10th Rule Radio is a branch of 10th Rule Books and ‘is an old school radio serial featuring bad ass pulp fiction that skips the boring parts. Each episode is a a chapter featuring some cool horror, sci-fi, crime fiction or some combination of the three. Expect both gratuitous violence and possibly inappropriate dark humor.’
I’m pleased to say that the latest podcast includes my flash fiction yarn Anger Management.
They say:
‘In no particular order our favorite books from 2018:
Know Me From Smoke – Matt Phillips – Fahrenheit 13
This one is old school noir done right. The dialog cuts and so do the knives. Convicted killer Royal Atkins finds himself back on the streets and in a relationship with Stella Radney, a singer* whose husband was a victim of Royal’s. What could go wrong? Well, a lot, a whole hell of a lot.
Find some trouble here
Scapegoat – Adam Howe and James Newman – Honey Badger Press
A non-stop bit of wrong place and wrong time backwoods horror filled with dark humor, religious fanatics, violence, gore, bizarre rituals, and 80’s metal. Three old friends and former bandmates from their hair metal days* along with a girl who isn’t exactly what she seems, stumble into some wicked business after taking a wrong turn on the way to WrestleMania and all hell breaks loose (literally). Howe and Newman have crafted themselves one of the most brutal books a person can laugh at with this one.
Click here if you dare
Slug Bait – Tom Liens – Dirty Books
Straight forward and brutal crime fiction that puts you in a headlock and starts punching. Watching Rey, kind of a private eye but mostly just a bad-ass, pound his way through a collection of thugs, corrupt cops, and serial killers is damn good fun.
Find it here
Last Years Man – Paul D, Brazil – All Due Respect
When aging hitman Bennet runs into trouble in London he heads back to his hometown where everything goes great. Actually no, he runs into more trouble, a lot of it. Another hard hitting quick read filled with sharp dialog and a dash of dark humor (do you see a theme here?).
Get it here.
Deadlines – A tribute to Willian E. Wallace – All Due Respect and Down and Out Books
Normally for these lists, we leave out our own books and writers, we made a little bit of an exception here. Todd Morr is in this one but he only accounts for like four percent, which for the purpose of this we’ll pretend doesn’t exist. Bill Wallace was a great writer and though we didn’t know him as well as we would have liked he was a great dude as well. He was a huge supporter of the Indie crime scene so it makes sense the indie crime scene would step up for him. Chris Rhatigan and Ron Earl Phillips edited this collection of twenty-three top crime fiction writers and Todd Morr. Some took inspiration from Bill’s newspaper career and others just wrote the kind of dark pulp stories Bill tirelessly championed. Some stories are better than others but over 23 stories* every one manages to kick some serious ass, just like Bill would have wanted.
You know what to do
As always if the winners can find Todd Morr* he will buy them a beer or maybe even two*.
If you like our picks there’s a good chance you’ll like our books. You can find them all here‘
