Richard Godwin

Quick Fire At The Slaughterhouse With Aaron Philip Clark

Posted on June 13, 2012 by richardgodwin

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Aaron Philip Clark’s debut novel The Science Of Paul is a brilliant Noir tale of redemption and self-exploration. The protagonist, Paul Little, is a dark and appealing character, an ex-con who is trying for morality in challenging circumstances. Clark’s second novel, A Healthy Fear Of Man, is the follow up, and it picks up a few months after Paul leaves Philadelphia. Aaron met me at The Slaughterhouse, where we talked about his new novel and the protection of the vulnerable.

Tell us about your new book.

A Healthy Fear of Man is the follow-up to The Science of Paul, my debut novel published by New Pulp Press in 2011. The novels center on Paul Little, a damaged ex-con who wants to escape Philadelphia and live on his deceased grandfather’s farm in North Carolina. Paul gets his wish in A Healthy Fear of Man, which begins a few months after he’s left Philadelphia. The novel is set in a fictional county called Pharris. It’s a casualty of the economic downturn and the fall of big tobacco. The county commissioner is convinced he has a way to get the county back on its feet. The problem is his methods are illegal and he doesn’t care who dies in the process.

For Paul, his strength is also his weakness—he has a good heart. And when he befriends a young girl named Gilly, who is very much in need of a friend, she becomes the catalyst for his troubles. Many of Paul’s expectations are shattered in this novel. He was convinced that a solitary life in North Carolina would bring him peace, but instead he tends to languish on his own. He truly learns the dangers of loneliness and isolation in an unfamiliar land. The root danger being: What do you do when you’re framed for murder and you don’t have a friend in the world?

Aside from facing death or prison, he still has inner struggles—trying to cope with being shot by his best friend and battling the darkness inside of him. Paul finally faces that darkness head on, and it becomes a tool to right wrongs. He isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. In The Science of Paul, he was a reactionary victim; he never really fought back. This time it’s different, he’s not taking anything lying down—even if it means people have to die.

How much does Paul Little’s character reflect contemporary cultural trends?

I’m not sure he does. Paul is very much other; at least that’s how I see him. He doesn’t fit within society. He longs for isolation, not because he despises people but rather he sees what they are capable of, and therefore he doesn’t trust them. In The Science of Paul, his best friend shoots and betrays him. Paul’s really been victimized, like an animal brutalized by humans, he just wants to stay clear of them.

Violence and the resulting victimization is a theme in both novels. In A Healthy Fear of Man, I just delve a bit deeper into how victims are born. In the story, Paul encounters his first real victim. In the past, those who were murdered had it coming in his eyes. This time he gets an education in meaningless murder and it’s not at the hands of a gangster, serial killer or street thug, but a person deemed safe, commonplace. The idea that anyone with a pulse can kill rattles Paul to his core, and he longs to understand why.

I think murder may reflect contemporary cultural trends more than Paul’s character. I was really taken by the rise in child slayings in North Carolina; specifically the murders of Zarah Baker and Shaniya Lockhart. I think children are the most tragic of victims because their deaths are inherently senseless. And when confronted with such a killing, Paul struggles to understand the nature of the irrational act.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a noir novel set in Los Angeles that centers on a Mafioso in his twilight who is coerced into helping a young girl seek justice. It’s still in the early stages but I promise it will pack a punch. It’s the first novel I’ve written about Los Angeles, so I want to do my best to capture my home turf. It’s very much about the division between past and present—it’s nostalgic and maybe even a little romanticized. Los Angeles has always been a victim of the wrecking ball and with the influx of people coming to be rock gods and movie stars, its history seems to get lost. The novel is really about memory and how memories can haunt and shape a person’s life. Not to mention a heavy dose of vengeance and the dedication it takes for a person to enact revenge after a fifteen year time span—the incessant plotting, planning and preparing. I think it’s the closest thing to a love story I’ll ever write—it’s a love letter of sorts to the city, in which characters long for the city of their youths and for loved ones who will never come back, no matter how much pain they enact on those they hold responsible for their deaths. So far it’s been a blast to write and hopefully will be a joy to read.

How much does the protection of the vulnerable feature as a theme in your writing?

It’s a fair assessment to say it exist within my writing in some form or fashion. I think most people have vulnerabilities and when I construct characters I tend to make them realistic. I’ve never been much for the indestructible hero with no weaknesses whatsoever. Although I’ve written characters that are tough, trained and mentally sharp, and in some cases those characters may protect the meek or vulnerable. In A Healthy Fear of Man, Paul fails to protect someone and deeply regrets it. Correcting that failure becomes an obsession for him. He believes in a kind of universal balance and tries his best not to tip the scale in any way. When he does, he has to fix it. In the first novel, Paul was ambivalent. At times he didn’t care if he lived or died. In A Healthy Fear of Man, he’s beginning to care very much about his life and life in general. I’ve read noir/crime novels where the protagonist kills someone or hurts someone and has no emotional reaction to it. I’ve trained in martial arts for years and when you inflict pain on someone, either for sport or self-defense, no matter how much they deserve it, it changes you in some way. You either become desensitized to it or you reject it all together. You can ask any cop who’s had to kill on duty and they’ll likely tell you the event altered their perception on life. The same goes for witnessing violence against someone or being the victim of violence. I think what makes a human being vulnerable is the ability to feel—unless that person is sociopathic and void of all emotion. In that case, Paul Little might say they need to be put down. And in the third and final installment of the series, Paul will have to face such a character.

Thank you Aaron for a great interview that I hope brings new readers to your work.

Photobucket Links:
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COMING SOON:

A Healthy Fear of Man: A Paul Little Novel
Note: This is a proposed book cover design only. Click here for other designs being considered and for the latest on all Aaron Philip Clark books and events.

Read the first few paragraphs of A Healthy Fear of Man and other Snubnose Press titles here.

Pick up a copy of the prequel to A Healthy Fear of Man, The Science of Paul: A Novel of Crime at Amazon US and UK.

Posted in Author Interviews - Quick-Fires | 7 Comments

Quick Fire At The Slaughterhouse With JD Mader

Posted on June 9, 2012 by richardgodwin

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J. D. Mader is a biker, angler, keen blogger and agony aunt . His first novel Joe Café was published last year, and I reviewed it here. It is a great piece of Noir writing, full of low lifes and plot twists. His second novel The Biker has now been published. It is a kind of Western and a fast paced, action packed, highly entertaining read. He met me at The Slaughterhouse where we talked about fish and governments.

To what extent do you think fishing and narrating are related?

Fishing is different for everyone. My fishing is kind of a zen, peaceful thing. I want to punch myself for saying that, but it’s true. I fish because I like to catch fish, but I also like to be near water and nature and away from people. So, I seek out small lakes and unknown streams. I don’t have any interest in sitting in a boat with a bunch of idiots around me drinking beer. I like to fish alone or with someone I love.

I like to fish because it focuses me and calms the barrage of thoughts in my brain. Same with riding my motorcycle. Same with writing. Storytelling, done right, takes you to a place where your conscious brain is no longer operating. Same with fishing. It’s all instinct and intense absorption. When I fish, I think about only fishing. When I write, I think only about writing. Sure, thoughts drift through, but they are ambient and airy and I can let them pass. This is something I struggle with normally.

And, then there is the tradition of storytelling. Anglers are, for the most part, fantastic storytellers. Lots of writers fish. And there are a lot of fisherman who are damn good writers. Both activities involve patience, passion, and persistence. And they are both things that you can never master. Similar types of people are drawn to things like that. No matter how much you fish, there is more to learn. And no matter how much you write, you can always get better. Thank god…on both counts.

Tell us about your new book The Biker.

‘The Biker’ is unlike anything I have written before. As a born and bred short story writer, long forms are hard for me. I tend to write in vignettes (a la ‘Joe Cafe’), which is cool…I like it. But ‘The Biker’ was written under unique circumstances and because of that it is much more linear. I don’t know if this makes the book less appealing or more intriguing, but fuck it. I wrote this book during NANOWRIMO. One month to write a novel. And I charged it…two thousand words a day. I edited it later, but not all that much changed. Nothing important. It came out pretty well…I was happy with it. There is an urgency to it that comes from the way it was written.

I wanted to see if I could actually write and edit a 50K word novel in a month. I didn’t want to cop out and have an outline or any of that. So, I sat down on the first day and thought, ‘well, shit, what’s this novel going to be?’ I tend to like snooty literature like an asshole, but I love Louis L’Amour. Sure, all the plots are pretty much the same. But he was great. They are like Romance Novels for men. So, I had this idea. Write a LL novel, but more literary, modern, set in San Francisco, and with motorcycles instead of horses. That was it. And the novel wrote itself as they are wont to do. It is a tribute. It also stands on its own as a novel.

It’s a kind of novel that doesn’t get written much anymore, and a lot of people have appreciated that aspect. If you like old westerns for the good reasons, you’ll like ‘The Biker’. If you like Urban Thrillers or whatever, I think it works. And I hope it works if you just like good characters and solid writing. Because, that’s ‘The Biker’. It is also the first of a series. Matt Stark will be back.

To what extent do you think a motorbike is a fish?

Motorcycles and fish actually have a lot in common. Both are sleek and fast. Fish depend on their abilities to evade larger fish, birds, snakes, etc…bikers (smart ones) consider everything on the road the enemy. Unless it is small enough to eat. Same with fish. If it is too big to eat, a fish has no interest and sees it as a threat. On a motorcycle, you try to avoid big hazards, but if it is small enough to be eaten in a sitting (chicken, raccoon, possum), you run that shit over. It’s more dangerous to try to avoid it.

Fish spook easily. So do motorcycles (well, motorcyclists). Both very vulnerable creatures who, when removed from their element, are in immediate peril. Most fish don’t have defense mechanisms per se. Evade is always the first move except for the very top of the fish food chain. Same for motorcycles. Sharks and Hells Angels are the exception to the rule, perhaps. You can’t fight a minivan. You will lose. So you try to escape it. Only when cornered do you knuckle down. If you’re smart. Both like to travel in schools for protection. And they both come in all shapes and sizes (and demeanors).

Is it true you’re planning a coup on the government?

No…well, sometimes in my mind. Actually, a coup doesn’t interest me. The Government doesn’t interest me. It would if I let it, but they all make me sick and ashamed to be a human being. It’s cowardly, but I ignore what the government does. They are all shady liars. It comes with the territory. Can you imagine a politician actually being 100% honest and forthright? They would lose. Compromise and hedging of bets is a necessity, but it sickens me. I’d much rather vote for an honest person, even if I don’t agree with everything they believe. Obama has been a big let down. I was pretty stoked on him even before he ran for president. I do like speeches. And he is good at them. But he has to play the game like everyone else. It’s dishonest.

There is too much that doesn’t make sense for me to even take the shit seriously. It’s like a bad satire. You can buy a handgun, but weed is illegal. The government gets to have a say in who you want to have sex with. Americans don’t even have socialized health care. It’s preposterous. I could never be a politician because I would make it five minutes before I screamed, “fuck you, you disingenuous bastards,” and walked out. I can’t compromise on my principals the way you have to if you want to play the game. A coup would be pointless anyway, the government is rapidly destroying itself, and I certainly don’t want to be in charge. Honestly, the only two people I can think of right now that I would actually be excited about voting for are Dan Savage or Jon Stewart. They are people who are interested and knowledgeable, but not total idiot assholes. I’m sure I could think of more, but I don’t have time to think about the government. It’s like a giant ugly monolith I try to ignore. I’m not proud of that, but that’s the way it is.

Dan thank you for a great interview.

Links: JoeCafe_100x150 Biker_100x150
Pick up a copy of The Biker (A Matt Stark Novel) at Amazon US and UK.

Or use JD Mader’s Amazon US and UK author pages for one-stop shopping: browse and buy all his titles to include Joe Café, find his latest web posts, tweets, photos, and other info.

Blogs:
Unemployed Imagination
Blergpop
Indies Unlimited

Posted in Author Interviews - Quick-Fires | 12 Comments

Chin Wag At The Slaughterhouse With Assorted Authors of ‘ACTION: Pulse Pounding Tales, Volume 1’

Posted on June 6, 2012 by richardgodwin

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This is a Chin Wag special. It’s a first, ten authors, a question each. Matt Hilton has put together a great anthology of fast paced gritty crime stories based on the action films of the seventies. Look no further, here are some of the names that fill the pages of ACTION: Pulse Pounding Tales, out now. Paul Brazill is in it, I am, as are K.A. Laity and Keith Gingell among many others. This is a book that will leave you reaching for more, and you’ll have to wait until the next one’s out.

Matt Hilton, tell us about the new anthology.

It’s called Action: Pulse Pounding Tales Vol 1, and – if you excuse the overused cliche – it does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a meaty volume of 37 action-packed short stories, around 140 thousands words, from both established, climbing and new thriller authors. The collection came about due to my love of the old pulp fiction books, the ‘men’s action books’ of the 1970’s and also my love of high adventure. I’d been planning on putting together a collection of my own short stories, and sat down and wrote the two stories of mine that are included in APPT specifically to kick off the collection, but then I got to wondering if there were other like-minded writers out there who shared a similar passion to mine. To be honest, I thought that perhaps a book full of my own take on the action genre would grow a little samey-samey, and believed that individual voices and styles would make for a much better and entertaining book. So basically, I put out the feelers with a call for submissions via my Facebook page and blog, and was stunned by the number of stories that came rolling in. There was I expecting submissions from the newest of new writers, so imagine my surprise when not only some huge names on the current web scene came onboard, but also bestselling/established authors like Stephen Leather (Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd), Zoe Sharp (Charlie Fox), Adrian Magson (Harry Tate) and Steven Savile (Doctor Who, Stargate, Slaine etc) heard the call and were keen to get involved. I had a difficult task in reading the submissions and deciding on those that would be included in the collection: the standard was so damn good, even from the occasional first-timer that took a stab at inclusion. It was hard to turn away some of the submissions, but I wanted only the best of the bunch to kick off APPT, and had to choose only those that met the brief I’d set for inclusion i.e. the stories had to be big and bold and larger than life, somewhat akin to a summer blockbuster movie, and pay homage to heroes the likes of Mack Bolan, Remo Williams, Nick carter, Conan the Cimmerian and such. As it was, the individual authors had great fun with that brief, and there are no two stories the same in the book. There is everything in the action genre from super agents, veterans, cops, villains, swordsmen and slayers, bootleggers and treasure hunters. Some of the stories are gritty, some tongue in cheek, some quite scary, but each and every story in the collection has that prerequisite stamp that they must get the adrenalin going, the pulse pounding, and the action fast and furious. I might be biased, being an action thriller author by trade (Joe Hunter), but I think that the standard of the writing stands up to any other similar collection anywhere. I’m so thrilled by the collection that I’m already planning volume 2.

Graham Smith, what draws you to the action films of the seventies?

The thing I love about the action films of the seventies was the whole sense of innovation in the styling of the cinematography. It may seem dated now but who can forget jumping back and pressing themselves in their seat when the head rolled into view in Jaws?

By today’s standards the mechanical shark or the light sabres used in Star Wars are prehistoric relics. Yet as a child I had a toy shark and coveted a friend’s light sabre. Surely this is also the decade that created movie tie-ins. With five “Bond” films also released there was lots of high octane action to satisfy a bloodthirsty little boy.

The big action heroes of the seventies were not the angst filled drunks and losers who wasted valuable fighting time with pain filled monologues. They came, they kicked ass and then they bedded the nearest woman through sheer force of personality and the seduction techniques of a rampant silverback. No amount of evil henchmen was too many for these guys, they just karate chopped or shot their way through the masses until the inevitable standoff with the leader of the baddies. The typical seventies minion could be disposed of with a single punch in all films unless it was the climactic last fight.

By the time the eighties rolled around, I was old enough to watch some of the seventies classics like Dirty Harry, Enter the Dragon or Rollerball. Later in life I would also enjoy such classics as Alien, Deliverance and Raging Bull alongside the high drama disaster movies.

To this day I will never forget being terrified for the people who were trapped below decks in The Poseidon Adventure. It was released the year I was born and I first watched it from behind the couch aged around six or seven. To my eternal shame it is still the film which scared me more than any other.

With all this action and the seminal Life of Brian from the Monty Python team, the seventies is definitely the decade which re-invigorated film making and spawned the blockbusters we enjoy today.

Gavin Bell, tell us about your story.

It’s actually a little difficult to talk about the idea for Expiry Date, because you only really find out what the story is about at the end. Well, that’s not entirely true; the story itself is very straightforward: it’s a violent all-action man-on-the-run thriller. It opens with the hero, Nathaniel Cage, realising that every hired gun in the city is out for his blood (literally, as it happens), but you have to wait until the end to find out why. To keep you occupied in the meantime, there’s gunfights, death-defying escapes, fast cars and a feisty femme. Basically, everything a growing boy or girl needs.

I’d had the basic idea for the story a couple of years ago, but I’d never got around to writing it until now. When Matt announced his new anthology of hard boiled action tales, I knew it was a great excuse to write this story and this character. Cage is your archetypal hard man in a hard world, and he was a lot of fun to write. He’s quite a bit different from my usual protagonists. The narrator of my first book, Halfway to Hell, is your standard flawed noir anti-hero: he gets in way over his head and has to survive on a combination of street smarts and luck. The hero of the book I’m finishing just now is a little more polished and capable, more like a Bond: the kind of guy who takes his enemies down by out-thinking and out-strategising them. Cage is different: if he encounters a problem, he’ll basically kill his way through it until it’s resolved.

Interestingly, although I’m a fan of contemporary action thrillers (Lee Child, Robert Crais, Simon Kernick, Mr Hilton of course), I found myself channelling some of the more rough and ready comic book heroes in this story. Stuff like Frank Miller’s Sin City and Garth Ennis’s take on The Punisher. I guess that makes sense, because Matt’s pitch for this book called for big, brash, exciting, over-the-top heroes: superheroes, in other words.

I’m enormously grateful to Matt for the opportunity to write this one and for including it in the collection. I had a lot of fun exploring Nathaniel Cage and his brutal world, and I hope to be returning there soon. In the meantime, it’s fantastic to be in the company of so many other talented writers, and hopefully to be a part of the great action revival.

Steven Redwood, I hear you have some news on your short Man Or Mouse.

Yeah, MAN OR MOUSE has been optioned by a BAFTA nominated producer to make into a movie. The movie title is THE JUDGE OF PETTICOAT LANE. I’m working with the producer now to get the script ready. It’s all very exciting.

I wrote the story with a particular British actor in mind to play the lead Jim ‘The Judge’ Galloway. I can’t name the actor but we’re hoping he takes the role.

The story is dark, raw and gritty. The producer has likened my work to Martin McDonagh who wrote In Bruges which is a massive compliment. The story is about a man who goes on the rampage to find his young son’s killer, but, in taking his revenge on a gang of pedophiles, kills an undercover agent. Then, 5 years later the past comes back to haunt him as the agent’s son comes for his own revenge. But he falls in love with the gangster’s daughter so faces a dilemma: can he kill the man who killed his own father, the loving dad doted on by the girl he loves?

I’ve been working hard on the script and getting some great feedback. My script consultant said it has the potential to be a meaningful modern day fable, like Gran Torino or Death Wish.

It’s in the British Gangster genre. Hard hitting but funny too. Big Jim’s right hand men Trippy and Dogface are a comic double act. They lighten the atmosphere, even if they are also violent maniacs.

Have to finish the script soon, so I’d better get on! If you want a taster, read MAN OR MOUSE in Pulse Pounding Tales Vol. 1.

Col Bury, If you had to sell the anthology to a reader how would you do it?

Well…

Muriel leaned over the garden fence as she stoked her tortoiseshell cat, Tiddles. “Morning, Col. So, what’s this anthology people are talking about?”

“It’s an eBook of short action stories collected by thriller author, Matt Hilton.”

She caressed Tiddles. “Matt who?”

Col shook his head, as his elderly neighbour’s teenage grandson joined them.

“Nan, he writes the Joe Hunter thriller series. It’s shit hot!”

“Language, Timothy!”

“Soz, Nan.”

Col grinned.

“Is there any swearing in it?” she asked, tossing a look of disdain at her grandson.

Shit! Col thought, considering his own story in the collection… Gallance. “In context, sure. ‘Oh crumbs, damn and blast’, just wouldn’t cut it in this book, since there’s so much conflict.”

“Hmm… sounds okay, I suppose. Not had much action… since Albert… “ She stared into space.

Col stifled a mischievous smile and raised his eyebrows.

“But I’m still not sure. No animals get hurt, do they?”

“No, Muriel. Just humans. Bad ones.”

“Good.”

Col’s brow creased. “Remember those action heroes from the 70’s? The Saint, The Avengers, The Equalizer…” Muriel dipped her head and stroked Tiddles again, reminding Col of Dr No. Changing tack, he asked, “Er, do you like James Bond?”

“Oh, yes. Albert had a look of Sean Connery, you know… before he… left us.”

“Well, Matt got a bunch of writers old and new, like Stephen Leather, Zoe Sharp, Richard Godwin and Paul Brazill, to create heroic action figures who bring the bad guys to justice in gripping, fast-paced, action-packed stories interspersed with dark humour.”

“Stephen Godwin… hmm… interesting… and I’ve heard of Joe Sharp… but I don’t like those Brazilians much… plus, money’s a bit tight at the moment. Anyway, gotta go and feed Tiddles.”

Col bounced looks with Tim. Hey-ho. “But it’s only a couple of quid… works out at about seven pence a story!”

“See you later, Col.”

It’s probably not for you, Muriel. “Bye.”

“Well, I’m gonna bloody get it anyway. Sounds bloody brill!”

“Oh, Timothy!”

“Soz, Nan.”

“Cheers, Tim.” As they headed back to their bungalow, Col overheard Muriel saying to her grandson: “I don’t want the neighbours gossiping, but when you download it, I think I’ll have a read of that. Could do with a bit of juicy fookin kick-ass action!”

BUY IT! 😉

Iain Purdie, if you had to elevator pitch ACTION, how would you do it?

The first thing I would do is look up the phrase “elevator pitch” in the grand repository of all knowledge that is Wikipedia, just to make sure I knew what it meant.

OK, so 30 seconds to impress upon the casual listener how mindbogglingly good this collection of short stories actually is. Well, I certainly can’t detail each of the 37 stories. That’s too many. I couldn’t even list all 36 authors included though I could focus on the best-sellers such as Matt Hilton and Stephen Leather. You know, just to get the point across that there is no lack of quality within the digital pages.

I could mention that it’s less than the price of a pint of beer or a cinema ticket, yet contains enough action to make Michael Bay go weak at the knees. More punches, kicks and bullets than James Bond has seen in an entire career. With a limit of 5000 words on each story, they’re ideal for a single sitting and each story carries enough wallop to thrust your head into the wall behind you. Quite possibly bursting it like a ripe watermelon before discarding your beaten corpse and moving onto the next guy.

It’s not all spies and contemporary heroes, either. There are cowboys in there, ninja and knights in armour. All of them battling against the odds in tales that will have you flicking the pages at breakneck speed.

Every author starts somewhere and with the established writers contributing to this book, it’s a great chance for newer talent to get their names out there. Given the paltry fee charged, you’re risking nothing to help new creators get their names known. Who knows? Your purchase might encourage them to write more.

And the world’s not short of bad guys who need the crap kicked out of them.

James Hopwood, what appeal do you think the seventies movies hold for an audience today?

Fashion, definitely the threads, man! Just kidding. It’s funny you should ask me about the seventies, rather than the eighties, because when most people think of men-of-action, they think of Stallone as Rambo, Chuck Norris in Invasion USA, or Schwarzenegger in Commando. But the seventies is the place to start. Action men started there. By the eighties, it had all become a violent cartoon. Back in the seventies, it had grit. Look at Dirty Harry, Death Wish and Rocky. They’re great examples, because they all had sequels that ran into the eighties. But I think it can be argued, the original Dirty Harry, Death Wish and Rocky were damn good films with flawed characters, but each of them, in their way, stood up for what they believed in.

However, by the eighties, Dirty Harry was being chased by a remote control toy car. Paul Kersey (Bronson’s character in Death Wish), rather than collecting his old age pension, became an action man blowing away punks. And Rocky defeated the Soviet Union. Put simply, they had become cartoons. Shadows of their former selves – but, suited to the times – the ‘greed is good’ eighties.

Skip ahead to now. The global economy is a mess. Unemployment is on the rise. As far as I can see, manufacturing is almost dead – in this country at least. Businesses are going belly-up, and it’s becoming harder for the average Joe or Jocelyn to earn a living and make ends meet. And with the ongoing conflict in the middle east, in some ways mirroring Vietnam, the environment is not that dissimilar from that of the early seventies.

So when you ask, what is the appeal of seventies films for modern audiences, I would suggest that those films gave us hope that one man or woman could change the status quo. We still need characters who stand up for what they believe in. Normal people, without super powers – not comic book heroes. It’s a message we need more than ever now, and we are not getting it from modern film.

Anyway, that’s enough yammerin’ from me. I off to Poughkeepsie to pick my feet. These days, there’s no one to stop me!

Absolutely Kate, do you think Pulse Pounding Tales is a particularly male terrain, or does it have something for a female readership?

Good God Godwin ~ Femmes aren’t puff-pastry pushovers. We live, we ache, we scream, we dream. We handle our own amongst what murky melees and free-for-all fracases come at us. Well hell, sure ~ our Maybelline, Revlon and Chanel may herald our entrance . . . but once in the thick o’things, we can heft a heist or jive and jolt with the big boys, you know ~ youse guys. We admire good guys being tough guys pulverizing bad guys. Revenge? Sweet? Name me a dame down deep inside her lush, lacy lingerie that won’t look ya straight in the peepers and smile sultry when she murmers, “Well, you know he had it coming.”

What it takes to get there — making the final frame count, the lasting sentence resound — is found smack dab in all the scrolled pages of Matt Hilton’s ‘gathering of the vibes’ ~ ACTION: PULSE POUNDING TALES. I could tell you more of my savvy character Angel Towse, whose name genuinely translates from Olde English to new Bootlegger as ANGEL TOUGH, but I’d rather all you folks out there read my story, felt a good woman’s tough ends make her due come true. You notice I’m not alone as a femme fatale crimewriter in this posse of renown: The memorable Kate Laity, Zoe Sharp, Theresa Derwin and Natasha Marie Thomas pack a mean-scene wallop to their pretty punch and still meet up with me at the corner bar later for beltin’ much more than sloe gin fizzes to toast our plotlines.

But what you 32 other boys jam-packed in this so-hot-it-gunsmokes anthology? Nah, you don’t scare off or turn off a wise woman-reader with a mind to explore the more where the daring, the who-dun-its, the shrilling thrilling killings move their momentum. A true woman’s mind is as steely as it is naturally sensuous. Ladies do and shall groove to our book.
Bring it on baby. Bring it on.
Womenfolk love when a worthy read gets their juices all jumpin.

Ian Graham, tell us about your story.

My story is titled ‘At Close Range’ and features an antagonist named Torrance Sands who, in the covert world of killers-for-hire, goes by the codename AU, the chemical symbol for gold. His codename is due to the fact that he is rather vain and has long blonde hair. Like my primary protagonist (who I’ve yet to debut) Sands’ history is deeply rooted in the Troubles of Northern Ireland.

As ‘At Close Range’ opens Sands is in the desert of northwest Texas in the United States and has accepted a job from an American politcian. His mission is to eliminate a cult leader who has gotten his pediphiliac hands on the politcian’s granddaughter. Sands has been hired for this job because he is renowned for being the man to call if you want the kill to be up close and personal no matter what the odds against him are. Like the Russian Spetsnaz soldiers that trained him over two decades ago, Sands has a proclivity for violence second to none. In ‘At Close Range’ he willingly launches himself head on into a situation that calls for him to kill multiple assailants before even reaching his primary target, but as he soon finds out, there is more to this job than can be plainly seen.

Andy Scorah, how important a concept is heroism in the anthology?

Without heros and heroism, we would have no pulse pounding stories. Action PPT is a form of escapeism, between the electronic pages you can lose yourself in the dareing do of the characters. If it had been full of stories about the day in the life of a travelling salesman or a shelf stacker at Tescos no one would buy it but if that travelling salesman uncovers a terrorist plot and only he is in the right place to save the day and because of his ex special forces training it becomes more interesting because then it morphs into a heroic story.

People love heros, because mostly life is mundane, we get up in a morning, go to work, come home and maybe do some shopping then go to bed and the next morning start all over again; so with a book like this for a few hours we can escape from our day to day lives.

I suppose as well, we are transported back to our childhood when we played Cowboys and Indians, or Pirates even Robin Hood, everyone wanted to be the Cowboy but never the Indian. Action Pulse Pounding Tales brings out the kid in all of us. Heroic action has been the staple in literature going all the way back to the IIiad and Odyssey because people have always needed heros and heroines whether to save us from the mundane or transport us to a forgotten time where men were men and women well sometimes women were just as tough as the men. Without a hero we have no story and without a story we would not have ACTION: Pulse Pounding Tales Vol 1, to put it simpler, we all want to shoot the bad guys, blow stuff up, get the girl and save the day.

Thank you everyone for a scintillating and great interview.

Pick up a copy of Action: Pulse Pounding Tales Volume 1 at Amazon US or UK. And inside, you’ll find these top authors and their works as listed below.

Stephen Leather – Strangers on a Train
Matt Hilton – Satisfaction Guaranteed and Trench Warfare
I S Paton – Valley of Death
James Oliver Hilton – The Real Deal
Adrian Magson – Jingle Bells
Joe McCoubrey – Death By Licence
Zoë Sharp – The Night Butterflies
Col Bury – Gallance
Matt Hayden – Battle For Baghlan
David Barber – The Stranger
Gavin Bell – Expiry Date
Jochem Vandersteen – A Most Honorable Death
Steven Savile & Steve Lockley – Jack Be Nimble
Ian Graham – At Close Range
James Hopwood – Cutter’s Law
Absolutely Kate – Angel Tough
Iain Purdie – On Her Majesty’s Bloody Service
Keith Gingell – The Legend of Jimmy-The-Gimp
Terrence P. McCauley – Blood Moon of 1931
Daniel Moses Luft – Skinner Alive
Asher Wismer – Jobs Taken
Gavin Hunt – The Handler
Les Morris – Blood on Their Hands
Graham Smith – Issa’s Island Prison
Andrew Scorah – Eastern Fury
Paul D. Brazill – The Liberator
Paul Grzegorzek – The Tower of Marnir
Theresa Derwin – Bit Part Player
Evan Lewis – The Judgment of Jean Lafitte
Natasha Marie Thomas – Avenged: Sixfold
Mark Dark – Man or Mouse
Robin Jarossi – Stokey
Richard Godwin – Savage Sun
Pete Sortwell – One Flew Over the Policeman’s Bonnet
Laird Long – Born of Woman
K.A. Laity – Chickens