The Best of Whatever—Poker Ben

PokerBen’s Top 10 Whatever list 2010.

This is in no particular order.

10. The TV show Justified.
This little show starring Timothy Olyphant is a winner in my book. The pilot was based on the Elmore Leonard short story “Fire In The Hole”, and features EL’s series character U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens. Who knew there were still U.S Marshals? From the kick ass pilot to the gripping season finale, I was hooked. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in season 2, which starts February 2011.Season 1 dvd available January 25th.

9. John Rector’s The Cold Kiss.
It’s hard to believe this was JR’s first novel. A young couple tangle themselves up with a gut shot man, who has a bag full of money. Mix in a horrible blizzard, and being stranded at an old motel full of crazies. This gem of a novel takes off like a rocket and doesn’t let up until the final page. Rector’s 2nd novel, “The Grove”, is sitting on my Kindle waiting to be enjoyed.

8. The Amazon Kindle.
Speaking of the little guy, it definitely deserves to be on my list. I love having the ability to buy a book, and almost instantly have it available at my finger tips. It’s also nice to have the larger print size available when my eyes are tired, and it’s great for traveling.

7. Needle Magazine.
I love being able to stay up to date on the latest sewing and knitting trends. Oh wait, not that Needle Magazine. I meant the one featuring all the awesome crime fiction/noir stories from today’s who's who in the industry.

6. Crimefactory Magazine.
I can’t mention a crime fiction magazine without mentioning the best one of all in my opinion. It’s got everything a crime lover could want, and a lot more. Not a bad purchase price either. Yep, Rawson and company know how to deliver the goods.

5. Ken Bruen’s The Devil.
What can I say about KB that hasn’t already been said. The man is an extraordinary writer. The Devil is the latest installment of his Jack Taylor series. Everything Bruen writes is gold in my eyes. He could write a computer manual and I’d read it.

4. Red Dead Redemption - PS3
First Rockstar games buts out the awesome GTA series, then they take GTA and drop it into the wild west. Yee Haw!

3. Getting my graphic design work some exposure.
I started off just screwing around in Photoshop. I then made Keith Rawson a banner for his blog, sent it to him, he actually liked it, and used it. I did the same thing for Anthony Neil Smith’s blog. He liked it, and down the road actually hired me to design a book cover for his upcoming E-book edition of Psychosomatic.My latest work was for the banner of this blog. All I can say is I’m thrilled. Who knows maybe this hobby can turn into something bigger down the line.

2. Don Winslow’s Savages.
This was my first Winslow. It knocked my socks off. To describe this book in one word---FUN. This isn’t your standard thriller. Sure its got great fleshed out characters, and an intense plot. It also has one sentence chapters, made up words, slang, lists,the author speaking directly to the reader,sex drugs,music. Pretty much the everything but the kitchen sink. You’ll just have to read it.

1. Winter’s Bone.
Both the book by Daniel Woodrell, and the movie directed by Debra Granik. I first fell in love with the book, but after seeing the movie recently, I love it just as much. WB tells the story of Ree Dolly, a 17 year old girl living in the Ozarks struggling to take care of her sick mother and younger siblings. Her father, a meth cook, has gotten in trouble with the law and has put their house down as collateral on his bail bond. He disappears ,and it’s up to Ree to find him before they loose their home. You will not soon forget this powerful tale. It will stick with you long after you’re finished with it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ben Springer (aka Poker Ben) is Crimefactory’s graphic designer at large. He’s created the banners for Bloody Knuckles, Callused Fingertips, (Keith Rawson’s much under used blog) Day Labor, Anthony Neil Smith’s blog, Herman's Greasy Spoon and the cover to the e-version of Smith’s first novel, Psychosomatic. He’s also written reviews for Spinetingler Magazine

The Best of Whatever—Cameron Ashley

The Top Ten things I love about Crime Factory founder Dave Honeybone:

• Dave is the world's tallest librarian. Fact. He hates when people point out his height, but sorry, it must be pointed out. Seriously, if I had to go collect money, I'd take Dave and Seth Harwood for back-up. Plus, he's always good for fucked-up library stories, like the time he caught a guy having a wank while watching porn on not one but TWO library computers. Dave had to tell the guy that masturbating in the library is not the done thing and see to it that he zipped up and left. Dave calls the guy a perv, I call him an innovator. Whatever. We don't always see eye to eye, Honeybone and me. Oh! And if you ever meet Dave, he may bust out his librarian voice – hilarious.

• Dave will lend you books with absolutely no need to ever get them back again. Seriously, he hands them out like Halloween candy. Not just to me but to CF reviewer Andrew Prentice and others. Dave has such love of crime fiction that he will share it with anyone who gets it, simply for the love of sharing it.

• Dave now loves comics. Took him some time to come around, but you will not meet a bigger SCALPED or UNKNOWN SOLDIER fan than The Honeybone. Dave: when are we writing our “Outback Scalped”?

• Back when Dave ran the Ned Kelly's (the Aussie crime fiction awards) with the awesome Peter Lawrence, the night was waaaay cooler, more enjoyable and held in a much more aesthetically-appropriate venue (a fucking jazz bar!). Now, co-opted totally by the Melbourne Writers Festival (at which barely any crime writers appear), they are kind of odd, detached from the spirit of the event, and filled with people who have barely read a crime novel in their lives. Basically, the Ned's lack the noir power of Dave.

• Dave recently threatened to move to Canberra, thus depriving me of a reliable drinking partner and one of the only people here who understands what the fuck I'm rambling on about. Fortunately, sanity prevailed and he and his family are staying put in Melbourne. Unfortunately, he is still not willing to bear arms with me in our fight with the Literary establishment. Ahh well. At least we can still have Hightail Ale with Jamie chasers.

• Dave has an idea for an Aussie crime novel that starts with a decapitated head floating in a cop shop aquarium. Yeah, I think he should finish it too.

• Dave could barely hear the interview he did with Peter Temple in CF 4. He had to sit there with his ear right up against the recording device, listen to the recording, pause it, transcribe and repeat and repeat and repeat. The interview was later significantly changed, much to Dave's amusement. Oh, prospective writers take heed: DAVE STILL MADE DEADLINE.

• Dave is under-appreciated by the country in which he lives and the genre which he loves. Fact. If he had moved to America instead of Australia, he'd be David Thompson (and I mean that with all due respect to the late Mr Thompson – that's just how special Dave is).

• Ken Bruen came over to dinner at Dave's house in 2003. I was there too. In Dave's backyard, we smoked and Ken told me that the secret to writing was to write every day for two hours a day, first thing in the morning and then...stop dead. Dave and I told this to Jason Starr a couple of years later. Starr laughed, called it “bullshit.”

• Dave gave CF to me when he realized that he could not participate in its relaunch, much to my own personal heartbreak. It's a scab he simply did not want to pick. Fair enough. I still like to think that one day he'll be back and we can dust off his desk once and for all and get some real shit done. We'll see. Remember: this is a man who single-handedly created CF (okay, he had a designer friend help), in Australia, back before massive internet exposure, print on demand, or any of the nonsense that the magazine so comparatively easy for us today. We had subscribers all over the world – including, no shit, Syria – and the mag was so highly regarded that the first person to reply to my tweets about the relaunch was none other than Duane Swierczynski. So, here's to Mr David Honeybone, Crime Factory godfather, pulp-fiend and my dear friend. Thank you for everything, Dave. We may do things differently in this newish factory, but everyone who works in it owes their shifts to you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Uuuuummmmm, yeah, it's Cam people. The picture on the left is his usual state

The Best of Whatever—Heath Lowrance

When I’m not busy with the important things in life, like video games or napping, I get a lot of reading done. Most of what I read is old shit, like, not even this century, but I managed to pick out ten newer books that made my list this past year. These are reads I’d recommend to anyone with any sense.

In no particular order, they are:

Imperial Bedrooms by Brett Easton Ellis.

Bleak, brutal, uncompromising. Ellis experiments with minimalism and meta-fiction with this sequel to Less Than Zero. It’s an uneasy book, and Ellis is his usual fearless self.

The Devil by Ken Bruen,

The Devil finds our boy Jack Taylor screwing up again, getting drawn into a situation that causes him to look back over his previous cases for links, and starting to suspect that his real foe is actually Satan himself. We all know, of course, that Jack’s biggest adversary is himself. Jack is a major fuck-up, but I’ve never felt more sympathy for a character than I do Jack Taylor.

It’s been a banner year for Dave Zeltserman, starting with the last of his ‘Man Out of Prison’ books, The Killer. It’s remarkably different from the others-- quieter, sadder even, with a strangely contemplative nature that surprised me. And the ending… wow, the ending. Amazing. Zeltserman has earned his place as one of the modern masters.
Like everyone else on the planet, my eyes started bleeding while reading Allan Guthrie’s Slammer. It’s his best book so far, and one of the best noirs written in the last twenty years. Unrelentingly suspenseful, bizarre, scary and blackly funny.

Darwyn Cooke’s graphic novel adaptation of Richard Stark’s The Outfit was a work of genius. Never has an artist been so perfectly suited to a character. I can’t wait for more Parker adaptations from Cooke.

And speaking of graphic novels (okay, comic books, let’s just call ‘em what they are), writer Jason Aaron and artist Steve Dillon have been doing amazing things with the Punisher in PunisherMAX. The first collected volume, Kingpin, is an over-the-top, bloody, profane work of art. There’s heads exploding, eyeballs a-poppin’, gratuitous use of the F-word, and well, gratuitous everything. Can’t remember the last time I had so much fun reading a comic.

Every year, editor Stephen Jones puts out a new edition of the Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. This last year saw the 20th volume, and once again Jones’ choices are exceptional. The guy just has great taste. Stories from Ramsey Campbell, Steve Rasnic Tem, Christopher Fowler, and the inevitable Neil Gaiman. Great stuff.

And speaking of short stories, whenever Stephen King puts out a collection, I pay attention. I gave up a long time ago trying to keep up with his novels, but I never ever miss the story collections because that’s where the man really shines. Just After Sunset is not quite as good a collection as Everything’s Eventual, but I don’t know of any other writer who gives us such real and endearing characters as the King-man.

Sometimes you need a dose of good non-fiction, don’t you think? Just to clear out the system. This year we were lucky to have a new book from the awesome Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth, which outlined beautifully the theory of evolution, and why its opponents don’t seem to really grasp it. The information in this book should lay the entire debate to rest.

And The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris, offers a new way of thinking about morality in the modern age, and why religion is not necessary to leading a decent, moral life.
That’s ten, right? Just made it under the wire, there. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some more reading to do. Or maybe I’ll just play a video game. Or take a nap.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Heath Lowrance is the author of The Bastard Hand, coming soon from New Pulp Press. Stories and articles have appeared in ChiZine, Well Told Tales, Demon Minds, Necrotic Tissue and The Nautilus Engine, as well as History Magazine and Real Detroit Weekly. He blogs at Psycho-Noir

Rawson’s best of Whatever—#8: Savages by Don Winslow

Fuck You

It’s either one of the campiest opening chapters of a novel ever written or one of the most innovative.

Time will tell.

But it sets the tone perfectly for Don Winlow’s masterful novel, Savages.

Savages is the story of Ben and Chon, two high end pot dealers whose personalities are a literal yen and yang—Chon is an enraged ex-navy seal and Ben an unfocused world saving progeny of two wealthy psychologists—who, realistically, have nothing in common other than their expertise at growing high end herb and their unflappable devotion to their slacker (I really could find no other word which more appropriately describes her) shared girlfriend Ophelia, but for one reason or another their partnership works and has made them both very wealthy.

Not long after Ben returns home from one of his ‘humanitarian’ trips to an impoverished 3^rd world nation, Chon shows Ben a video of six decapitated drug dealers. The video is sent by a ruthless Baja drug cartel. They want Ben and Chon to become partners with them and if they don’t…..

Headless.

Neither Ben or Chon want anything to do with the cartel, so instead of partnering with the cartel, they decide to walk away with the vast amount of money they’ve earned and move on with their lives. The cartel’s response to Ben and Chon’s counter offer is to kidnap Ophelia and force them into working for the cartel, or to pay off what the business may gross over its life time.

20 million dollars.

The boys decide to go for the pay off by ripping off the cartel which has taken Ophelia.

The novel’s clipped, ultra fast paced language perfectly captures the new dialect of a generation weaned on the Internet and text messaging. The stylized prose is vastly innovative for an American novelist, bringing to it a staccato rhythm (I don’t think most reviewers have pointed out that certain passages and chapters very much mirror the writing style of Ken Bruen.) which drives the narrative with neck break precision, forcing the reader to turn pages as if they were scrolling through an absorbing website. Although Ben and Chon are the focus of the novel, it is Winslow’s supporting cast which, for me, drive the novel. Ophelia is vacuous, an almost non-entity who is looking for someone—anyone—to provide some sort of direction in her life, and yet she is the force who drives Chon and Ben. The head of the Baja cartel, Elena, has the feel of someone who has had the violent legacy of her family laid upon her shoulders and she has no choice but soldier on despite her lack of desire. And Elena’s U.S. enforcer, Miguel Arroyo aka Lado—a character which Winslow could’ve allowed to easily slip into parody—in every way mirrors the American capitalism at its most perverted.

Winslow has been a long time favorite (The Power of the Dog is absolutely classic and in my opinion ranks as one of the all time great modern crime novels alongside Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential and Bruen’s the Guards) and with Savages he’s cemented himself not only as great crime writer, but as a great contemporary novelist, and out of all the fantastic crime novels I’ve read this year, it is the one which I have pressed into the hands of casual readers of crime fiction the most.