Tag Archives: Helen Fitzgerald

Unveiling the cover of Crime Factory’s Hard Labour anthology

Here it is people, the cover of Crime Factory’s all-Australian anthology, Hard Labour, edited by Cameron Ashley, Liam Jose and myself.

It’s by the same artist who did the cover art work for the Australian version of the First Shift anthology we launched earlier this year, the very talented, Erik Lundy.

We are welcoming this beauty into the world October 8 at Grumpy’s Green in Collingwood. We promise you a great night. A number of the authors will be reading from their Hard Labour stories, drinks will be available at the bar and, of course, you’ll be able to buy a copy of Hard Labour. Doors open 7pm, with readings beginning sometime around 8pm.

And if that’s not enough, our special guest on the night will be Iain McIntyre, author of Sticking it to the Man: Pop, Protest and Black Fiction of the Counterculture, 1964-75out through The Leda Tape Organisation. Copies of the book will also be on sale and Iain will be giving a little tour through the lava lamp lit streets of counter cultural pulp fiction.

Hard Labour will set you back just $13.99. The digital book, available soon, will be $2.99.

It’s a bargain for crime fiction this good. If you’re not convinced caste your eyes over the full line up of authors.… Read more

Launch of Crime Factory’s Hard Labour anthology and other crime writing news

There’s a hell of a lot going on crime writing wise for me at the moment.

In addition to the launch of my debut novel, Ghost Money, I have several pieces of short fiction coming out. Things are also busy in regard to Crime Factory Publications, the small press I have stared with two other Melbourne friends, Cameron Ashley and Liam Jose.

On Monday, October 8, Crime Factory Publications is launching its second book, Hard Labour, an all-Australian short crime fiction anthology. I’m one of the editors, along with Jose and Ashley and, as usual, we’ve tried to mix establishing crime writers with talented up and comers. The line up includes Garry Disher (his first Wyatt story, unpublished for over a decade), Adrian McKinty (a Melbourne-based Irish writer, so he counts), Leigh Redhead, Angela Savage, Peter Corris, Helen Fitzgerald, David Whish-Wilson, JJ DeCeglie, Andrez Bergen, Deborah Sheldon, Amanda Wrangles, and many more.

The venue is the same as our first launch in March, Grumpy’s Green, 125 Smith Street, Collingwood. It’s going to be a great night. A selection of the authors will reading from their stories, drinks will be available at the bar and copies of Hard Labour will be on sale for $13.99.

Doors open 7pm, with readings beginning sometime around 8pm.… Read more

Crime Factory Publications clocks on

Put the night of March 5 in your diaries, people. That’s the launch of Crime Factory Publications, a (very) small publishing company I’ve set up with my two colleagues and friends from Crime Factory magazine, Cameron Ashley and Liam Jose.

A couple of months ago on this blog I mentioned 2012 was going to be a big year for me. In addition to several short stories coming out around the place in the next couple of months, my novel will be out as an e-book around mid-year with Snubnose Press. On top of all this, I’ve now got my own slice of the publishing business (he says, tongue firmly in cheek).

The Crime Factory crew have been discussing taking our work to the next level for a while now. Several factors drove the decision to finally bite the bullet.

First and foremost, nine issues of Crime Factory magazine (of which I’ve been on board for the last four) have given us contacts and access to quality crime fiction from great writers. We don’t always make the most of this and push the great writing we get as much as possible. Starting our own outfit is one way to reverse this situation. We also wanted to raise the profile of the magazine here in Australia where, in comparison to the US, we’re pretty much unknown.… Read more

Roll on 2012

I don’t know about you, but I feel like it’s been a long year.

Pulp Curry is going to be taking a break over the Christmas/New Year period, returning in mind-2012.

It’s shaping up to be a big one for me writing-wise. My manuscript, tentatively titled Cambodia Darkness and Light, will be published as an e-book in the US some time in the second half of 2012, by Snubnose Press.

I also have short fiction appearing in a number of publications. Max Quinlan, an Australian-Vietnamese ex-cop and the main character in Cambodia Darkness and Light, will be making an appearance in issue two of Noir Nation, in a story called ‘Homeland’.

Gary Chance, a tough, ex-Australian army veteran who now makes a living pulling heists for anyone who’ll pay, will appear in The One That Got Away, an anthology of Australian crime fiction by Dark Prints Press, out February.

Chance will also feature in a story by me in Crime Factory: Hard Labour, out in March. Hard Labour is an anthology of crime stories by authors either born in Australia or residing here.

Rather than just complaining about the narrowness of the local crime fiction scene, Melbourne’s Crime Factory crew, myself, Cameron Ashely and Liam Jose, have decided to get active and do something about it.… Read more

My manuscript finds a home

This is the blog entry I’ve been hoping to post on Pulp Curry for a long time now.

My unpublished manuscript, currently titled Cambodia Darkness and Light, has found a home.

It’s going to be published as an e-book in the United States next year by the good folks at Snubnose Press.

Haven’t heard of them?

Hmmm, perhaps that not surprising, especially if you are in Australia. But you’re going to. And soon.

Snubnose is a small outfit that specialises in crime fiction e-books, but they have big plans.

They have a great slate of authors planned for publication in 2012, including Heath Lowrance (whose first book The Bastard Hard I reviewed on this site several months ago), Nik Korpon, Chad Rohrbacher, fellow Aussie Helen Fitzgerald and Dan O’Shea, just to name a few of them.

That’s some serious emerging and established indie crime writing talent and I’m thrilled to be able to count myself among them.

It’s also great to get a crack at the US e-book market, which is far bigger than it is in Australia and growing at a rapid pace.

Of course, you’ll also be able to get the e-book here.

The blurb on the Snubnose site describes my book as “a hard-boiled novel about a Vietnamese-Australian ex-cop searching for a missing businessman in mid-90s Cambodia that brings to mind the novels of Martin Limón.”

Read more