home for Fast Lane--either in its current form, or maybe as a graphic novel--where it can end up better marketed and distributed. With Small Crimes selling as fast as Serpent's Tail is able to print and ship copies here, and with Pariah coming out soon---which is the book that both myself, my publisher and editor at Serpent's Tail are really excited about, I think it's worth taking the chance. I hope it happens, 'cause I have little doubt that given the right home, Fast Lane would find its audience.