Emily J McNeely's entertaining nautical story, Peragua, graced the Microstory A Week site today.
Peragua, as she describes it, is a "an excerpt from a longer story, about a pirate crew in the Caribbean in the 18th century and the tensions between the captain and his first mate, who is looking to leave his service."
This is a great read, one you should check out -- and don't forget to check out next Wednesday's tale, Kurt Newton's dark and cryptic Black Dog.
(pb; pulp fiction magazine/anthology: Summer 2015, Vol. 1 Issue 4)
Overall review:
The twenty pieces -- seventeen stories, three author reviews -- in this issue of Dark Corners are worth reading. Some pieces grabbed me more than others, but I could see why the editors included all these works in their latest product -- worth owning, this.
Standout stories:
1.) "The Good Step-Dad" -- Heath Lowrance: A hasty marriage leads to domestic hell, where a stepfather feels he has to teach his boy how to be a man. Naturally -- and predictably, if you're a nit-picky reader -- the situation worsens, in violent ways.
What makes this chatty story stand out is how the step-dad -- from whom we hear the tale -- sees the chain of events, as well as their reasons and his justifications. The last few lines of this are stellar, making this work stellar, also.
2.) "Cool Reception" -- Will Viharo: An ex-con and his bigamist wife argue at her wedding. This dialogue-, sex- and violence-driven story is funny (in a dark, nasty way), full of emotional knife-twists and over-the-top intense. Entertaining marriage-is-truly-hellish piece.
3.) "Wolves" -- Ed Kurtz: A farmer and his son try to fend off a harsh winter, starvation and wolf attacks in this bleak-toned Western survival story. It does not go anywhere unexpected, but the writing is excellent in its starkness.
4.) "This Thing" -- Patrick Cooper: Good, pulp-solid tale about a man (Berger) who hires his landscaper (Bauer) to murder Berger's wife.
5.) "Tips" -- Warren Moore: A kidnap victim tries to escape from her Coach, who has just kidnapped her -- this piece is microfiction-effective and darkly funny, with a great end-line.
6.) "Better Man" -- James Queally: Good, pulpy work about a man (Rey) who means to do away with his emotionally blackmailing mistress so he can fully commit to a better woman. Full of twists and turns, this is an entertaining read.
7.) "Guts and a Gun" -- Jason Lairamore: A Chicago man's Vegas trip turns violent when bad money, a monkey and goons get involved in it. Good read, I especially enjoyed the dialogue at the end of it.
8.) "Mayej" -- Emily J. McNeely: A woman (Jennifer) and her melodramatic mother (Brenda) travel through Mexico, unaware that it will suddenly get better. Fun, solid piece.
(pb; pulp fiction magazine/anthology: Spring 2015, Vol. 1 Issue 3)
Overall review:
The third issue of this beating-heart-of-pulpiness magazine is just as exciting as its first two issues. Many of the fiction pieces have a nasty crime and borderline psychopathic feel to them and there are some intriguing speculative fiction and horror-ish works. These works are rounded out by a few book reviews and one striking, excellent poem (see the "Standout pieces" section below).
If you're a fan of pulp, this is a worthwhile magazine to support. This issue can be purchased here.
Standout pieces:
1.) "Long Time Gone" - Chris Leek: An ex-con's bad timing complicates his relationship with his daughter and their freedom. Especially good tale that is pulp-interesting and emotional, without being bathetic about it.
2.) "People Bug Me" - Will Viharo: An on-the-lam reporter interviews a small town shrink for an article after the shrink has been attacked by one his patients -- a teenage "lycanthrope," according to the doctor. Then things get really weird. . . this quick-blast, fun and excellent story has a Fifties film feel, appropriate since two Fifties films inspired it: The Sweet Smell of Success and I Was a Teenage Werewolf (both were released in 1957). One of my favorite stories in this issue.
(This story was originally published in the fifth issue of Nightmare Illustrated magazine in March 2014.)
3.) "The Bounty Hunter" - J. David Osbourne: Carnal and memorable piece about a tracker who encounters a criminal whose bizarre predilections unsettle the tracker. Funny finish to this one.
4.) "Sinner's Holiday" - Mark Krajnak: No-words-wasted, boiled-to-its-pulpy-core versework about the elements of a losing situation. Excellent, perfect, one of my favorite pieces in this issue.
5.) "Family Matters" - Bruce Harris: Two ex-cons (one a pro, the other crime-dumb) take on a closer-to-home job to avenge a misdeed. Quick plot-pretzel, gains-acceleration-as-it-progresses work, with a nasty, satisfying ending.
6.) "Twice Dead" - Gabino Iglesias: A P.I. (Maschietti), hired by a wealthy, drug-cognizant zombie (Areola Armstrong), tracks down the mysterious murderer of her famous scientist father. This clever story hits most of the expected Chinatown-esque marks, but knowing Iglesias' references adds to the fun (in this instance).
7.) "The Last Blue Sky: Starflight" - J.J. Sinisi: Jet packs, Japanese demons and Nazis highlight this America-has-been-invaded speculative fiction tale. "Last" is a chock-full-of-action, imaginative read, with an open-to-a-sequel ending.
8.) "Man's Gotta Eat" - Warren Moore: Brutal stream-of-consciousness story about a low-life, interesting in an intense and morally void way.
(pb; pulp fiction magazine/anthology: Winter 2014, Vol. 1 Issue 2)
Overall review:
Another excellent issue of this promising magazine, this: it has twenty-nine pieces which range from down 'n' dirty crime and Western fiction (sometimes with a touch of the supernatural and the bizarre) to author, book and publishing house reviews (e.g., a review of All Due Repect Books, as well as several works by authors mentioned in the "Standout stories" section below) -- in short, Dark Corners magazine is something that all noir and pulp fans should purchase and otherwise support. (Another purchase link for this issue on Amazon.com will be available soon.)
Get your copy now, if you can.
Standout stories:
1.) "The Rehab Tiffany" - Greg Garth: An ex-Marine-for-hire takes on a gang who put his friend's sister in the hospital. Straightforward, well-written and rough action-revenge story that's all appropriate attitude and no filler.
2.) "The Lost Sock" - Will Viharo: Mood-effective desperation, dread, eroticism and surrealism highlight this pop culture-savvy and lust-crusty work about a down-on-his-luck man trying to locate a missing sock. Excellent, Twilight Zone-esque tale, this.
3.) "The Joe Flacco Defense" - Eryk Pruitt: A dissatisfied wife kills her Fantasy Football Idiot husband then covers it up - perhaps too enthusiastically. Darkly funny work that, in an updated, reworked and lighter spirit, reminded me (in a good way) of a similarly structured tale I recently read: Richard Stark's "The Curious Facts Preceding My Execution" (published in the 1962 anthology Alfred Hitchcock's A Hangman's Dozen). Fun piece.
4.) "Davey Jones' Locker" - V.A. Freeman: Another fun read about a man (Pete) who become a sailor on a boat whose captain is not only incredibly brave, but might possess some disturbing - if somewhat out-in-the-open - habits. Eagle-eyed readers will likely see where this story is headed, but it's still an entertaining ride.
5.) "I Don't Want You To See" - Thomas Livingston: A low-level drug dealer gets an unwanted, dangerous promotion because of someone with a big mouth. Well-written, gritty story.
6.) "Spare Change" - April Hawks: Interesting piece about a life-lucky man (Calvin) whose blessed streak ends in tragedy, altering him in drastic ways. Fun, effective tone-twist shift at the finish.
7.) "Zombies, F##king Zombies" - Max Sheridan: In a country overrun by undead (who are only good for killing and sex), a man (Carmine) puts out a hit on his live-in mother-in-law. Things go badly, of course, and the combination of the above elements make this a fun read.
8.) "Bellringers" - Emily Moore: Darkly humorous Aesops Fable-esque tale about a physically-assaulted waitress, holiday donations and people in general. Good read.
9.) "Burnt Wood" - Warren Moore: A cowboy, after a long desert ride, spends the night in a Old Western town (Burnt Wood, Colorado) and finds that everything he has been led to believe about this town is wrong.
Moore takes what would be an Amateur Hour Cliché in lesser hands and turns it into an effective twist that makes this story memorable, when combined with its smart, humane finish. I enjoyed this story a lot.
(pb; pulp fiction magazine/anthology: Fall 2014, Vol. 1 Issue 1)
Overall review:
Excellent two hundred and fifty-nine-page anthology that got published as a pulp magazine - it's got a bit of everything for lovers of this genre: stories, novella segments, book reviews and author interviews. While not all of the thirty-seven pieces struck me as wonderful - there were a few, disappointments I chalk up to my personal preferences - I could see why the McNeelys and Gallagher published them. If future issues of this magazine-anthology are this exceptional and gut-punch effective, this will be a read-every-issue publication.
Standout works:
1.) "Company Man" - Tom Pitts: A hit man (Jerry) offers to show a new-to-crime associate (Rico) an imaginative way to do a job. Well-written, effective finish.
2.) "Short and Choppy" - Will Viharo: Grisly, sexually explicit and brutal story about a dwarf (Cameron) whose hatred for his writing teacher (Sean) and lust for Sean's wife (Sabrina) leads Cameron toward some fantastically violent actions. Excellent, black-hearted and noirish laugh-out-loud tale.
3.) "Domestic Tableau" - Warren Moore: An adolescent's life of crime and drug addiction place him and his family in desperate and dangerous situations. There are some nice twists at the end, with a clever, theme-appropriate mention of the band Queensrÿche as a story-layer element (for those familiar with their early-to-mid-career music).
4.) "The Husband Killers" - Deborah Lacy: During the live taping of a popular morning show, a man dies on camera, the apparent victim of poisoning. Detective Jocelyn Reed, at the scene of the crime, has to weed out the killer or killers from a large group of people - most of whom have sufficient motives to want the man dead. This is a good, attention-holding read.
5.) "Adele" - Vito Racanelli: Immediately involving tale about a cop (Sommers) who stabs his cleaver-slashing wife (Adele) in self-defense while the only witness - her latest lover, a junkie - escapes. Now, Sommers must track down the junkie before Sommers gets sent to prison. There aren't a lot of surprises in "Adele," but it's well-written.
6.) "Next to Nothing" - Sam Wiebe: A private investigator (John Wakeland) tries to talk down an old acquaintance (Mr. Jacks) after Jacks - grieving for his dead son, Wakeland's friend - gets violent with sharp objects in his motel room.
Excellent, memorable, horrific and humane (if bleak) work, one that sensitive animal lovers might want to skip.
7.) "The Natanhala Kidnapping" - Gary L. Robbe: Disturbing, effective story about old friends who resurrect an outdated ritual of kidnapping each other on their honeymoons - only this time, the ritual goes south in an irrevocable way.
8.) "Off, Park and Up" - Martin Zeigler: An OCD-addled, cineaste encounters agitating delays on his all-important "Movie Day." Laugh out loud funny (in a dark way, of course), tone-effective work.
9.) "Will Viharo: Unsung Hero of the Pulps" (article) - CT McNeely: Excellent, succinct overview of, and appreciation for, Viharo's work and his in-the-flesh contributions to the pulp and cinematic genres. A man of many talents, Viharo deserves to be recognized for what he's done and this is a worthy salute to the man.
10.) "John D. MacDonald's The Executioners" (book review) - Reviewed by Dyer Wilk: MacDonald's 1957 novel, which brought into being two films, both titled Cape Fear (one in 1962, the other - a remake - in 1991) gets its worthwhile due once again. Good, smart review.
