David Cranmer's Blog, page 92
February 25, 2013
Available Now: Hardboiled 2
BEAT to a PULP: Hardboiled 2 follows the blood-soaked trail left behind by the 2011 award-winning collection edited by David Cranmer and Scott D. Parker, pumping out another thirteen knuckle-breaking, crime tales. With writers from the 1930s and 40s golden era of pulp (Paul S. Powers and Charles Boeckman) and modern hardboiled masters (Robert J. Randisi and Wayne D. Dundee), this wild bunch is set to blaze a rat-a-tat sweep across the pulp fiction landscape. Keeping the body count high are top-shelf stories from Jedidiah Ayres, Eric Beetner, Jen Conley, Matthew C. Funk, Edward A. Grainger, BV Lawson, Tom Roberts, Kieran Shea, and Jay Stringer.
February 19, 2013
Me And My Girl
This was a candid shot my Charmer took after our little cherub decided she wanted a sip of Daddy's milkshake. Baby Coconut just plopped her straw in my cup and tried it out for herself.
February 17, 2013
February 16, 2013
February 4, 2013
The Big Adios
Ron Earl Phillips, one of the creative minds behind Shotgun Honey, had approached me about a new Western site he was putting together and asked if I was interested in contributing a story. Hell, yeah I was. And so I sent him a piece called "Missing" that I had just finished at the time with gracious input from Chuck Tyrell. Mr. Phillips accepted my story and I'm pleased to say it kicks off the debut of The Big Adios.
In “Reflections in a Glass of Maryland Rye,” which concludes Adventures II, Cash has killed a man and wife who turn out to be innocent. I figured that story would end the Adventures series on what I considered a perfect note, but watching the success of Wayne D. Dundee's MANHUNTER’S MOUNTAIN fanned the writing fires, making me want to sit my butt back in the chair to hammer out a few more. My thoughts returned to ‘Reflections,’ and I knew I wanted to answer how Cash Laramie handled having innocent blood on his hands. “Missing” picks up the story with Gideon Miles tracking his friend to a remote Wyoming location where we find a Cash Laramie living on the edge of what separates the rational with the mad. It's a first in the first: Gideon Miles tells the tale from his point of view. And I hope it's not the last ... the Memoirs of Gideon Miles is something I've been floating around my mind.
Until then, I'm very pleased to say Cash and Miles are at The Big Adios. Take a look and support what I know will be another avenue for top Western fiction on the web.
In “Reflections in a Glass of Maryland Rye,” which concludes Adventures II, Cash has killed a man and wife who turn out to be innocent. I figured that story would end the Adventures series on what I considered a perfect note, but watching the success of Wayne D. Dundee's MANHUNTER’S MOUNTAIN fanned the writing fires, making me want to sit my butt back in the chair to hammer out a few more. My thoughts returned to ‘Reflections,’ and I knew I wanted to answer how Cash Laramie handled having innocent blood on his hands. “Missing” picks up the story with Gideon Miles tracking his friend to a remote Wyoming location where we find a Cash Laramie living on the edge of what separates the rational with the mad. It's a first in the first: Gideon Miles tells the tale from his point of view. And I hope it's not the last ... the Memoirs of Gideon Miles is something I've been floating around my mind.
Until then, I'm very pleased to say Cash and Miles are at The Big Adios. Take a look and support what I know will be another avenue for top Western fiction on the web.
February 3, 2013
Now Available: A Rip Through Time #2: In The Clear, Black Fields Of Night
The new Simon Rip novella by Chad Eagleton is out now. And in case you missed them, the first series of stories can be found here.Book description: In his first adventure, Simon Rip pursued Dr. Robert Berlin from the Ice Age to the end of time to retrieve the most powerful invention the world has ever known, the Baryon Core. Now, with his employer's schemes to control all of time revealed, Rip travels across the centuries assembling a team to stop The Company once and for all. With the assistance of Ada Lovelace, Allegra Byron, John Whiteside Parsons, and a mysterious young boy imprisoned in a medieval monastery, the daring time-cop takes the fight directly to The Company. He'll trace the origins of the conspiracy to the darkest heart of World War II, uncover the mastermind, and discover the secrets of his own past.
February 2, 2013
1/12/13 11:28 PM
I spend a lot of time on construction sites watching buildings and other modern architectural structures being fabricated. I’m not a construction worker myself but I oversee a certain element of the business (don’t mean to be vague but...don’t want any lawyers coming after me...signed confidentiality agreements and all), that puts me around the workers all day.
Guns. Sports. Women. Those are the topics of conversation most days among the workers. They smoke and talk about beer like reverends talk about religion. All with lots of off-color jokes and good-natured ribbing. I walk about this jovial madness, and I think of MASH, that line about acting crazy to keep from going insane. I tweet that quote during lunch, and I bet most of the guys would laugh their asses off about such a sissy-sounding thing as Twitter. These guys are tough, they work long, hard hours, and sometimes the job gets to them after a while. And I get a first-row seat to the show.
This particular day, just as I'm rounding the corner, a fight breaks out, and, when they see me, the two guys stop out of fear of losing their jobs. I look around, making sure no higher-ups on the ladder have seen it. I tell them, “Hey, I’m the biggest joker around but you don’t wanna lose your jobs.” The skinny, bearded one with fresh blood on his lip lies, “We were just joking, Boss.”
Boss? I see why Springsteen loathed the term. Who wants to be a part of the establishment that won’t let these men with soul-sucking jobs vent a bit. Like asking a croc not to thrash his tail. Like a ringmaster I walk to the sidelines, turn, and fold my arms to observe. I'm not the boss, don't want to be, though a report from me could get them fired. Being in the middle, I’m in an odd man out sorta wasteland. I’m ok with that. But just likes these guys need to vent, monotony kills in what I do, and I vote to skip out early thanks to a co-worker who agreed to close shop for me.
I drive the Jeep, listening to Trane’s Greatest Hits, to our home away from home (not my beloved Maine), and receive a big welcome from Baby Coconut who immediately wants Daddy to play with a circle of toy trains. Dinner's underway from my charmer and she fills me in on the progress of the cover art for “In the Clear, Black Fields of Night.” She’s concerned there's too much blue, but I like it and tell her so. Ava's hell-bent on getting her tiny trains in a perfect circle. I help her, and then we sit down to dinner. Afterward, I play some more with Ava and her toys, I network a bit, and my charmer and I finish the night with the movie BEING THERE starring Peter Sellers. We discuss the final scene of him walking on water and I agree with reviews that it was a brilliant stroke of directing. She falls asleep, and, for whatever reason, I feel like letting my friends in Blogger world know all about it.
Guns. Sports. Women. Those are the topics of conversation most days among the workers. They smoke and talk about beer like reverends talk about religion. All with lots of off-color jokes and good-natured ribbing. I walk about this jovial madness, and I think of MASH, that line about acting crazy to keep from going insane. I tweet that quote during lunch, and I bet most of the guys would laugh their asses off about such a sissy-sounding thing as Twitter. These guys are tough, they work long, hard hours, and sometimes the job gets to them after a while. And I get a first-row seat to the show.
This particular day, just as I'm rounding the corner, a fight breaks out, and, when they see me, the two guys stop out of fear of losing their jobs. I look around, making sure no higher-ups on the ladder have seen it. I tell them, “Hey, I’m the biggest joker around but you don’t wanna lose your jobs.” The skinny, bearded one with fresh blood on his lip lies, “We were just joking, Boss.”
Boss? I see why Springsteen loathed the term. Who wants to be a part of the establishment that won’t let these men with soul-sucking jobs vent a bit. Like asking a croc not to thrash his tail. Like a ringmaster I walk to the sidelines, turn, and fold my arms to observe. I'm not the boss, don't want to be, though a report from me could get them fired. Being in the middle, I’m in an odd man out sorta wasteland. I’m ok with that. But just likes these guys need to vent, monotony kills in what I do, and I vote to skip out early thanks to a co-worker who agreed to close shop for me.
I drive the Jeep, listening to Trane’s Greatest Hits, to our home away from home (not my beloved Maine), and receive a big welcome from Baby Coconut who immediately wants Daddy to play with a circle of toy trains. Dinner's underway from my charmer and she fills me in on the progress of the cover art for “In the Clear, Black Fields of Night.” She’s concerned there's too much blue, but I like it and tell her so. Ava's hell-bent on getting her tiny trains in a perfect circle. I help her, and then we sit down to dinner. Afterward, I play some more with Ava and her toys, I network a bit, and my charmer and I finish the night with the movie BEING THERE starring Peter Sellers. We discuss the final scene of him walking on water and I agree with reviews that it was a brilliant stroke of directing. She falls asleep, and, for whatever reason, I feel like letting my friends in Blogger world know all about it.
February 1, 2013
All Due Respect (The Anthology)
In 2010 the online crime fiction journal All Due Respect blasted its way across the internet leaving a trail of blood and mayhem. Written by some of the best up and coming authors on the crime fiction scene, the stories inside this volume will leave you breathless. A few of them may even make you sick to your stomach and then double check all your doors and windows before you go to sleep. These pages are filled with thugs, grifters, dope dealers, and killers who make no apologies about who they are or what they do. All Due Respect is about crime, not the solving of crime, not the bemoaning of crime, just the bad things that bad people do. So pull up a chair, grab a drink, and keep an eye on that guy in the corner as you read All Due Respect.Stories by: Joe Clifford, Tom Hoisington, Mike Toomey, Erin Cole, Stephen D. Rogers, Scotch Rutherford, Patricia Abbott, Nigel Bird, Andrez Bergen, Benedict J. Jo...nes, Garnett Elliott, Alec Cizak, Christopher Grant, Gary Clifton, Jack Bates, Ryan Sayles, Tom Pitts, Pete Risley, CJ Edwards, Jim Wilsky, Chris Leek, Richard Godwin, Mark Joseph Kiewlak, Mike Monson, Tyler M. Mathis, Matthew C. Funk, Fiona Johnson, Ron T. Brown, David Cranmer
January 30, 2013
The Last Cash Laramie
Pulp Modern Number Four features my latest Cash Laramie story, "Merciless." This hardboiled post-western follows the Outlaw Marshal into the 1930s. Cash still lives in Cheyenne but the town around him has changed and not for the better. Men are soft and the beer is watered down. Then, to top it off, the seventy-year-old Cash is challenged by a young upstart who knocks down the famed lawman in the saloon he's frequented for the last quarter century. With a bruised ego, Cash limps home to an unloving girlfriend who's been hounding him to sell his memoirs for a few dollars. What's left? Well, a final showdown between the 'civilized' world and a man who knows how to be merciless. This story may be the last chronologically for Cash Laramie. I had a helluva lot of fun writing it with gracious help from Chuck Tyrell. And thanks to editor Alec Cizak.
January 27, 2013
Five Years Begins at BEAT to a PULP
Five years begins today at BEAT to a PULP. Damn, that time has bulleted by, and who am I to drag it down with pretentious meanderings. So, real quick, HUGE thanks to the writers and editors who made it an award-winning and successful run to date. Now, let’s get to 2013 and our story of international intrigue by Andrew Nette called “One Ashore in Singapore.”
