EVERYONE LEAVES IN THE END

Put the cat down today. Old gal was with us for 13 years. Got her when we had nothing.

We were living in an old trailer home in a cow pasture near Antonino, KS. An old farmer stopped by, had this little ball of black fur. He asked if we wanted it because if we didn't he was going to take it to the pond and drown it. Too many feral cats can cause a lot of problems and he had too many the way it was.

We took her in. We took her from KS to FL, screaming all the way.

She was anti-social. She made her own way. She ran the roost. I often felt my wife and I were her puppets—she just had that kind of personality.

But over the last few months she quit eating. We tried different foods, which only worked for awhile. This past week she gave up completely.

Last night Kitty vomited thin black blood. The jig was up.

The old doc gave it too me straight: kidneys are shot. She's shot. I knew this. I cannot and will not let an animal suffer.

The doc put her down—two seconds and she was Gone City.

Kitty—she was a good cat.

I buried her between two crepe myrtles in our back yard.

See that cat up there. Cat says buy the new edition of THUGLIT. Cat says his pops wrote a screamin' story for THUGLIT. Cat says if you don't buy, he'll show up at your house with knuckle dusters and a bad attitude.

It's under a buck. It's the most hardboiled short collection out there. It has my story, A Clean White Sun.

Buy it.

Dig it.

Stay chill.

The Re-Boot. Thuglit- September 1st, 2012

Thuglit's back and September 1st is the date to mark. Big Daddy's really opening things up here- Thuglit as a paying market. That's cash money, the dough-rae-me. Call it good for everybody submitting stories in the short crime fiction genre.

Cool factor: I'm lucky enough to be a part of the shindig.

Stay chill

The Season

Writing and just feeling so damn good about it, watching brown Anole lizards crawling on anything and everything outside my window and just plain happy that football season is here—Go Pack!

Stay chill.

Watery Grave Invitational Results

1st Prize: GENNY BOW by Chris LaTray ($50 & a bye into the next WGI)

2nd Prize: FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK by Mike Wilkerson ($35 & a bye into the next WGI)

3rd Prize: THE DROWNING OF JEREMIAH FISHFINGER by Ian Ayris ($20 & a bye into the next WGI)

4th Place: TWO KILOGRAMS OF SOUL by Keith Rawson (A bye into the next WGI)

5th Place: ABOLITION OF MIDNIGHT by John Higgins (A bye into the next WGI)


Faired pretty good against some excellent competition. Naomi over at The Drowning Machine runs this annually and does a great job hosting the event. It's a ton o' fun.

She's also a fantastic promoter of crime fiction. Usually, she publishes the winning stories on her blog. But this year, she's allowing everyone to explore other outlets which will benefit us, the writer. Naomi is the real deal. And so are the writers who participated and the judges who took the time to read our work. Cheers.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with this damn story.

Stay chill.

Sights

Peel a ripe mango and shove your nose into it. That's the smell of a frangipani blossom.



Rocky the dog went out drinking again last night. Looks like its back to rehab for him.



This is Spike. Spike's our pet spider...I think.



Rocky's asking, "Is this my new room?" No, Rock, this is the baby's room–say what?



Downtown St. Pete this past Christmas. Yeah, short sleeves and shorts.



Another downtown shot.



Stay chill.

THUGHLIT–BACK IN BLACK

Most of you have probably heard, but in case you didn't, take notice: Thuglit is back, Jack. And nobody brings it like Big Daddy Thug-Todd Robinson-and his crew. The dirty deeds. The bad men. The fast cars and fast women.

Stay chill.

STP On The Docket

Living in a duplex in Hays, KS, next to a guy with a shit ton of boogers who never blew his nose. Driving around those old shale roads in my Toyota truck and parking at the entrances of oilfield lease roads, listening to either George Strait or STP. Here's a taste of the latter. Such great lyrics. Music that kept me going. Music that was and is entertaining.

Stay chill.

My Day—One Minute

So I’m trying to write and this cocky squirrel on the fence outside my window is chomping acorns and eyeballing me while I’m drinking tequila and listening to the Chambers Brothers and they’re telling me to “Do It” and I can’t because I don’t know what to do so I’m writing this and eyeballing this squirrel right back because what’s good for that jacked up goose is good for the goddamn gander. Eyes strafe. Squirrel bolts.

Another second inside my head.

Chambers Brother switch it up—Let’s Get Funky—Right on. Wind’s stretching out crepe myrtle’s. Ants are crawling outside my door and some chump wants to dump a butt load of chemicals on ‘em—that’ll fix em, he says. I tell him to take a flyin’ fuckin’—shut yo mouth! Fan’s blowing but it’s still hot as hell back in this window laced room because when May hits down here you start sweating and you don’t stop, and you don’t stop—Sure Shot.

Check that—Chambers Brothers are telling me to Wade in the Water. Dive in DEEEEEEP. Salt. Fluid. Mouth. Lungs.

Back on shore—don’t EVER mess with the Chambers Brothers—Chambers Brothers are BAAAAAAD!

Stay chill.

A Picture Worth Wetting Yourself Over

God love a dog.

Stay chill.

South Korean Crime Noir

I don't watch much television. But on Friday nights, I like a good movie. I'd ran the gamut of American crime and noir. Even some French. No, this ol' boy ain't very cultured, but I'll try most anything.

We have streaming Netflix. I kept noticing all these South Korean movies and by reading the summaries, it looked as though the South Korean's love their crime. I held off. The Asian language has always been difficult for me to follow (I know, subtitles). Still, I noticed they were getting pretty high ratings. I gave one a chance. Then two and I'm still going.

I started with a film called I Saw the Devil. Talk about blowing me out of my tighty whities. Great production quality. Good story. Great acting. Brutal and beautiful.

From there I went to The Chaser. Not quite on par with I Saw the Devil, in my opinion, but still very good. My wife was even interested and this type of movie is not her thing. She's not much for subtitles, either.

I don't do reviews, so I don't expect you to glean much information from this post. Still, check 'em out if your bored off your ass this weekend and are willing to try something different. Yeah, I know, the playoffs are on. But, we all know the Packers are going to take it all again this year anyhow.

Stay chill.

Working Man Blues

I hate the 9-5 grind with an unmeasureable intensity. I've never even discussed the workplace here, because I like to separate work (job) and writing (passion). And I will continue to do so. But every now and then, I get one of those phone calls from one of those customers/idiots/a-holes...well, I think the illustration above says it all.

Man, I feel better.

Stay chill.