Wednesday, March 28, 2012

And The Fourth One Ducks

So Paul von Stoetzel's short flick Viscosity based on my short story played the Z-Fest in Minneapolis a week or so back. Took home some honors which is saying something 'bout Paul and his crew as I'm sure that loooooots of people in the audience reallllllly hated it. Why? It's vulgar. Perhaps hits uncomfortably close to home. Maybe you were that theater douche, maybe you've got scars on yur weiner, maybe you slathered Prep-H on your own nethers in a desperate attempt to escape permanent disfigurement on a regular basis (this one's for you, kid - solidarity, yo). So, yeah, to take home any honors at all when I'm sure there were plenny o' films essplorin nobler themes and virtues that may actually be found in wisdom literature and have nothing to do with err... cantaloupe handles at all, that's saying something. Anyhow, congratulations and thanks to Paul, Killing Joke Films and Brute Force Films. Click this link to see Viscosity yourself.

Didja like that? You want more? Well you need to get your ass to N@B April 28th when Les Edgerton, Cortright McMeel, David James Keaton and Erik Lundy will be bringing the hardcore lingo to those with ears to hear. Yeah, I dunno what Lundy's reading, but I gotta say I'm awful fond of his story Shootout at the K-Y Corral from Plots With Guns. And Keaton? Check out this audio record of his performance in Chicago at The Wrong Kind of Reading as presented by the Booked Podcast (somebody get that man some breakfast!). Stay tuned to Booked for more recorded live events - including Anthony Neil Smith, Kyle Minor, Pinckney Benedict and Seth Harwood. Earlier this week they featured Nikki Dolson and John Weagly. Sounds like they'll be moving on to another Chicago event that I missed after this one, and it'll feature Keaton swearing at people and Jason Stuart dowsing those flames with napalm. Can't wait to get my ears on those.

Still a couple days left to get yur eMitts on Lynn Kostoff's The Long Fall and N@B alum Laura Benedict's necromantic Appalachian tale The Devil's Oven... oooh, and how about the Cheryl Mullenax edited The Death Panel anthology featuring more Keaton madness, Tom Piccirilli and a kick-ass entry by N@B kid Fred Venturini? So much free for your digital highness. Long live the new flesh.

Super stoked that Cort and Les are coming out from Denver, and I'm hoping they'll shanghai fellow mile-high scribe Nick Arvin whose latest novel The Reconstructionist took me for a damn fine ride. I wrote a bit about it at Ransom Notes where it inspired a list of books stolen by supporting characters. I also dug Hallgrimur Helgason's The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning recently and I'm curious to hear somebody else's thoughts on that one. But maybe my nicest out-of-left-field surprise of the year to date is Mark Allen Smith's The Inquisitor which I'll be going on a bit about at Ransom Notes tomorrow. Going in to 2012, there were several books I was eager to read (debuts from Jake Hinkson, Owen Laukkanen, Frank Wheeler Jr., Peter Farris, Chris Holm and Stephen Blackmoore had my attention early) but The Inquisitor came without the support of a trusted source recommending it. Nah, it just kinda put me on my ass 'cause I never saw it coming.

Lastly...

Exactly how badass does this look?

2 comments:

Les Edgerton said...

I'm jonesing to get there, Jed. Small correction--Cort's coming from Denver but I'm coming from Fort Hooterville... er, I mean, Fort Wayne. I read Jake Hinkson's brilliant noir novel, HELL ON CHURCH STREET, and was so blown away by it that I took a chance and emailed his publisher, Jon Bassoff of New Pulp Press and begged him to read a mss of mine as I saw a publisher who saw the world as I did, and as it turned out, he agreed and will come out with THE RAPIST next year!

Can't wait to see if St. Louis has good bartenders. I suspect they do...

Unknown said...

Philip Carlo's "The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Hitman" is still the most disturbing book I have ever read. This coming from a guy who read Jack Ketchum's "Weed Species." I only hope they treat the history faithfully for the movie. Seeing as how Richard Kuklinski was both the world's most prolific hitman and serial killer, I don't think Hollywood needs to screw with the facts to make it more dramatic.