He was a handsome devil.
Near To The Knuckle, an online British crime/mystery magazine, has accepted my short story, Trainwreck. The story is a pastiche of the Continental Op stories written in the 1920’s by Dashiell Hammett. I read Hammett’s novels before I read his short stories, but have always been very impressed by both. One of the things about the Continental Op stories that appealed to me was how very hard boiled they were. They take a cold, matter of fact look at life with little in the way of sentiment to cloud the picture. Other than the facts that he was fat and middle-aged, the reader knows nothing about the Continental Op, not even his name. The Op seemed to live only to work for his detective agency with little in the way of human wants or needs. My protagonist in this story shares the original’s corrosive cynicism and dedication to getting the job done, no matter what the cost.
The actual idea for the story came from reading a biography of Carl Panzram, one of America’s most vicious and depraved serial killers. Beaten and horribly abused for decades in and out of prison, Panzram became “a wolf to man” to use Horace’s phrase. While he carried out many individual murders, Panzram was obsessed with bringing about as much mayhem and harm to the human race as possible, even fantasizing about provoking a war between the USA and Great Britain. He was a true misanthrope, not some poser who just grouses about people being awful. One of his fixations was to wreck a train going through a tunnel and then to loot the dead travelers’ bodies. I used Panzram’s scheme as the premise for my plot, but had a gang of criminals carry out the plan rather than one lone nut.
My sincere thanks to editors Craig Douglas and Darren Sant for their decision to accept the story. As you’ve probably gathered, I’m a big fan of Hammett and Trainwreck is just my way of paying him tribute. I’ll be sure to let everyone know when the story appears in Near To The Knuckle. The editors have informed me that there will also be a spoken word version available soon and I’m very much looking forward to hearing that.
Bobby makes great scary faces.
On another front, last Saturday I had the distinct pleasure of catching my old friend Bobby Liebling’s band, Pentagram. I’ve seen the original doom rockers so many times since the ’70’s that I’ve lost count (the same thing happened with Motorhead and the Ramones), but this was by far and away the best set I’ve ever seen them perform. Bobby’s guitarist, Victor Griffin, was doing some major shredding. The band’s about halfway through a big tour of the States and Europe so that may partly account for their being in such good form. The band played all their heavy hits from the past and some pretty decent rockers off their new album, Curious Volume.
It’s always great to see Bobby; he’s an incredible rock’n’roll performer. I don’t know anyone who can promote such a good time while singing about the most morbid subjects imaginable. Also, a shout out to the five foot tall metalhead with two feet of hair who stood behind me. I kept getting the impression that something was brushing against me and finally realized that I was being gently flogged by this guy’s mop while he obliviously headbanged away. I moved away from him, but still could feel the breeze from his flailing locks. Thanks a lot for the extra ventilation, kid!