This month marks the release of Cat Dixon’s engrossing What Happens in Nebraska, her fifth poetry collection, and as with Eva and Too Heavy to Carry, Stephen F. Austin University Press is the publisher. Arranged into three parts, with roughly twenty poems in each section, the general focus is on the dissolution of a romantic relationship and the process of mending.
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Although I’ve had the pleasure to edit the Lowestoft Chronicle regularly for the past thirteen years, I’ve not been quite so consistent when it comes to the magazine’s anthology series. The previous collection, The Vicarious Traveler, appeared three years ago. Since then, I’ve been stacking up writing projects until my to-do list resembles a weekly grocery list. The tenth Lowestoft Chronicle Anthology was shunted so far down the list it almost dropped off. The abundance of quality poetry and prose in the magazine’s quarterly editions made me take a closer look at that gargantuan to-do list. It was time, I realized, to shuffle things about a bit and make time for An Adventurous Spirit. True to its title, it became an ambitious project—bigger, bolder, and, arguably, better than earlier volumes.
An Adventurous Spirit Read More »
The autumn edition (#51) of Lowestoft Chronicle features fiction by Barbara Bottner, Anne Dorrian, Andrew Edwards, James Gallant, Sharon Frame Gay, and Mark Jacobs, poetry by Cristina Legarda and Joan Mazza, and creative nonfiction by Craig Dicker, Jesse O’Reilly-Conlin, and Lynette Yetter. Among the entertaining stories is “After the Meltdown, On the Hunt,” a provocative dystopic fiction yarn by Mark Jacobs, author of the critically acclaimed novels Stone Cowboy (Soho Press) and A Handful of Kings (Simon & Schuster), in which bankrolled big-game hunters vie for the ultimate prize. The issue also contains my interview with Mark, which covers, among other things, his writing career, valuable advice from mentors, and the Latin American media attack on his most famous short story. Remarkably prolific for many years, Mark’s excellent stories appear in dozens of prestigious venues. As regards this small literary magazine, here’s his splendid assessment of Lowestoft Chronicle: “For those of us driven to know the world, to read it, to write it, Lowestoft Chronicle is an essential way station on the highway. Good writing on things that matter, a clean presentation that’s easy on the eye, and variety that coheres around taste. Check it out.”
Issue 51 of Lowestoft Chronicle Read More »
The John Trinian (aka Zekial Marko) revival continues with this latest twofer from Stark House Press, The Big Grab / The Savage Breast. The author, a very proficient writer of crime novels, found success with numerous works, most notably Scratch a Thief and The Big Grab, each written in the early 1960s. Both of those crime tales became movies—the first filmed as Once a Thief, the latter as Any Number Can Win. Trinian wrote the screenplays.
A John Trinian Twofer: The Big Grab/The Savage Breast Read More »
This month sees the reprint of Grey Face and The Green Eyes of Bâst, two masterful mysteries by the king of eerie occult fiction, Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward (1883 – 1959), known to readers as Sax Rohmer. Although best remembered for his sizable collection of stories featuring the fiendish Dr. Fu Manchu, the author enjoyed great success with many of his other works. His standalone novels and book series containing Parisian criminal investigator Gaston Max attracted a large international fanbase. His tales concerning the female supervillain Sumuru went from radio to book and were eventually adapted to the big screen, spawning a couple of movies (produced in the 1960s and 1980s).
Two Haunting Classics from Sax Rohmer Read More »
As crime fiction collections go, few will better the latest twofer from Stark House Press – The Sailcloth Shroud and All The Way by Charles Williams. These reprints from the late 1950s, released this past month, are a couple of taut, tough, cleverly crafted stories that firmly hold the reader’s attention all the way to the journey’s end.
The second story, All the Way (sometimes known as The Concrete Flamingo), is a gripping noir that tugs at your heartstrings. Whatever your views regarding the intense ending, few can fault the masterful quality of the writing or the intriguing plot. It’s a noir that deserves to be remembered.
Seafaring Thriller Launches Charles Williams Revival Read More »
My short story, “Old Tennis,” about a reunion between two aging, amateur tennis players, was published in BULL: Men’s Fiction this week. I guess you might say of this work that it’s a long in the tooth tale that’s been reoutfitted and newly served. Primarily because I wrote it in 2006, as part of a much longer work, and have been revisiting it and making extensive revisions ever since.
Sometimes, it’s frustratingly hard to let go of a story, even if you are content with how it reads and have a suitable publication in mind. Perhaps the one positive aspect about holding onto it for so long is that it has almost doubled in length over the years. And, doubtless, it’s in much better shape now than if I had presented it to BULL in 2013, which was my original intention.
Story “Old Tennis” in BULL: Men’s Fiction Read More »
In 2017, Stark House published an impressive debut novel by Timothy J. Lockhart titled SMITH. It was a hard-boiled noir that featured an interesting female lead character with plenty of grit and toughness. Lockhart’s subsequent novel, PIRATES, published the following year, was a modern-day high-seas action-adventure yarn set in the Caribbean. This thrilling, blood-and-guts page-turner benefits from a distinctive, memorable lead character – a tough but sensitive loner named Hal Morgan, who is a former Navy SEAL. His latest, A CERTAIN MAN’S DAUGHTER, published recently by Stark House, is another excellent hard-boiled tale that warrants reading. Completely different from his previous work, it is brisk-paced, exhilarating, and just as rewarding as the earlier novels.
The phenomenally successful mystery series by Carter Brown, the pseudonym of British-born Australian pulp writer Alan Geoffrey Yates, spawned close to 300 titles and allegedly sold more than 100 million copies. Considering the popularity of these swift-paced, tongue-in-cheek stories featuring wise-cracking detective Al Wheeler, I suppose it’s not surprising that my bookshelf contains almost two dozen of these novels. And, fortunately, my collection is growing, owing to Stark House Press continuing to reissue the early Al Wheeler adventures.
Carter Brown’s Tales of the Passionate, Mistress, Lover Read More »
This month, Bookgasm gave a very encouraging review of the recent Stark House Press publication WOMAN OF CAIRO, and DEAR, DEADLY BELOVED— two Fawcett Gold Medal originals that are back in print for the first time in decades. “John Flagg, the pen name for John Rex Gearon, introduces us to his series character, Hart Muldoon, in the two novels from the 1950s reprinted here by Stark House Press,” writes book critic Alan Cranis of Bookgasm. “An introduction by editor and author Nicholas Litchfield traces Flagg’s career, the development of the Muldoon character, and how Flagg’s various occupations provided material for his novels and short stories. Both novels are noticeably more hardboiled than other spy novels of the era, but remain as alluring and entertaining as they were when first published.”
WOMAN OF CAIRO and DEAR, DEADLY BELOVED Bookgasm Review Read More »
