Thomas Pluck's Blog, page 17

Pluckery among the Anthony Award nominees 2016

Bouchercon 2016 just announced the 2016 Anthony Award nominees, and I am thrilled to know so many of the deserving names, and to be involved in two of the nominated books.

First of all, congratulations to everyone who made the ballot. This is a fan-nominated award, and nothing is more dear to a writer’s heart than to know their books are actually being bought and read. So, thank all the readers for reading and nominating!

The full list of nominees is available at the official Bouchercon page. But to be selfish, the ones that I’m in are both anthologies:

Protectors 2: Heroes, Stories to Benefit PROTECT, was my baby this year and contains 55 stories. You can get the full list here. The book itself is nominated for best anthology, and Holly West’s story “Don’t Fear the Ripper” is also up for best short story! Big congratulations to Holly. You’ll be seeing more of this story, it’s also been selected for a Ripper anthology.

ThugLit Presents Cruel Yule: Holiday Tales of Crime for People on the Naughty List, edited by Todd Robinson, contains my story “Letters to Santa,” plus stories from Johnny Shaw, Hilary Davidson, and many more. Johnny’s story “Feliz Navidead” is also nominated for best story. It’s a Chingón tale, and if you haven’t read or heard one, they are hilarious. Congrats, Johnny!

Some of my favorite writers are up for the award as well. (Many of them have stories in Protectors anthologies, too)  Josh Stallings’ fantastic ’70s glitter heist novel Young Americans is up for best paperback original AND best audiobook, New Yorked by Rob Hart and Concrete Angel by Patti Abbott are up for best first novel, Hilary Davidson’s “The Siege” is up for best short story, Chris Holm’s The Killing Kind is up for best novel, Joelle Charbonneau’s Need is up for best YA novel, Chris Irvin’s story collection Safe Inside the Violence is nommed for best short story collection, Erin Mitchell’s story from Dark City Lights is up for best short story, and … well, just read the whole list. I’m getting tired!

Congratulations again to everyone. I’m thrilled to be nominated for Protectors 2: Heroes, and to have a story in Cruel Yule. And congrats to Erin for her first published story getting nominated in Dark City Lights! Go read it, there are many great NYC tales in there, including my own, “The Big Snip.”

Whew, now let me go pour a celebratory glass of scotch…

Anthony Award nominee (and winner) Hilary Davidson holding Protectors 2:

 

Tagged: Bouchercon, major awards, Protectors Anthology

The Narrative and the Talisman: a Do Some Damage guest post

I’m a guest today at Do Some Damage, talking about UNLOADED, in The Narrative and the Talisman:

“Like America, I have a complicated relationship with guns. One of the first memories I have of my father is him shooting a Colt Junior automatic in the basement when I was six years old. The last memory was the call to tell me he’d committed suicide with a snub nose .38 revolver.”

Read the full post here.

Get Unloaded at your local bookstore or on Amazon trade paperback or Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook or trade paperback.

Tonight I’m signing the book with fellow authors Hilary Davidson, Reed Farrel Coleman, Angel Colon, Alison Gaylin, and Tim O’Mara at The Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan at 6:30pm. Come join us.

Or just grab the book- authors Joyce Carol Oates, Joe Lansdale, Holly West, Tom Pitts, Eric Beetner and others couldn’t make it, but their stories make up for it.

 

Goodbye to ThugLit

It’s a sad day for us literary thugs. Todd Robinson announced on Facebook that the upcoming issue of ThugLit will be the last.

When I started writing again, I picked up a copy of The Best American Mystery Stories 2010, which included a killer story that had first appeared in ThugLit (“Blood and Dirt” by Ryan Zimmerman.) That was my first introduction to the magazine, which I then found and was filled with sadness because it was on hiatus. When Todd jumpstarted it back up again, I devoured it. It was as great as it ever was. And I’m proud that my story “The Last Detail” appears in issue #19.

If you want to pay tribute to a tireless editor who kept one of the few markets for hardboiled, unflinching crime fiction where people can say cuss words alive for so long, why not grab a copy? Or all of them?

ThugLit was a rare paying market for crime fiction, at $50 a story. It was a sign of respect to the writer, that your work has value, and it was much appreciated. At two bucks for the ebook and $6.99 for the paperback, it was easily the best bargain in crime fiction.

When the last issue appears I’ll share it here, and I hope you all will grab a copy, to help repay Todd for his years of editing a magazine in the red, for the love of the genre, and helping so many writers reach our audience.

And if you want to read a funny, hard-hitting crime series with heart, check out Todd’s The Hard Bounce, and the upcoming sequel, Rough Trade:.

 

Tagged: ThugLit, Todd Robinson

Down & Out Books unloads UNLOADED

Unloaded: Crime Writers Writing Without Guns, is now available from Down & Out Books. Edited by Eric Beetner, it includes stories from Joe Lansdale, Hilary Davidson, Joyce Carol Oates, Reed Farrel Coleman, Kelli Stanley, Tom Pitts, Holly West, Tim O’Mara, and many more.

Plus it’s the only way you can read “The Final Encore of Moody Joe Shaw,” the latest Denny the Dent story. When removing a busted fence for an elderly woman, it becomes apparent that somebody has it in for her, perhaps to get their hands on her collection of vintage jazz 78s…. but not if Denny can’t stop them with his two skull-crusher hands.

You can buy the paperback from your local bookstore via IndieBound, or get it for Kindle or trade paperback from Amazon.

Denny the Dent: 5 Tales of Street Justice is only .99 cents this month, if you want to read his previous adventures.

 

 

Get ready to do the Bad Boy Boogie in 2017

I’m thrilled to announce that my first Jay Desmarteaux novel, Bad Boy Boogie, will be published by Down & Out Books in 2017.

For now, a taste:

When Jay Desmarteaux walked out the gates of Rahway Prison, the sun hit his face like air on a fresh wound. The breeze smelled different, charged somehow. He had spent twenty-five years as a monk locked inside a dank Shaolin temple dedicated to violence and human predation, while the men who put him there lived free from fear.

Men who needed killing.

When Jay Desmarteaux walks out of prison after serving 25 years for the murder of a vicious bully, he seeks his family and follows the advice of his convict mentor: the best revenge is living well.

But old friends want him to disappear, and new enemies want him dead. With his wits and fists, Jay unravels a twisted tale of small town secrets and good old New Jersey corruption.

And the AC/DC song that inspired the title:

Unloaded available for pre-order

The newest Denny the Dent story appears in Unloaded: Crime Writers Writing Without Guns, from Down & Out Books. Edited by Eric Beetner, it includes stories from Joe Lansdale, Hilary Davidson, Joyce Carol Oates, Reed Farrel Coleman, Kelli Stanley, Tom Pitts, Holly West, Tim O’Mara, and many more.

And it’s the only place you can read “The Final Encore of Moody Joe Shaw,” where Denny helps an old lady with her crumbling house. It soon becomes apparent that somebody has it in for her, perhaps to get their hands on her collection of vintage jazz 78s…. but not if Denny has anything to say about it.

You can pre-order Unloaded for Kindle or trade paperback from Amazon, or waltz on down to your local bookstore and ask them to order a copy.

And remember, Denny the Dent: 5 Tales of Street Justice is only .99 cents for a limited time, if you need to catch up on him.

 

 

Tagged: Denny the Dent, Writing

Hap & Leonard episode 2: “The Bottoms”

Don’t get too excited, the only ‘bottom’ you see doesn’t belong to Trudy (Christina Hendricks). Another fine foray into Lansdale’s world. Full review at Criminal Element.

Tagged: Criminal Element, Hap and Leonard, Joe Lansdale

Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?

One of the most polarizing films of late is THE WITCH by Roland Eggers, a brutal period piece. Another brutal period piece, The Revenant, nearly won Best Picture, but left many wondering why.

I take on both these films at Criminal Element. Black Phillip is not amused:

 

Tagged: Criminal Element, Horror, Reviews, The Witch

Hap and Leonard, and Joe schooling me

I’ll be reviewing the new Sundance series based on Joe Lansdale’s books, Hap & Leonard, for Criminal Element. The first episode gets the tone and the characters just right. Hop on over to Criminal Element for my full review. I’ve been a fan of the disastrous duo since Savage Season, all the way to Vanilla Ride. I have some catching up to do, there’s a new one called Honky Tonk Samurai that just hit the stores.

Here’s Joe putting me in a fingerlock at Bouchercon in Albany, 2013.

Tagged: Hap and Leonard, Joe Lansdale

Denny the Dent in Unloaded – and a limited time offer

The newest Denny the Dent story, “The Final Encore of Moody Joe Shaw” appears in UNLOADED, out soon from Down & Out Books. For a limited time, you can buy the first five Denny stories for only 99 cents on Kindle.


Of course, the collection is also lowered in price for Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo e-readers and  iTunes for iPad and iPhones.

Reminds me of an old joke–what’s the difference between beer nuts and deer nuts?
Beer nuts are $1.09, but deer nuts are under a buck.
Don’t worry, Denny wouldn’t laugh, either.


 Cover by artist Conrad Teves.
Tagged: Denny the Dent