Tag Archives: Adrian Mckinty

Anthologies, my novel and more shameless self-promotion

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Andrew Nette| 6 Comments

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.… Read more

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Posted in Adrian McKinty, Angela Savage, Australian crime fiction, Australian noir, Crime Factory, Crime fiction, David Whish-Wilson, Garry Disher, Leigh Redhead, Noir Con, Snubnose Press

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Unveiling the cover of Crime Factory’s Hard Labour anthology

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Andrew Nette| 4 Comments

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, 1964-75, out 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

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Posted in Adrian McKinty, Angela Savage, Australian noir, Crime Factory, Crime Factory Publications, David Whish-Wilson, Garry Disher, Leigh Redhead, Noir fiction, Peter Corris

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

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Andrew Nette| 5 Comments

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

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Posted in Adrian McKinty, Angela Savage, Australian crime fiction, Christopher G Moore, Crime Factory, Crime Factory Publications, Crime fiction, Crime fiction and film from Cambodia, David Whish-Wilson, Garry Disher, Leigh Redhead, Noir fiction, Peter Corris

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Hunger and other films about doing time

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Andrew Nette| 10 Comments

I haven’t spent a lot of time in prisons and don’t want to. But I won’t deny they make tremendous story settings.

This was brought home to me again over the weekend after watching Hunger, Steve McQueen’s 2008 depiction of the final months in the life of IRA militant Bobby Sands. Sands and 9 other IRA inmates staved themselves to death in 1981 in protest against the Thatcher government’s insistence of treating them as common criminals rather than political prisoners.

I recently reviewed Adrian McKinty’s book The Cold Cold Ground, which dealt with a Catholic cop in a Protestant neighbourhood trying to solve a murder against the backdrop of the civil unrest unleashed by the hunger strikes.

Hunger is about what happened inside the walls of the Maze Prison. It’s a visceral, blistering film, all the more so because it’s made with incredible slight of hand.

It opens with the arresting image of a pair of bloody knuckles being soaked in water. These belong to one of the prison guards and were acquired administering incredibly savage beatings to IRA prisoners in response to their “blanket and dirty protests” in which the prisoners refused to wash and smeared shit over the walls of their prison cells. The guard is subsequently murdered in the aged care home where his mother lives, one of 16 guards killed by paramilitaries in retaliation for the treatment of the prisoners.… Read more

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Posted in 1960s American crime films, 1970s American crime films, 1980s American crime films, Adrian McKinty, Australian crime film, Bryan Brown, Burt Lancaster, Film Noir, James Woods, Michael Fassbender, Stuart Rosenberg

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Crime Factory femme fatales

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Andrew Nette| 3 Comments

I have been meaning to post for the last few days about the March 5 launch of Crime Factory Publications.

It was a good night. A decent sized crowd rocked up to Grumpy’s Green in Fitzroy to hear readings by Adrian McKinty, Leigh Redhead, David Whish Wilson and Megan Abbott. The jazz band After Dark My Sweet, were on fire. We even sold a few copies of the local edition of Crime Factory: The First Shift.

The highlight for me was meeting US noir author Megan Abbott. Not only is she a fantastic writer, she was incredibly generous with her time and thoughts about all things crime fiction and noir.

She read was from her upcoming book Dare Me. Dare Me is her most contemporary novel to date, set amongst the world of competitive cheerleading. I’d never thought about cheerleaders as akin to US servicemen or, better still, the modern American equivalent of gladiators. But talking to Megan about what inspired Dare Me, and the research she did for it, neither analogy sounds too far from the mark.

I can’t tell you how much I am dying to read it.

I won’t say anything more now. I managed to grab an hour before the launch to interview Megan for the next issue of Crime Factory.… Read more

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Posted in Adrian McKinty, Crime Factory, Crime Factory Publications, Crime fiction, David Whish-Wilson, Femme fatale, Leigh Redhead, Megan Abbott, Tart noir

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