The Ballad of Johnny Pharaoh
January 20, 2009 @ 12:16 pm
This is what I sound like after a two-week chest cold and several days locked in the writing pit without using my voice. Seth Harwood invited me to join the likes of Scott Phillips, Eddie Muller, David Corbett, Vicki Hendricks, Jason Starr and Michael Connelly, to name a few, in reading for his weekly crime fiction podcast. A full recording of The Numbers Game from the forthcoming San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics is now online at crimewav.com. Funny thing, Seth’s been doing this for a while, broadcasting some serious neo-noir fiction, but he says The Numbers Game is “the darkest of the dark.” Mighty kind of you, Seth.
Once more, I’ll be reading at the Mechanics’ Institute this Thursday, Jan.22, and signing books at Noir City 7 on Saturday, Jan 31 at 6:30.
Stay warm and bound,
~Craig
San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics
January 6, 2009 @ 3:38 am
One year later I walked through the gates, but my celebration was cut short the same day. Dear Cardholder didn’t place and Undisclosed Sum came strong out of the gate but finished dead last. Some old habits die hard and others not at all. That afternoon at the track dumped me twenty grand into Hoyle’s pocket. Hoyle knew I was good for it because I keep my word but Hoyle didn’t want to look weak. Skinner Jones and his brokering skills were the only things keeping me above the dirt. His driver had been kicked back on a parole violation so Skinner offered me a job…
-from The Numbers Game
I’m not sure whether Johnny Temple is a bass player moonlighting as a publisher or the other way around. In either case, he had a brainstorm ’round about ‘02 to put together a neo-noir love letter to his home town of Brooklyn. Under the editorial guidance of Tim McLoughlin, Johnny Temple’s Akashic Books released an anthology of short crime fiction by local authors about their beloved stomping grounds, a sort of blood-stained literary map of Brooklyn. Since it’s release in 2004, Brooklyn Noir has grown into one big, bloody snowball, with a huge roster of cities in the U.S. and around the world added to the series. In 2005, they released San Francisco Noir, edited by Peter Maravelis, which included stories from the likes of David Corbett and Will Christopher Baer. Four years later, San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics is just a few weeks away from its release. Like the title says, it’s a collection of classics, as in stories from guys who may sound familiar, like Dashiell Hammett, Jack London and Frank Norris, as well as some local heavyweights who are happily still among us. Peter Maravelis once more to put it all together and, in a moment of either foresight or dementia, included yours truly in the final section, Part IV: Desolation Angels. My latest single, The Numbers Game, is right between Seth Morgan’s Street Court (an excerpt from Homeboy, one of my favorite novels of all time) and William T. Vollmann’s The Woman Who Laughed (Vollmann is one of a handful writers as prolific as Stephen Graham Jones). That’s some formidable company, to say the least.
On Thursday, January 22nd at 6:30pm, I’ll join a panel discussion hosted by Peter Maravelis at the San Francisco Mechanics’ Institute’s fourth annual Noir Literary Night, which just happens to be the day before Noir City 7, Eddie Muller’s annual Film Noir festival. Ten days of vintage celluloid back-stabbing, black-bagging and bad luck. Peter Maravelis, Don Herron and I will be there on Saturday, January 31st to sign books. I’ll post more details soon, as well as word on the San Francisco Noir 2 official release party in February.
-Craig