Anthologies, my novel and more shameless self-promotion

In over a couple of weeks I will be jetting off to spend a couple of weeks in the US, New York mostly, followed by a few days in Philadelphia to attend Noir Con.

I-can-not-wait.

Several more ‘Noir Con noir bust’ posts are scheduled between now and when I leave, but I just wanted to take a short break from these to do a bit of shameless self-promotion. A lot of writing I’ve been working on for the last year is being released around the same time. By the end of the year it’ll be back to the drawing board, but for now I’ve got some serious pimping to do.

First up, is Crime Factory’s latest publication, Hard Labour, an anthology of 17 noir and hardboiled Australian short crime stories, edited by Cameron Ashley, Liam Jose and myself. We launched this baby last week at Grumpy’s Green in Collingwood.  A fine time was had by all and we managed to sell enough copies on the night to more or less pay the printing bill.

The print version of Hard Labour is now available from our website for $13.99 plus postage. The digital book is available on Amazon here for just $2.99.

It’s a bargain for crime fiction this good. The line up of authors includes Garry Disher (his first ever Wyatt story, unpublished for over a decade), Angela Savage, Peter Corris, Leigh Redhead, Adrian McKinty, David Whish Wilson and a host others. And if that doesn’t convince you, check out this review of the anthology over at the site, Fair Dinkum Crime.

My debut novel Ghost Money, a gritty crime story set in nineties Cambodia, continues to get good reviews. In particular, it seems to have gone over well with foreigners who actually live in Cambodia, who can be a tough crowd to please.

The latest review was a week or so ago in the Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia’s main English language daily. It said:

“…although crime fiction has taken off in Southeast Asia and new small presses devoted to the genre have popped up in Bangkok and Hong Kong, a lot of the novels being churned out tend to be breathless in their descriptions of the settings, cultivating an exotic appeal for audiences back in the west but in the process creating a highly grating read for the people residing in the places they describe.

Nette’s Ghost Money is refreshing in its deft avoidance of this trap, with the author’s evident fascination with history superseding the need to gild his work with page-filler along the lines of “Cambodia: a land of contrasts where human life is cheap” or the other usual sigh-inducers.”

If you have read Ghost Money, please drop me a line and tell me what you think.

You can pick up Ghost Money for your  Kindle here and for Nook at Barnes and Noble for just $4.99. I believe a hard copy version may also soon be available. More news about that when I have it.

Last but by no means least, I’m wrapped to have a story in a new anthology put together by the people behind the US flash fiction site, Shotgun Honey. It’s called Both Barrels and contains 29 stories from established heavy hitters and up and comers.

Bringing up the tail end of the latter is yours truly. My story, ‘King Tut’s Tomb’ is about an Egyptologist with a nasty gambling habit who owes a lot of money to the wrong people.

I won’t say anything more than that except to encourage you to get a copy. It’s a great way to get a feel for what’s happening in international crime writing scene. It’s available in digital and hard copy format. All the details are here.

And while you’re at it, check out Shotgun Honey. Sites like this are one of the reasons the American crime scene often feels so much more diverse and dynamic than ours in Australia. Every week features a short crime story of no more than 700 words. Newbies and established authors lines up to take a swing. And the quality is ALWAYS good.

Now if you think it’s easy laying down a crime story in 700 words, think again. At least I didn’t find it easy. My story ‘Trauma Therapy’ will appear live on the site this coming Friday.