Pluck You, Too! the blog of Thomas Pluck, Author

Review: Fast One

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Fast One by Paul Cain

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A deserving classic of the hard-boiled crime genre, Cain's spare prose is riveting with its minimalism. A character in a few strokes and exclamations. Gerry Kells, a hard-nosed crook who skipped to the city of Angels to gamble, goes to collect his winnings and walks into a politically staged murder. From that moment on he plays every operator against each other with ruthless efficiency and a cunning double-cross nature, daring with a level of violence his foes cannot conceive of attempting. Along the way we get a moll and a chubby gunman named Borg who delighted me with their gallows humor in the face of machine-gun slaughter.
Not a bloody novel, its stark brutality lies in its exposure of the ruthlessness of political machines and the rough men who keep them in power.

A must read for any fan of the crime story. No P.I.'s, just dirty cops, bookies and bootleggers scrabbling for each other's naked throats.

View all my reviews

Crime writers helping Crooks

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:15:00 +0000

The price of postage just went up. That means you have stacks of useless stamps lying around. Sure, you could go to the post office and buy 1 cent stamps. You can try taping a penny next to it. You can be extremely lazy and wasteful and use two stamps instead of one.

Or you could donate those stamps to Books Through Bars, who mail books to prison inmates.

They also accept paperback books, but check the page for their criteria. They don't want old textbooks, they don't want your junk. However, they do want poetry anthologies. Now that a majority of older poetry is online in the public domain, you can clear up shelf space by sending them your Complete Poems of John Donne...

I mailed them our old wedding stamps, and I'll be clearing my shelves of books I haven't cracked open in a decade.

© 2011 Thomas Pluck

Where I Write

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:43:00 +0000

The tool: 13" Mac Air 128gb

The playlist: Run DMC's first album and Raising Hell (Denny story in progress)

The beer: The Vixen, Samuel Adams chocolate chili bock

The cat: Charlie T. Cat Esq., aka Charliandoc, aka the Gray Siamesey with the One Bent Paw (he is a rescue, his paw is like a hockey stick, he was tossed out of a car as a kitten and rescued by my sister who found him bleeding from the nose and mouth, and nursed him to beer-label-licking health) P.S. support People For Animals

The book: Paul Cain's FAST ONE the collected Black Mask stories of Gerry Kells, bad-ass ne'er-do-well

and Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning, which Makes Everything Taste Better. Even ice cream. Try it.

© 2011 Thomas Pluck

Reviews and Interviews and Upcoming pubs

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:40:00 +0000

Death by Killing gave Lost Children: A Charity Anthology to Benefit PROTECT and Children 1st a rave review. Chris Rhatigan runs a crime fiction blog but loved stories by crime fiction vets and literary authors equally. He chose stories by Benoit Lelievre, J.F. Juzwik, Lynn Beighley and Roberto C. Garcia as favorites and said "The collection itself lives up to its cover--these are powerful, often shocking, stories."
Read the review here:
Death by Killing

Buy the book in all e-book formats, or trade paperback, here:
Lost Children: A Charity Anthology to Benefit PROTECT and Children 1st

It is still 99 cents on Amazon due to their price-matching. Get it while you can!

Fiona McVie interviewed me at The Inspiration Forum - thanks to Les Edgerton for suggesting me to her. If you head over there, you'll get to read the opening of my novel BURY THE HATCHET.

I will be interviewed by Richard Godwin at Chin Wag at the Slaughterhouse next week, and I'll share that as well. Amazingly enough, in the three interviews with me this month, we don't cover the same material.

And here are the upcoming publications you can look for this year:

"Raker: A Review," in Blood and Tacos

"Firecracker," in Hardboiled Magazine (available from Gryphon Books)

"Gumbo Weather," starring Jay Corso, in Needle: A Magazine of Noir Spring 2012 (Jay is the lead cause of mayhem in my novel Bury the Hatchet)

"Lefty," in Crimefactory Magazine #10

"White People Problems," in All Due Respect April 2012

"Play Dead," in Yellow Mama, April 2012

"We're All Guys Here," in Dollar Dreadfuls: Dirty Noir Quarterly

"Tiger Mother," in Noir Nation #2

"Donkey Dick," in Big Pulp March 2013

"Six Feet Under God," in Grift Magazine Quarterly

Interview and Thank Yous

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:01:00 +0000

First off, pulp master, wester-writin' workhorse and all-around stand-up guy David Cranmer - editor of Beat to a Pulp and author and creator of the Cash Laramie & Gideon Miles franchise- as it is quickly becoming- invited me to answer a few questions down at the U.S. Marshal's office. I took a shot of Maryland Rye and told him some tales... I'm no rat, but that ornery cuss is generous with his .45 Colt, and I wanted to walk out of there, so here's the malarkey I spouted:

7 Questions, at The Education of a Pulp Writer

And I have a story up at Pulp Metal Magazine called "Gunplay." It's kinky and weird and I have a sick sense of humor...

I'd like to thank a few writers and bloggers for their reviews this week:

Katherine Tomlinson of Kattomic and NohoNoir, used my 100 word story "Faggot" as an example of how to write very short fiction that still tells a powerful story. "if you haven't read it, you need to. In fewer than 100 words, he'll take your breath away." Thank you, Katherine... it was tough to write, and I'm glad my my punch connected!

Chris Rhatigan of Death by Killing and All Due Respect also reviewed "Faggot" on the very cool Short Story 365 project, where you read a short story every day and write a short review of it. "If you’re not reading Thomas Pluck yet, you should change that." Thanks, Chris!

and Johnny Shaw, author of Dove Season, also chimed in at SS365 about "Little Sister" in the Lost Children Anthology, saying "If you don’t know who Thomas Pluck is, you will soon enough. His short fiction is all over the internet and he combines jabs of clever humor with full-impact gut shots."

© 2011 Thomas Pluck

Occupation Viking: Valhalla Snoozing

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:02:00 +0000

I have been on a quest for the best Viking movie. My travails are logged in my posts marked Occupation: Viking, and I've found gems and turds along the way. A tracker once told me the first rule is "watch out for the shit turds," and that applies to movie reviewing as well.

VALHALLA RISING is by director Nicholas Winding Refn, better known for his garish and contemplative adaptation of James Sallis's kick-ass noir novel DRIVE. I enjoyed Drive very much, even as it diverged from the novel. I did think the director lingered too long on many shots, perhaps hoping to be mistaken from Michael Haneke or Werner Herzog, but a long shot is not always a deep shot.

Valhalla Rising begins without introduction or fanfare at a warrior's fight ring in what I think is Scotland. A one-eyed competitor is uncaged and defeats his opponents with unrivaled brutality. He is kept leashed to a pole in the ring because no one can stop him, otherwise. He fights two men, a ditchy enterprise in reality, but it plays out for real. One-Eye bites a chunk of one man's neck out, spits it at the other, and then strangles him with his own lead rope. Later he bashes someone's skull open, brains aplenty. Disembowels another. But instead of being a portent of the brutal reality of combats to come, the story fires its bloody wad in the first reel, and never recaptures the energy it released.

The rest of the picture has One-Eye (who is presumably a captive Viking) led by Christian Scots to the Holy Land to fight the heathen. They wander in the mists on a boat. They arrive in a strange land they believe is hell, and go mad as their belief systems crumble. It has been compared to AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD, but I like that film quite a bit. Herzog knows how to make a static shot interesting, and how to build tension with the unknown. Refn is still learning. Drive was a huge improvement over this film. Valhalla Rising is the secondmost disappointing Viking film I've watched, the absolute worst being Severed Ways. I watched an actor shit on camera and wipe his ass with leaves in that one. This was a lot better, but that is faint praise.

The Viking Rankings, so far:

The 13th Warrior (Antonio Banderas as an Arab, veers from the book's undead, but great fun)
The Vikings (A ridiculous Hollywood sword epic but loads of fun)
How to Train Your Dragon (much better than you'd give it credit for)
Outlander (Vikings vs. Predator... great dumb fun!)
Beowulf & Grendel (an overlooked "what really happened" tale, quite enjoyable)
Erik the Viking (Terry Jones of Monty Python, with predictable absurdity)
Beowulf (the Zemeckis 3D-animated one; pretty but boring)
Pathfinder (A great premise stupidly ruined. Vikings don't know ice breaks?)
Valhalla Rising
Severed Ways (must be seen to be believed)

Yet to see:
When the Raven Flies
The Long Ships
The Norseman
The Viking Sagas
The Last of the Vikings
Embla: The White Viking

Review: BEAT to a PULP: Hardboiled

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:51:00 +0000

BEAT to a PULP: Hardboiled by Glenn Gray

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I have a story in this anthology.
But leaving that out, this was a great read. You got some quick hard slaps of pulpy goodness from John Hornor Jacobs, Amy Grech and Ron Earl Phillips, a heartbreaker from Patti Abbott, a great tense tale by Kieran Shea, a yakuza black comedy by Garnett Elliott, shenanigans at the morgue with Glenn Gray, and one hell of a finisher: a Joe Hannibal tale from Wayne Dundee, which shows us all how it's done. Written with the ease of a natural storyteller, his tale of a hitman popping up at a lake resort didn't go where I expected, and introduced me to a trio of masterfully crafted characters. The kind of writing that makes your inner reader joyful and your inner writer humbled.
Overall an excellent collection spanning the legacy of hardboiled, from newcomers like myself to a legend like Mr. Dundee, who began Hardboiled magazine.

And to toot my own horn, the story of mine in here is "Black-Eyed Susan," picked out for several top-5 lists at Death by Killing, and winner of the Bullet award in September.

Check this one out, you won't regret it.

View all my reviews

Review: Ayiti

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:02:00 +0000

Ayiti by Roxane Gay

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I received this book, I did not know what Ayiti meant. It is the Haitian Creole pronunciation of Haiti, of course, but Americans have a preconception of the country. Our media tells us what to think of Haiti. It is a hopeless place. Dictators. Tragedy. They can't govern themselves, we need our soldiers there, to treat them like little children. After reading Roxane Gay's short stories, I have a better idea of the place and the people. I wouldn't profess to know it, but her raw and emotional tales of love and loss, hate and pride, the defensiveness and criticism of a country that only someone who has lived there and left and returned can give, they paint a picture that will forever remain in your mind. Some stories are a mere page long, flash fiction, short sharp cuts that sting long after the page is turned. Longer works are dreamlike and engrossing, immigrant tales, survival tales, as dark and brutal as hardboiled crime fiction with their relentless truth and emotional power.
"Things I Know About Fairy Tales" is a story of a kidnapping that hangs over my shoulder like a ghost with fetid breath, days after reading it. [A Love Story], a zombi tale, chilled me to the bone. A ledger book of expenses required to escape on a boat to Miami made me want to curl up and eat my own heart. But there is also joy and playfulness, as a Haitian girl confronts the ignorance of her college friends, and a news article that Nicaragua is now the poorest country in the Western hemisphere is rife with her darkly cynical humor.
I was surprised and impressed, and I'll be lending this book to readers and writers alike. A slim 120 pages, it can be read in an afternoon. I'll warn you, it packs emotional power that belies its size, and you'd do best to savor one story at a time.

View all my reviews

Fight Abuse for Under a Buck

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:39:00 +0000

For a limited time, I have reduced the price of Lost Children: A Charity Anthology to Benefit PROTECT and Children 1st to a mere 99 cents on Kindle and Nook. I don't believe in selling things below their value, so this WILL NOT last for long. Do me, PROTECT and Children 1st a favor and spread the word. Give it as a gift. I have to sell 6x as many at this price to generate the same donation. It is an experiment, and I need your help to make it work.

Read what hardboiled legend Wayne Dundee says is "equally haunting and powerful and as painfully timely as today's headlines" and support two causes that are fighting child abuse and not just spouting platitudes about it: PROTECT: The National Association to Protect Children, and Children 1st.

Stories by Paul D. Brazill, Fiona Johnson, Ron Earl Phillips, Chad Rohrbacher, James Lloyd Davis, David Barber, Erin Zulkoski, Luca Veste, J.F. Juzwik, Ingrid Hardy, Seamus Bellamy, and many more.

And remember... I read most Kindle books on my PC. You don't need an e-reader. You can read any e-book you buy on Amazon on the web, at their Kindle Cloud Reader.

Review: The Bitch

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:25:00 +0000

The Bitch by Les Edgerton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you want a real crime story, this is for you. Like Ed Bunker before him, Les Edgerton knows of what he writes, and he writes it damn well. Jake's story is pure noir: out of prison, he's married, has a business he's starting, and everything looks great until it all turns to shit when his cellie comes asking to have a favor repaid. And as you'd expect, it keeps getting worse. And worse. And always believable, but even worse!
With Jake we're not given a hero who always makes the right decision. Driven by mortal fear of "The Bitch," or life imprisonment as a "Habitual offender," he is forced into more and more horrible dilemmas as his pregnant wife and criminal past collide in a scheme to rob a diamond merchant. Great reading with characters who pop off the page with a realism I can confirm. A dozen years at the port, working with shady jewelers and growing up in a town peppered with loudmouth small-time mobsters, this story is the real deal and a gripping read.

View all my reviews

A short sharp anti-bullying piece

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:44:00 +0000

My story "Faggot" was written for Chuck Wendig's 100 word anti-bullying challenge a few months back. It's now up at Shotgun Honey, and if you leave a comment with your thoughts, or experiences with bullying, I will donate $5 for each comment to It Gets Better to support anti-bullying campaigns and gay teen suicide prevention.

You Can Donate Too.

It is not an excerpt from my novel in progress, but involves two characters- Brendan and Joey Bello, and is written from the bully's perspective.

Nut Up or Shut Up... Goals and Accomplishments

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:10:00 +0000

I'm very grateful for an amazing year. I'd like to thank my family and friends, most of all my wife Sarah, for all your support. I'd also like to thank all the writers and readers I've met over the last year. I've made some great new friends, and got back with some old ones.

I'm far from done with my goals as a writer. But I've covered more ground than I ever thought possible in a year. I'm beginning to understand the phrase make your own luck. I used to think it meant fixing the odds, breaking the rules. But all it means is working hard toward your goals. I've seen it time and time again with writers I've met over the last year. They've struggled and kept busting their behinds, and are reaping the rewards of that hard work.

My resolution is to keep on working hard and aiming high. One goal is to complete my first novel and get it published. I have a second book of the Lost Children anthology in the works. The writers have been chosen and you'll see it next autumn. It will be bigger, with many more voices joining the cause to support The National Association to Protect Children. I'd like to write more short stories and crack some new markets. My goal last year was to get in as many different venues as possible, and this year I am going to concentrate on some big targets such as Alfred Hitchock and Ellery Queen, Hardboiled, The Strand, Shock Totem, and so on. However, a goal is something within your control. Dean Wesley Smith and my friend & personal trainer Peter V. Dell'Orto both have good posts about setting attainable goals. Here are my attainable goals.

1) Write every day. Writing, and getting back to writing, are not daunting tasks. I will set aside more time to write and not follow distractions.
2) I will write the best stories I can and continue to keep them constantly in one editor's hands or another's. They will never lie fallow.
3) I will write the best novel I can. I will edit it diligently. I will not rewrite it for rewriting's sake.
4) I will find the editors and agents of the writers I admire most, who have accepted work most like my own, and I will get my novel in their hands before year's end.
5) I will not be a slave to my anger and I focus my rage on the page.
6) I will go to MMA class once per week.
7) I will resume a healthier diet... beer is not a food group.

You set goals and they become accomplishments. Here are my accomplishments of 2011, in vague order. And a few great things that happened that were outside my control, but made me happy.

January.
Completed my first novel, The Garage. Drawer fodder. Currently rewriting it, using the characters and concepts I developed in this 115,000 word monster born of NaNoWriMo 2010.

February.
Wrote my first short stories in ten years.

March.
First story published in ten years, Punk Dad Manifesto, at the Morning News... And was paid for it!
Married my Firecracker, Sarah. Love of my life, who keeps me centered and in line. Had a beautiful wedding and a wonderful time with friends and family, and a relaxing honeymoon with my new wife.

April.
Began writing for flash fiction challenges, met Fiona "McDroll" Johnson online and she told me to submit my work to crime venues. Pointed me to the magnanimous Sandra Seamans, who lists all the markets. I began reading them all, finding many new-to-me writers and all sorts of inspiration. I never forget to thank Fiona Johnson for that first kick in the ass. I wouldn't be writing the way I do today if it wasn't for her.
This led to 33 stories accepted in 2011, appearing in anthologies and journals alongside Lawrence Block, Wayne Dundee, Ray Banks, and many, many other writers whose work I admire.

May.
First crime story published in Shotgun Honey, "The Last Sacrament."
I met Lawrence Block at a signing at Watchung Booksellers. Since then we've chatted online and at the Mysterious Bookshop. One of our great living writers and a hell of a guy, it's always humbling to meet your literary heroes.

June.
Rode on the Star Ledger Munchmobile with Peter Genovese and crew, got my picture in the state newspaper stuffing my face with a sandwich.
Made print in The Utne Reader, when they reprinted Punk Dad Manifesto.

July.
Ron Earl Phillips asked me to be a moderator at Flash Fiction Friday.
My story "A Glutton for Punishment" debuted at Beat to a Pulp, and Lawrence Block not only read it, but commented on it. A few short words that still mean a lot to me. Thanks, Mr. Block.

August.
"Rain Dog" published in Crimespree #43, first crime story in print.
Wrote back and forth with Harlan Ellison, another literary hero and influence, who tells readers not to write to him. But always replies.

September.
Won the First place Bullet Award for my story "Black Eyed Susan," which was also favorably reviewed by James Reasoner and hardboiled legend Wayne Dundee.
I ask Fiona Johnson to write a fiction cue for Flash Friday and she comes up with the Lost Children Challenge.

October.
Pulp Modern #1 released, putting me twixt the same covers as Lawrence Block.
Made tons of friends in the crime fiction community online and at Bouchercon. Most of all Josh Stallings and Sabrina Ogden, who felt like old friends, but also Glenn Gray, Christa Faust, Matthew Funk, Johnny Shaw and Kent Gowran. We joke that crime writers are the friendliest bunch of murder-minded mothers around, but it really is true. Everyone I met was friendly, from Harlan Coben to Joelle Charbonneau, even when I was a babbling idiot.

Visited Italy with Sarah, experienced the ruins of Pompeii, the bustle of Napoli, the decadence of Capri, the old and new of Rome, and spent time with our friends David and Courtney. Everyone needs a break, and someday I'll write about a chase through Pozzuoli between a tourist and the Gomorra to write this off as research. Hell, my honeymoon trip inspired my longest short story, "White People Problems," which will be at All Due Respect this year, and be expanded into a novel ... eventually. I really want to introduce you to Bobby and the Five Stages of Grief... you'll get a taste soon at ADR.

November.
Published Lost Children: a Charity Anthology to support PROTECT, and spoke to Executive Director Grier Weeks about the project.
Corresponded with another hero, of mine, Andrew Vachss. We'd written before, but never so often. A pat on the shoulder from a veteran warrior in the fight against child abuse and exploitation, who became a lawyer and an incredible writer to fight this fight... well, it means more than I feel comfortable sharing.

December.
I deadlifted 555lbs and I benched 260lbs. I pursue goals other than writing. I added 60lbs to my deadlift and began benching again after tearing both my rotator cuffs two years ago. I surpassed my old record of 250 on the bench. All by adding 5lbs a month using the 5/3/1 lifting regimen. A slog, but with great results. Last year I was deadlifting 400lbs for 10 reps. Now I'm lifting 510lbs for 5. And I stopped a falling refrigerator with my chin.

I'll diverge because it amuses me. Pulp queen Christa Faust got a kick out of me crowing about my personal record and said we should fight crime as Max Deadlift and Pixie Cockpunch. We shall see. She's a busy writer with a lot of irons in the fire, but I just might suggest a collaboration...

I made quite a few best-of lists for short story. According to the readers, my best stories are Black-Eyed Susan, Shogun Honey, Candle, The Forest for the Trees, Junkyard Dog, and Legacy of Brutality.

We sold 150 copies of the Lost Children Anthology in 2 months.

It's been a hell of a year. I'm sure I've missed some. And I could have expended as many words thanking everyone by name. Thank you for reading, and spreading the word. Writing is the most solitary art. The feedback is delayed and muted, so when someone takes the time to tell you they liked what you wrote, it has great effect, no matter how we try to make our response as cool as can be.

So, don't make resolutions. They sound like U.N. agenda items, and we know how useful they are, with China and the Sudan on the human rights committee. Set realistic and attainable goals, with milestones and measurable markers of success. "Eat better" means little. "Don't go back for seconds, and do not snack after dinner, and walk 30 minutes a day" is controllable, and will guarantee results. Eight years ago I weighed nearly 400 pounds. I began by walking an hour a night, and not eating bread and sweets. A year later I'd lost 140 pounds. Every day adds up. If you fail, get up immediately... don't give up. What's one day of missing your targets out of 366? Nothing. A pittance.

Here's wishing you all a happy new year... now get to work on making it that way.

Guilty Conscience

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 04:17:00 +0000

Today I'm at Luca Veste's blog Guilty Conscience talking about the Off the Record Anthology that he put together. It's the only place to read my story "Free Bird," and it's only 99c as an e-book right now. The link to by is to the right.

If you read the INTERVIEW you'll get an excerpt, and we talk music, influences, and about Andrew Vachss's "orphan" of a novel SHELLA which you should go read right now (or listen to, it was just made into an audiobook as well)

© 2011 Thomas Pluck

it's a major award!

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:38:00 +0000

Lost Children: a Charity Anthology has been nominated for a Predators & Editors Award for best anthology! We'd appreciate your VOTE.

Also, Spinetingler Magazine has their nominations open for best crime fiction books and stories. I made my picks, go make yours!

If I tingled your spine, nominate the story that did it. If you can't pick one (how cocky does that sound? I had 29 stories published this year) perhaps you should read "Junkyard Dog" at Plots with Guns, which the last reader, Joe Myers (a fine writer himself) said brought a tear to his eye...

© 2011 Thomas Pluck

You can't say no to those eyes...

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:42:00 +0000

I entered the foray of self-publishing this year, sort of. I published Lost Children: A Charity Anthology, edited with my friends Fiona Johnson and Ron Earl Phillips, with stories by 30 writers. And all the cash is going to two causes: PROTECT and Children 1st. One reason I did it was of course, to raise money for these organizations. Another reason was to learn the ropes and see the results, to decide if self-publishing is for me. To see what kind of sales I could generate, and how much work goes into it.

You have to set goals for yourself. My goals were:

Sell 100 copies in the first month (succeeded)
Sell at least one copy per day after that (succeeded, in the long run)

Now I wanted to sell 100 per month, but it didn't happen. We're at 148 sales right now, and I'd be happy to make 150 sales by the end of the year.

According to Dean Wesley Smith, these are excellent sales for a first book. The sales really pile in once you have 4-5 items for sale, because you get repeat business. I never expected this anthology, with a handful of known crime and literary writers and many first-timers, to sell very well. Fiona and I donated $600 of our own cash for the original fiction challenge, and we wanted to generate more for the causes. The project has been a great success in that regard- the royalties aren't in yet, but we're looking at around $350 in two months, and the book will be on sale for three years.

But let me tell you, it's a lot of work. I'm still not sure if self-publishing is the way to go, for me. I don't want to start that debate. It works for a lot of people. Traditional works for others. Dean Wesley Smith says use both to your advantage, and to me, that seems the wisest choice. Of course, you need to talk softly and carry a big lawyer, if you plan on self-publishing and pursuing a contract with a major publisher. Many contracts include non-compete clauses that would keep you from self-publishing, even if you've been doing it prior to the contract. Let the writer beware. But enough about that.

It was an exciting endeavor and now that I've learned it, would I do it again? You bet I would.

But I want two more sales. Really bad. The next two buyers- print or e-book- who email me the receipt (use the "contact me" form on the upper right) will get a copy of Heart Transplant by Andrew Vachss donated to the library of their choice.

© 2011 Thomas Pluck

Review: The Confidence Course: Seven Steps to Self-Fulfillment

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:46:00 +0000

The Confidence Course: Seven Steps to Self-Fulfillment by Walter Anderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book took me ten years to finish. I let my anger win and set it aside, forgot its lessons, and only re-opened it again recently. I was finally ready to learn. If you suffer from shyness, rage, fear, or lack confidence... it is a fine toolbox to repair the damage done. Every chapter held an epiphany for me. It helped me dig up the roots of my rage, and overcome shyness. And it doesn't let you off the hook for your behavior. The first lesson is accepting responsibility. A great read, and no bullshit included.

I started back on page one as soon as I finished. Some of us need to stay back a grade and keep learning these lessons. I wouldn't call this a self-help book. It's a memoir of an angry, bullied young man who overcame his rage and self-loathing to become a success, and he passes his lessons on to you.

View all my reviews

Don't be a Tool

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 14:19:00 +0000

THE LAUGHTER SHACK is a new humor venue started by a friend of mine. They publish everything from surrealist ridiculousness to lowbrow, and I have a 'piece' up there this week entitled... "Citizen Tool." (The humorous illustration is NSFW, so be warned)

I mention this story because I first wrote it in high school for Pulphouse magazine, and it was one of three tales I sent to Dean Wesley Smith ana Nina Kiriki Hoffman, the triple-named editorial whizzes who ran the acclaimed hardcover mag. I sold my stack of hardcover editions to pay off debt ages ago, and regret it. I found the mag via Harlan Ellison, whose story "She's a Pretty Young Thing and Can't Leave Her Mother" appeared in it, and since I was damn sure going to be a writer, I decided to send Pulphouse everything I wrote.

Dean and Nina? I apologize.

They were very gracious and kind editors. The original version of "Citizen Tool" is much longer, and like many new writer's work, begins with a laboriously detailed explanation of our character getting out of bed, going to a nondescript job, acting like a dick, and slowly transforming into one. Dean or Nina- the letter was merely signed 'editors'- rejected it because "the story lacks a clearly defined setting," which was true. They were kind enough not to tell me that a story about a guy who turns into a big dick for no real reason, and then meets a woman who seems to be turning into a giant vagina because people call her the C-word wasn't exactly great reading, and I kept writing. I sent them another story called "Love is a Chainsaw," about a man who loves slasher films and jerks off to them, goes home and hits his wife, and is really not about anything except that I dislike the now endlessly deconstructed sexual politics of slasher films. I still plan to use that title someday. Finally, they accepted a college story called "We're All Guys Here," but the magazine closed down before it ever saw print. That story may see print soon, we shall see. I've revised it with my newly sharpened gimlet eyes.

I'd forgotten all about "Citizen Tool" until David- I mean B.J. Titzengolf- of Laughter Shack asked for a funny story, and I had an epiphany- my story idea wasn't much different than "The Metamorphosis," so why not pay homage to Herr Kafka with the opening line? And the rest flowed from there. I also realized that the story didn't have much steam, so it had better end quickly. And with our current economic conundrum, I knew what to do.

So if you need a laugh, go check it out. It's very short and readers got a kick out of it. It's also a lesson, that there are no bad ideas- just bad writers. And bad writers, if we practice enough, become good ones.

© 2011 Thomas Pluck

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:30:00 +0000

My mom spent a few years tracking down A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector, which is a record album, not a euphemism for being shot by a crazy record producer with a three foot afro.
Once she found it at a record store on St. Mark's Place, we carved new grooves in that sucker spinning it on the turntable. The songs were further immortalized in Goodfellas, and here are a few of my favorites:

They can still belt it out!

Darlene Love can SING. I'm glad I got to see her in the Hairspray musical on Broadway as Motormouth Maybelle. She's amazing, and Christmas ain't Christmas until I hear her sing "Baby Please Come Home!" You can buy it here: © 2011 Thomas Pluck

Review: Dove Season

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:43:00 +0000

Dove Season by Johnny Shaw

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Subtitled "A Jimmy Veeder fiasco," this was one entertaining read. A boy who fled farm country returns home when he learns Pop is dying, and finds his hometown barely recognizable. His father's dying wish sets in motion a sequence of events that boot Jimmy from his extended adolescence into the tough decisions that make him a man. The story is compelling and deftly set as grim desert backdrop to a colorful crew of characters, real people who never mug for the camera. Full of belly laughs, excitement and lots of heart. Shaw paints a border town with alternating strokes of piercing honesty and bittersweet nostalgia, but like the oleander flowers that decorate each chapter, a poisonous secret lies beneath its beauty, and I enjoyed discovering it. A great debut, and to echo the blurbs- I hope there are many fiascoes to come!

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We got the Funk

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:13:00 +0000

Here's what Matthew Funk has to say about my story "Junkyard Dog," which he chose in his top 5 at Chris Rhatigan's DEATH BY KILLING "Five You Can't Miss" series:

"Keeping you in the action while transcending time and place, JUNKYARD DOG assembles a complete character from a scattered history of violence. The worse it gets, the more you care. And Thomas Pluck knows how to make it get real damn bad." --Matthew C. Funk

Thank you Matt, for choosing my story and for such kind, kind words... from a writer with similar drives, to show the brutality we ignore every day, that means a hell of a lot.

© 2011 Thomas Pluck

I never said I was an artist

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:24:00 +0000

I work for a company that is big into giving back, and this year we helped several NYC schools. My project, with 70 others, was to pair murals and paintings for PS 196 in Williamsburg, which is very old and in need of update and repair. But being New York, there's no money for it. Kids have to suffer so investment bankers can hire NYPD police as their own private army...

We repainted their mascot images on the walls, and also filled many canvases with colorful and educational messages to brighten up the old institution. Here are the two I did:

The top one is from "If You Bring a Mouse to School." A coworker named Ed drew the art in pencil and I was the "tracer" who colored it all in. I'm proud to help the school and if I can help just one kid snicker at an old man's terrible artistic skills, I feel I have improved the world in one small way.

If anyone wants book covers painted by me, I work cheap.

© 2011 Thomas Pluck

Great Plucking Reads

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:15:00 +0000

Everyone's picking their favorite books of the year it seems. I reviewed all my favorites here over the months, but I'll collect them here for you.
I'm all about emotional impact. I appreciate a clever twist or a brilliant storyline but one of the enduring phrases from my youth is from Harvey with Jimmy Stewart and his pooka pal the invisible rabbit. "You can be oh so clever or oh so pleasant. For years I tried clever. I'd suggest pleasant." Meaning, it's good to be clever, but don't be cocky about it. These writers are clever, but they aren't about being clever. They pack a wallop with their stories and it's not there to shock, but to shake... to shake you out of jaded ordinary life and make you think, or heaven forfend, care.

So here are my favorite reads of the year. You may truncate them to five or ten to make a handy list.

Out There Bad, by Josh Stallings
A strong new voice and a powerful character blasting onto the scene, Mo McGuire is a dark hero, a wounded warrior, who dares shove our face in the evil we tolerate every day. This is the second book by Stallings and kicked my ass. He takes you on a hellride through L.A.'s human meat grinder and hunts it to its source with a two chilling and remorseless killers at his back. Moses is forced to acknowledge his own complicity as a strip club bouncer, and learns what it takes to stand up for those he cares about. L.A. has a new crime boss, it just doesn't know it yet: and his name is Stallings.

The End of Everything, by Megan Abbott
The most daring novel of the year, exposing the rotten heart of suburbia. This one's on a lot of end of the year best-of lists and I will smugly say I TOLD YOU SO. Back when I reviewed it this summer. Nya nya nya NYA nya. A profoundly disturbing look at the dangers young women face on the verge of womanhood, and a story that will defy your attempts to predict its outcome. When Lizzie's best friend is abducted, she begins her own investigation... starting with the secrets only best friends would share.

Choke Hold, by Christa Faust
It flies like classic pulp, it reads like truth and it hits you with a smart left hook that leaves you as stunned as a fighter wobbling through his first standing eight-count. There are no slick twists, only artfully written characters, broken down gladiators from the sex and violence trades who've battled for our entertainment. They are writ large but speak to a deeper truth. Angel always lands on her feet, but the fear level was the highest for me in this one. The axe is always ready to fall.

Crimes in Southern Indiana, by Frank Bill
A brutal emotional dispatch from the war zone in your backyard. The debut of the year, this is blood feud poetry. Desperate situations where beat-down people stand on the line between what they know is wrong and sheer survival in a hardscrabble emotionally jagged landscape. Staring into the abysmal latrine of humanity, it is easy to sink to nihilism, to embrace the banality of evil, but Frank Bill refuses to take the easy road. People beyond forgiveness seek mere understanding. Desires criss-cross and hurtle together like jalopies down a one lane dirt road. Anyone can write brutality. Giving it a dark but honest human heart takes guts and a keen sense of people, and this novel speaks volumes of messy truth.

Pym, by Mat Johnson
Not a crime novel, but one of the funniest and honest books on race and English literature I've ever read. It turns a brutally racist Poe tale on its head and has a snicker on every page while doing it. An African-American professor of African-American studies is fired because he won't be the token African-American on the diversity committee. While looking for a slave narrative to base his next thesis on, he finds an intriguing document that suggests Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym was based on fact, and gathers together a crew to find the islands it described. A bizarre and hilarious adventure through American literature commences, and not a week goes by where I don't think of this book.

A Drop of the Hard Stuff by Lawrence Block

The grandmaster shows us how it's done, returning to a place in Matt Scudder's past where he was less experienced and more vulnerable. There is little action, but you can't tell from the tension level. No one writes New York like Mr. Block, and he explores new ground by taking us to Scudder's past. A crook in AA is killed when he begins asking forgiveness, and Matt needs to know why. With his usual bulldog tenacity he explores a rogue's gallery of human frailty while keeping a slippery grip on his own sobriety. I liked the story, the mystery of High Low Jack's murder and his shady past, but the characters are what keeps this book in my mind.

The Weight by Andrew Vachss
Character-driven fiction at its best, we meet "Sugar," a weightlifter and con who takes the rap on a crime he didn't commit to protect his crew. What happens after he takes the weight is nothing you'd expect. Mentors and feet of clay, and a lead you'd trust to spot you under the bar when the weight is damn heavy.

Frank Sinatra in a Blender, by Matthew McBride
From the title, to its meaning, to its hard-drinking anti-hero and fully-fleshed hard luck villains, not since early Carl Hiaasen has vicious comedy of human existence been so entertainingly portrayed. I still sometimes remember a scene or a line, stare into space and laugh, and everyone around me takes a few steps away from me. Just a great read.

Fun & Games by Duane Swierczynski

It plays on Hollywood conspiracies and the starlet meat grinder, all while telling a fast paced, thrilling and very funny tale. Duane the Brain can come up with stories I can't even imagine, and he fleshes them out with hilarious and cynical prose that keeps the pages turning.

Headstone by Ken Bruen
My introduction to Ken's unique style and fierce heart, I am told this isn't the best Jack Taylor novel. All that means is the others are even better. A back alley tour of Galway, a city I've only seen as a tourist, that was a hell of an eye opener. Taylor tackles mindless hate and nihilism and tears its tongue out at the roots. He fears no evil and leaves no villain spared. Truly excellent writing from a master I will read every word of, before I die.

The Outlaw Album by Daniel Woodrell
I let this slip by because it's a short story collection. But these stories, like Crimes in Southern Indiana, are all about a place and a people and make a patchwork that becomes a tapestry as you step back. This was my introduction to Mr. Woodrell, and I've picked up several of his novels since. He has an economy with words that leans toward poetry, and a blood-borne knowledge of the human heart. This is an excellent introduction to the author, who'd be called the Raymond Carver of the Ozarks... if he wasn't an equally adept novelist as short story master.

© 2011 Thomas Pluck

Top Fives

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:21:00 +0000

I chose my top 5 stories of the year at Chris Rhatigan's Death By Killing blog today. Drop over there and see who I chose. I know you're waiting with bated breath. Or with baited breath, like the cat who ate the cheese. (And then cut the cheese. I had to get a fart joke in here somewhere).

I've been honored to be chosen by a few of my fellow writers in their top 5 stories of the year. Truly an honor and an inspiration to work even harder. Thank you all.

Nigel Bird liked "Candle" which you can read at Grift Magazine:

It’s a wonderful tale as TP keeps his foot off the gas. The events are almost incidental, but the story packed in there is huge. I really loved it.

R. Thomas Brown picked "The Forest for the Trees" which is at The Flash Fiction Offensive:

I felt for the young couple struggling to find their place, and particularly for Paulie as he fought against bigotry of many forms and handled himself with the kind of confidence and class you'd hope to see in someone. His affection feels genuine, which makes the ending hurt even more.

Sandra Seamans chose "The Uncleared" at Twist of Noir:

"You don't expect a happy ending when you start reading this story, but the ending still slaps you in the face and leaves you reeling."

a kick-ass reader

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:35:00 +0000

I'd like to thank everyone who reads this blog, and my stories. Folks who tell others about my writing, I owe you a beer (or equivalent) whenever we shall meet. But here's a reader who showed her true colors, and they are true blue:

Dear Thomas:
Nancy made a gift to PROTECT in your honor on 12/2/11.
Since 2002, PROTECT has moved mountains with very little money. Whether winning equal protection for incest victims in the statehouses of Arkansas and California … or getting millions out of Congress to stop child pornography trafficking across the nation, PROTECT has never had the resources of other well-oiled special interest lobbies.
That’s why Nancy's generosity means so much.
Best wishes,
PROTECT
www.protect.org

I sent Nancy a signed copy of the Lost Children: A Charity Anthology, and a story, but I wanted to thank her publicly for taking this extra step. I'd love to sell a million copies of the charity anthology, but if we generate this kind of support for the causes it benefits, that's good enough for me.

Thank you, Nancy. You're the best.

Review: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:09:00 +0000

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Louie's story gets more stars than were awarded during the whole war. The man's legendary endurance is an inspiration and shows the brutality from whence a man can rise to do good. It is a chilling tale of political expedience that the war criminals who ran the Japanese POW camps walk freely. The engineers of our own internment camps were never called to task, but these POWs endured hardships and atrocities far beyond the tragedies that occurred on our own soil, and seventy years later justice was never done. The ultranationalist movement in Japan is shameful and I respect any Japanese citizen who shuns or fights it.

Louie Zamperini is a hero and an inspiration. He was a bad kid who did well when given a focus like running; he nearly broke the 4 minute mile before being called to war. He endured, came home haunted and scarred, and rose above his wounds to become a hero again, dedicating his life to wayward youths who needed a guiding hand. As testimony to his spirit... he lives today, in his nineties, and forgave his captors... not to absolve their atrocities, but so he could move on and do good with his life.

Infamy still lives, but heroism lives forever.

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