CHRIS HOLM

A few months back, Steve Weddle told me he and John Hornor Jacobs were putting together a new print mag, and asked if I'd like to contribute something to their second issue. I said sure. I started kicking around a couple ideas. One was lean and mean at maybe 3,000 words. The other was a monster, a behemoth. The kind of story you know could get away from you. The kind you know could be a risk. It was big and burly and ambitious as all hell. Here's what I said to Steve about the latter when I emailed him to see which he'd prefer: I had this idea about a week ago. Got me out of bed. Sat down in the dark and cranked out a bunch of notes, all the while thinking I really had something... it's big, and it's dark, and there's no place else for it. I told him how long I thought it'd be. I pitched the other story, too. I thought for sure he'd take the safe bet. The one that looked like all my other stories. But then, I hadn't seen issue #1 of ...

It's official, y'all: my short story collection, 8 POUNDS: EIGHT TALES OF CRIME, HORROR, AND SUSPENSE, is available to download for the rock-bottom price of $0.99! These stories represent three glorious years of toiling in the trenches ('07-'09, for those keeping track), and have appeared in publications as varied as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Thuglit. I've collected them here because, well, websites shut down and magazines go out of print, which makes some of 'em hard to come by. Like old-school, whiskey-swiggin' pulp? Then check out Derringer-Award-finalist "The Big Score" and "A Simple Kindness." Need a dose of horror? How's about "The Well," "The Toll Collectors," and "A Better Life"? Or maybe you like your stories black and bitter as your coffee, in which case check out the Spinetingler-Award-winning "Seven Days of Rain" or "Eight Pounds." And just to sweeten t...

Not long ago, I wrote a short called "Green" for the fine folks at Crime Factory, to appear in their fourth issue—but that issue hit the virtual stands a couple weeks back, and "Green" wasn't in it. Why not? Turns out, they'd like "Green" to appear in Crime Factory's upcoming print anthology, CRIME FACTORY: THE FIRST SHIFT, which is plenty fine by me!

Serials defined my childhood. I have George Lucas to thank for that: his love of classic movie serials led him to create Star Wars and Indiana Jones, two series that molded my fiction sensibilities, locking me in to a love of the classic serial style long before I even knew there was such a thing. So when David Cranmer, crack editor of Beat to a Pulp (and kick-ass author in his own right) dropped me a line to ask if I'd be interested in contributing the first chapter in a serial he was cooking up, I didn't even have to hear his pitch. I was in. Lucky for me, then, his pitch was awesome. A rough-and-tumble time cop named Simon Rip, who along with his enigmatic partner, Ludwig, is tasked with hunting rogue genius Dr. Berlin across time. David's plan was to recruit writers from a wide spectrum of genres—pulp practitioners all—and just let 'em loose. I mean, who wouldn't want to play in that sandbox? A schlocky sci-fi premise. Larger than life characters. Limitless poss...

Yeah, I've been scarce of late. But I've got a good excuse. See, I've been writing. A lot. It all started about a month ago. I got an e-mail from a friend of mine. He said he wanted a story for his new magazine—something hardboiled, noir—and he wanted it to be a long one. And okay, I'd never written a short longer than 6,500 words, but I'm not one to turn down a writing gig. Three weeks later, I crossed the finish line on "The Hitter," a big, sprawling, man-I-hope-epic tale of violence, loss, and redemption. How big, you ask? (Yes, I know you didn't ask. It's a rhetorical device; roll with it.) Just a hair over 11,000 words. It turns out, I kinda dug sinking my teeth into such a long story. It felt more novelistic in its construction, in its characterization, in its scope, than any of my other shorts. But it was still leaner and more economical than a novel. Fingers crossed "The Hitter" is as fun to read as it was to write, because it...