6.6.22

Guns. So I have a story about that...

Story six from my novel Chimpman Zee, to be exact. I've decided to post it because it conveys my feelings about guns better than any tweet or post I could write. I'm not sure it needs much of an intro, the novel is episodic, so each story stands mostly alone, but the bare bones: Zee is a private detective in the golden age of Hollywood, but one with a difference. He is highly territorial, has certain rules he abides by (each story covers one rule), and has a fantastic origin he, but not the reader, fully understands. He is plagued by an alter ego he calls the animal which forces him to live a Jekyll and Hyde existence. In previous stories, he has had several run ins with the LA sheriffs’ department, namely Detective-Sergeant Dulls and Lieutenant Bulkowski, and the LA Syndicate. He spent time as a child in an orphanage, and at Joliet State Penitentiary where he was protected by another prisoner, a self-educated man named Lucius. The story begins with a dream out of Zee's childhood…

People don’t Kill People. Guns do.

10.5.22

Shorlisted for the Aurealis Awards

My sci fi novella 'Access Denied' has been shortlisted in the 2021 Aurealis Awards. Thanks to all involved!
Aurealis Awards

30.3.21

A Concise Definition of Crime Noir

Crime Noir is about the corruption of codes. The hero has his own code and damn the rest because all other codes are corrupt. All true moral impulses are individual, internal. External moral impulses are always corrupt – that is induced by fear. The fear can be physical, metaphysical or social (jail, hell, ostracism). The hero rejects any imposition of outside moral values because he will not be cowed by fear. Not fear of death, not of loneliness, not by loss of freedom, or punishment in the hereafter. 

This sets the hero apart. He is a loner. A law unto himself. Only the strength of his own moral resolve separates him from the criminals he hunts.