Cheap fiction, plus a chance to win a copy of BEAT TO A PULP: ROUND ONE!

For those of you who don't know, I recently released a collection of short stories on Kindle titled 8 Pounds: Eight Tales of Crime, Horror, and Suspense for the bargain-basement price of $0.99! In the week that it's been out, it's garnered some lovely reviews (like this one), and more than one report of insomnia, which is kinda cool. (Hey, some of it is horror, after all; I'm allowed to be proud of scaring the sleep outta people.) And if you don't have a Kindle, that's no problem at all - just follow the link, and you can download a free app for your computer or mobile device in seconds. What better way to celebrate the Halloween season than cheap, kick-ass creepy fiction?

That covers the cheap; now let's talk about the free. Namely, a free copy (two, in fact!) of the gorgeous pulp smorgasbord that is Beat to a Pulp: Round One. How gorgeous, you ask? This gorgeous:
And lest you think this baby's all sizzle and no steak, let's talk about what's inside. How about damn near 400 pages chock full of the best crime, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, western, and pirate tales you'll ever read, penned by such talented folks as Sophie Littlefield, Charles Ardai, Robert J. Randisi, Hilary Davidson, James Reasoner, Edward A. Grainger, Frank Bill, Patti Abbott, Jed Ayres, and Kieran Shea. Oh yeah, and, um, me.

So, whaddya gotta do to get one? Easy. I want you to tell me a story. A six-word story, to be exact. (No clue what I'm talking about? Click on over here and find out.) But not just any six-word story. A six-word pulp story.

Now, it doesn't have to be crime; like Beat to a Pulp themselves, this contest is all about celebrating the full breadth of pulp fiction. So use your imagination, and go to town.

Here's how it works: post your six-word story in the comments of this blog post (be sure to include a name if you're commenting without a Blogger account). Submissions will be open for ten days.

At the end of ten days, two winners will be picked. Winner Number One shall be chosen by none other than David Cranmer, editor-extraordinaire of Beat to a Pulp (which means not only does Winner Number One get a kick-ass anthology, he or she also gets some serious bragging rights.) Winner Number Two shall be selected by placing the names of the remaining entrants in a hat and letting luck take its course. (Originally, I'd written that the entrants themselves would be placed in the hat, which would've required one hell of an enormous hat. I'd also written that Lady Luck would have her way with them, but that sounded dirtier than intended. Why am I telling you this? I honestly have no idea.)

Once the winners are announced, they can each shoot me an e-mail with their addresses, and I will stalk them send along their prizes, even sullying them (er, the prizes, not the actual winners) with my signature if they (you?) so choose.

So get crackin', and spread the word! I can't wait to see what y'all have in store for me...