Hard-boiled Down Noir

The five winners of Punchnel's "hard-boiled down noir contest" are up on their site. You can check them out here http://www.punchnels.com/tag/hard-boiled-down-noir-contest/

Speaking of Noir

Great piece over at Criminal Element about Weegee, a photographer who chased down murder scenes to photograph for the newspapers. http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2012/02/weegee-the-man-who-shot-noir

Mixing Noir into Spec-Fiction

Many of you are mixing your noir with spec-fiction on some level so I thought this post might be of interest. I do think though, that the writer has confused hard-boiled with noir, but then who doesn't? Still an interesting look at the mixing together of crime and sci-fi/fantasy tropes. http://elflands2ndcousin.com/2012/02/07/the-aesthetics-structure-and-themes-of-noir-speculative-fiction/

Breaking Elmore's Rules

Max Allan Collins has a great post on his blog about Elmore Leonard's rules.
http://www.maxallancollins.com/blog/2012/02/07/breaking-elmore-leonards-rules/

Odds and Ends

Brian Lindenmuth sent me a link this morning that linked to this list of Medieval Occupations. The Criminals had interesting job names back then! If you're writing fantasy or steampunk, some of the job titles could be worked into your stories.
http://www.svincent.com/MagicJar/Economics/MedievalOccupations.html

With a hat tip to Charles Tan I found this interview with Elizabeth Hand. http://mainecrimewriters.com/pauls-posts/an-interview-with-elizabeth-hand

There will probably be more posts throughout the day. My server has been cutting in and out for the past three days, so actually getting anything done online has been pretty iffy.

Contests and a Charity Anthology

From Katherine Tomlinson we have a charity anthology call called "Creature Feature". Proceeds go to the animal shelters picked by the top voted on stories. Deadline is March 18 for 1000 to 6000 words.
http://curiosityquills.com/call-for-submissions-creature-feature-anthology/

This legal fiction contest came through the SMFS board a few days ago. The deadline is March 15 for up to 5000 word stories that feature the legal (court) system in some way. You can find the details here http://swlaw.edu/jleweb/fictioncontestrules There is no fee to enter. The top ten stories will be published on the site. It'll be the judges that are the draw for this contest! (Michael Connelly is one of them)

For those of you who write micro-flash I was asked to post a contest for flash fiction up to 100 words. The call is from a reputable group but the $10 fee seems a little steep to me, your thoughts may vary.

http://www.ppb-nlapw.org/contests.php

Choosing a Setting

Back a few months ago I read a blog post where the writer asked who would you prefer being trapped in an elevator with, than gave two choices. Neither of his choices appealed to me but the idea of setting a story in an elevator did.

I mean, what's not to like? You're stuck in a claustrophobic box dangling in midair. Can you stop the elevator or does it stop itself? Perhaps you're trapped inside with a serial killer. How do you escape? Bottom line is how do you make it believable? Let's be honest, if you kill someone in an elevator how do you escape? There's going to be people around when that door opens.

Anyhoo I gave it a try and the very kind editors over at Shotgun Honey gave it the thumbs up. http://www.shotgunhoney.net/2012/02/goes-around-by-sandra-seamans.html

So, where's the strangest place you've ever set a story?