First Thoughts on Bad Thoughts

From Bill Crider:

"...And it's at this point that the genre gets bent. After that, it's a wild ride. I was reminded a little of Blood Dreams, a novel by the late Jack MacLane, published by Zebra just after the era of the knives-in-fresh-fruit covers. Joe Lansdale's Act of Love had one of those covers, come to think of it. Zeltserman's book would rest comfortably on the shelf beside them. If you're looking for a hardboiled anybody-can-die-at-any-time book that's a change of pace from the usual, look no further. Just check this one out when it appears in July."

You can read the whole review here, and I'd like to thank Bill for taking the time to read Bad Thoughts, reviewing it, and putting it in such fine company.

A Hardluck Sampler

We're in between issues right now at Hardluck, and I thought I'd put together a 12-story sampler from Hardluck's archives to show new readers some of the goodies lurking there. Enjoy.

Punk by Ken Bruen
Beauty by Ed Gorman
"One Step Closer" by Iain Rowan
What's in a Name? by Robert Wm. Wagner
I'm No Killer by Allan Guthrie
Evil Forces by Gary Lovisi
A Handful of Dust by Harry Shannon
Keely Sings The Blues by Sarah Weinman
No Hablo Ingles by Manuel Ramos
Lost in the Water by Trey Barker
Coyote's Ballard by Mike MacLean
Church Social by Pearce Hansen

Hardluck turns the spotlight on Five Star

Here's the general announcement for the Summer issue of Hardluck Stories that John Helfers and I came up with:

"Hardluck Stories announces a call for stories for its upcoming Five Star Publishing edition:

Hardluck Stories, the noir fiction e-zine edited by Dave Zeltserman, is announcing a call for story submissions for a future edition that will celebrate the Five Star Mystery line. Edited by Dave and guest editor John Helfers, who oversees the Mystery Fiction line for Tekno Books, and packager of the Five Star Mystery line, this special edition of Hardluck stories will be open to any Five Star author who wishes to submit, whether they've published in the Mystery, SF/Fantasy, or Expressions lines.

Of course, stories must be noir, the darker the better, and the overarching theme of the edition will be Crime in the City. Stories should be no more than 5,000 words long, are due by July 1, 2007, and should be sent to dz@hardluckstories.com. Authors of the chosen stories will be notified by e-mail. For more information on Hardluck Stories, please visit the website at http://www.hardluckstories.com"

So why a Hardluck Five Star issue? For a lot of reasons, really. One is I have a book coming out with them July 18th. But that's only a small part of it. Without the support of people like Ed Gorman (who created the Five Star Mystery Line), Michael Black, Harry Shannon and Trey Barker, Hardluck wouldn't be what it is today. All of them have of them have been guest editors (in Michael's case, twice), all of them have been contributers, and they all helped shaped Hardluck's vision. There have been other links between Hardluck and Five Star--Jeremiah Healy, who gave Hardluck a much needed boost in the early days by guest editing a special issue of Hardluck, had one of his standalone books published by Five Star and gave me the privilege of publishing one of his stories in the Western Noir issue, as did Bill Crider, who's been a great friend of Hardluck, and also has a standalone coming out through Five Star. Other Five Star authors who've been published on Hardluck include Julie Hyzy and Dave Case. Anyway, Five Star is putting out some terrific crime fiction by some amazingly talented writers, and they deserve any attention Hardluck could provide it. Plus, I'll end up publishing a terrific collection of noir stories in the process. Can't beat that.