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Monday, October 31, 2011

I have Chrome Balls, Don't You? by Giovanni Gelati

Seriously, that is the title of the story. It is five pages long and is written by Giovanni Gelati who when he is not writing comedic pieces, or scribing action adventure stories, is helming the great Trestle Press http://www.trestlepresspublishing.com/

I Have Chrome Balls, Don't You? is about the mysterious sport of Bocce. In this tale Gelati makes himself the main character. He did the same thing in his story Hotel Beaumont which he co wrote with B.R. Stateham. This works well in that it adds a more personal touch to the writing.

Giovanni must be an AC DC fan. Because his I Have Chrome Balls, Don't You? uses the same kind of double entendre that their song about a similar subject employed. He does it very well and did a great job of keeping a tether on his creativity and not degenerating into toilet humor. As a result, he penned some adult humor which was very endearing despite the subject.(that being the wonderful sport of Bocce) Along with his great insights on the sport, he made great use of the metaphor of the Bocce ball and equated it very nicely with other cylindrical objects.

I hope he cranks out more stuff because this author(me) will definitely read it.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Fear The Night(Drunk On The Moon) by Julia Madeleine

 Julia Madeleine continues the saga of werewolf PI Roman Dalton. This time he is summoned to Quebec when he is hired by a father to search for his lost daughter.

The story tops out at ten pages. Julia did very well constructing a good action packed plot in such a short space. Also in this piece, she chose the traditional PI story convention of first person reflective narration. What could have been cliche, worked very well because although she starts you off in familiar territory, by the end, she transports you to another plane of wretched existence. Along with that, she does a competant job of melding horror with the PI genre.

An excellent depiction of Quebec. It is exactly what I know that Canadian province to be: cold, run down, and peopled with some very tough characters. Also, it made for a very creepy back drop.

This installment holds up with the first one and delivers a crackling finale. As mentioned earlier, it is more kinetic than B. R.'s and Brazill's version. Nothing wrong with that. Very easy to follow and most enjoyable.  It is another Trestle Press original and can be purchased at www.amazon.com .

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Purple, Bruised, Pulpy, Prose

It was a dark and stormy night and the rain felt like Chinese water torture. I stared at the spider web crack in the murky glass of the door to my office. Bored, I looked down and opened the drawer to my desk and pulled out my trusty revolver(one of the implements of this rough and dirty business) I spun the chamber and then put it on the tattered blotter. Then I pulled out a bottle of Mad Dog, unscrewed the cap, took a swig, and tipped the bottle to all the gutter punks and bag ladies.

Insatiable(Drunk On The Moon) by B. R. Stateham and Paul D. Brazill

Paul D. Brazill came up with a bold, unique idea... after launching his series with his first DOTM installment, he allowed a few of his favorite fans to pen subsequent stories. To be honest, this is something I am not sure I could do with Huey Dusk(which by the way can be purchased for 2.99 at www.untreedreads.com ) A shameless plug. Sorry B.R. and Paul.  Like I said, it was a bold move. One that has obviously paid off for him.

Insatiable is one of those installments. It was scribed by my new Facebook friend B. R. Stateham who has carved a cultish niche for himself with his Call Me Smitty series  published by Trestle Press(www.trestlepresspublishing.com). Ok enough house keeping and time for the "meat" of the story(rim shot)

Insatiable, is another adventure featuring  our favorite lycanthrope PI Roman Dalton. This is a fullfledged mystery. It is a lot more procedural than Brazill's original story and it also differentiates itself by getting into the head of Dalton and showing us that he is capeable of doing some good investigative work. B.R. while making some poetic observations through out the story, keeps his prose short and stacatto. This works really well in that it shows us that Dalton's mind is brutal and efficient--almost like he is thumbing through a mental rolodex.

I also like how B.R. emphasizes the comradery between Dalton and Ivan the homicide detective. And even though they are good friends, because Dalton is a werewolf, he still looks at him like he would a rare T-Bone steak. This keeps with the spirit of Noir where the lines of love and hate are blurred.

Another good installment. I am truly jealous of these guys for creating such a great series-- but, not really. Actually I am cheering them on.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Drunk On The Moon, by Paul D. Brazill

Gum Shoes. Drooling wild eyed werewolves. Green lizards disquised as religious cult leaders. This all comes from the writing of Paul D. Brazill and his story Drunk On the Moon.


I am reminded of that line from the Doors song Riders on the Storm: "His brain is squirming like a toad..."  And with DOTM, Mr. Brazill's mind truly is-- I hope he considers that high praise.


But, I digress. DOTM deals with a private eye named Roman Dalton. He palls around with a bar owner/cabby named Duffy who is less than photogenic with his "Black Dyed quiff"(I feel dirty just repeating that)


Roman is an unusual PI in that he is a werewolf. He became such one night when he tried to take on a pack of Lycanthropes in a bar. So, now, he trawls the mean streets of The City tracking down leads and saving damsels in distress-- sometimes using a gun, or sometimes just ripping his foes into strips of London Broil. You get the general idea.


I'll say it again. I like DOTM. It speaks to all my sensibilities and slakes my thirst for hard-boiled fiction.


DOTM also oozes graphic novel. Dave Zeltserman says it reminded him of Sin City. I think that is a fair assesment. But, whereas Sin City was channeling Spillane, DOTM draws its inspiration from the work of Chandler and Hammet with its gritty, poetic comic book prose.


There are several other installments written by other Trestle Press authors. One is from  BR Stateham of Call Me Smitty fame. I will most undoubtedly scoop those up as well. Drunk On The Moon is published by Trestle Press www.trestlepresspublishing.com  the publishing house created by Giovanni Gelati. The story is .99 cents and can be purchased on Amazon Kindle. An affordable read and money well spent.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Marcel

One of the quintessential characters in the Huey Dusk universe. Marcel is a mime. He started out as the leader of a scraggly group of mime toughs called the Dragon Street Mimes. They handled security for crime boss Floyd Carillo and did other nasty jobs for him. This was the same syndicate that Huey tried to make his bones with. Later on, he and his quiet buddies were recruited by Langley to spy on Floyd since he had the knack for getting his hands on sensitive and dangerous material with disastrous implications.

Although Marcel does alot of favors for Huey, he hates the clown's guts and is responsible for some of the predicaments he gets into. Huey is unaware of the Mime's loathing for him and Marcel prefers it that way. This is so he can manipulate the unwitting joker. Some day when it is necessary, he will take him out, mime style( an imaginary bullet behind the ear)

His reasons for hating the clown are two fold.

Marcel is very bright and has a scheming mind. He comes up with all sorts of plans. Unfortunatley, he is unable to communicate them which means he can't execute them either. This sends him reeling into a silent impotent rage. As a result, he looks at a clown like Huey who is all action and forward motion and he can't help but want to mess him up.

The other reason deals with the history the two have between each other. Both were Langley operatives and were involved in a very messy mission down south on the island of Guano. Their objective was to over throw the tiny country's dictator and make it safe for the Guanese people.

But Marcel and his mime troupe(formerly the Dragon Street Mimes) ended up killing the inhabitants of a tiny peasant village as well as the village padre. Marcel went farther and offed his mime buddies as well.

He blames his temporary blood thirsty insanity on the fact that Huey, who was leading a cadre of clown commandos, was not there to back him and the other mimes up when they took heavy fire from troops in the jungle. Huey swears that he and the rest of the clowns were pinned down on the beach by the same Guanese Army.

Marcel is a very complicated, emotionally fragile character. He has inspired one of the most famous lines ever produced in clown literature: 'That's because he's a mime you moron!'

Thursday, October 13, 2011

A Goulish, Hellish Western.

Hey folks just a quick note. Right now I am so exhilerated about writing. I am writing this goulish, hellish western and me thinks I might be a little too influenced by BR Stateham's Call Me Smitty. But hey, if it keeps me going and helps me complete the story than why not? I promise Mr. Stateham that I will fix this problem in the edit and by the final draft, it will be my own ink-stained beast. But seriously, I can't get enough of Smitty and I heard Paul D Brazill's Drunk On The Moon is out of this world! That too is on my list. Anyway, you can get the work of both these great authors at http://www.trestlepublishing.com/. Just click on the titles on the site and you will be directed to http://www.amazon.com/. Happy reading!

Lou Blatz: Clown Detective

From time to time, I plan to profile various characters in my Huey Dusk stories. Today we are going to talk about Lou Blatz.


Lou is a clown. He makes a cameo appearance in The Pandora Case. In this story, he is a young patrol clown. I dressed him in traditional police blues and an oversized badge. I also gave him a overly long nightstick. His scene takes place down in the subway station where he and his partner Brody are patrolling. Both Lou and Brody see Joey Pantera(main character) standing on the platform not looking too good. They make him for a hophead and they go over with the intention of bracing him. Lou, in this instance, is looking for the smallest reason to pound Joey into bloody hen @#%$^. I don't have Lou say anything. I thought it would be more effective to have him menacing and silent-- but at this point in his life, he has an orange clown afro. So how intimidating can he be?

In subsequent stories, Lou and his partner have worked their way up to homicide detectives mostly, but they catch all kinds of cases. Lou now is definately the leader of detective duo.  He is point clown on all of their investigations and does most of the questioning. Lou's hair is shorter and is red and sprinkled with white and blue speckles; "like sprinkles on a donut". Clowns' hair grays in all sorts of ways. He is dressed in a rumpled dayglo orange trench coat and has a swollen clown nose due to a drinking problem.

He makes it his personal mission to harass Huey Dusk and often times has roughed the other clown up during questioning and interrogation. Huey just manages to chap Lou's clown hide and cause him to see red.

The other interesting fact about Lou is that he and his partner are on the take with several of the crime bosses in the city. With their earnings, they have bought a party pad downtown which they call the Spot. Here, Lou and Brody have some wild parties involving booze and balloon animals.

At some point Lou is going to have his own story. I think it would be very interesting to see Huey Dusk through the eyes of a character who does not particularly like him.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Call Me Smitty by B.R. Stateham

Folks, I have to say I am jealous! Just kidding. But the Call Me Smitty series is something I wish I wrote.  And that is because Smitty is one of the most hard-boiled characters out on the market today.

Now, about Smitty. His name was formerly Johnny. One day while at the bank, Johnny finds a discrepancy of about 30 Gs in his account. He finds out his twin brother stole the money from him. It gets better for us, and goes down hill for Smitty from there on. He arrives at home and finds his brother and his wife naked, and entangled in each others arms like"living mummies."

He hits his brother in the face with a tire iron and knocks him unconcious. He drags his wife outside and puts a gun to her head and pulls the trigger. The gun dry fires. He doesn't kill her, but instead walks away in a sobbing rage. This is the day he is no longer Johnny; intead, he is Smitty!  Part vigilante. Part cold-blooded assassin.

Other than the opening, we don't get too much back story on Smitty. Although, I really don't care. B.R. creates such a gloomy dismal atmosphere with his brutal poetic language. Because of this, I am able to suspend my disbelief and ride along on this roller coaster of mayhem and destruction.

The book is made up of several short stories.  They are almost like vignettes or bloody slices of life. I love that format and I think it really appeals to the modern reader with their busy schedule and fast-paced life style.

I hate to do this, because again, Stateham has made this series his own. However, if I was grabbed by the shirt and held up against the wall and forced to compare him with another author, I would blurt out on Richard Stark and possibly Mickey Spillane. But again, he is no carbon copy of either.

I can't get out of here without saying something about his publisher http://www.trestlepresspublishing.com/. It is run by Giovanni Gelati who from what I have seen has a great business plan in that he is putting out some of the pulpiest modern day pulp out there to date. He has struck gold with Stateham.

I intend to follow this man's career for as long as he is writing.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Hard Man



I've just started Hard Man by Allan Guthrie. I've only read the first four pages and so far it is great. Action and ass kicking from the get go. Also, very spare prose. I don't like to compare authors to other writers, but, it reminds me of Eddie Bunker's work(Mr. Blue in Resevoir Dogs). I will have more to say about the book when I have read a little further. As for right now, thumbs up!

Monday, October 3, 2011

More on Trestle Press: Why I am so excited about writing!

On Facebook, I used to occasionally post this message: "I have the writing bug again". I would state that when I was flooded with story ideas and enthusiasm about writing. When I get this way, I want to write every crime fiction story there is to pen, and read every author who has the smallest trace of mystery in their book or novel. In this case, there are so many tales to tell and read, but as always, so little time.

Well, I am happy to say the "writing bug" is back-- and I thank Trestle Press. Again, I am loving their covers and all of their titles. I can't wait to get my hands on Call Me Smitty by BR Stateham, and Paul D. Brazil's Brit Grit.  I tell you folks, I am starving or shall we say jonesing for some new tough guy or gal stories with just a dolop of horror thrown in. So, as soon as I get a little jingle in my pocket, I am going to click on www.trestlepresspublishing.com and scroll through their list of authors and start buying their e novels and short stories for my little e reader that could, and lock myself away and read, read, read!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Trestle Press

I will have alot more to say about these folks when I have read their authors more extensively. But, I have looked at their website and I am excited. They cater to those who like horror and hard-boiled stories. If you are into writers like Joe r Lansdale, Richard Stark, HP Lovecraft, Mickey Spillane, welcome home! These people are edgy; and they do their authors justice by giving them great book covers. The books are in E format and can be purchased on Amazon.com. Go to the website, www.trestlepresspublishing.com and find a book that interests you, click on it and it will direct you to Amazon. Some of the books can be purchased through Barnes and Noble as well-- but I think the Kindle is the main way you can access these stories. Pricewise, they are $.99 to 4.99. Very affordable. And again, it's another place to quench your thirst for some rockin pulp fiction! 


P.S. Oh and by the way, check the author, BR Stateham. He has a series of stories about an assassin named Smitty that I hear is "smokin".