All posts tagged: Crime fiction

Makin’ a Livin’ Makin’ a Killin’ I: The Company You Keep | A Dribble

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{ 50 words } They’re not exactly what you would call your friends.  More like associates.  They come with the profession, the rules – the lifestyle.  They wear expensive suits with black as the base color, matching the iron hidden beneath their suit coats.  Fair-haired women sometimes accompany them, dressed to impress, smiling uncertain smiles. Written: December 29, 2001. Originally published in February 2010 by blink-ink [defunct]. Copyright © 2001 – 2016 by Brandon L. Rucker. All Rights Reserved. brandonrucker.com | RuckerWrites | @RuckerWrites Amazon | Smashwords

Makin’ a Livin’ Makin’ a Killin’ II: The Other Life | A Dribble

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{ 50 words } Sundays, his off day from the job, he is a practicing Catholic. At Mass his wife and young daughters accompany him. He looks over at his darling little ladies; both of them yellow-haired like their mother. He wants to provide a good life for them. And crime certainly does pay. Written: December 29, 2001. Copyright © 2001 – 2016 by Brandon L. Rucker. All Rights Reserved. brandonrucker.com | RuckerWrites | @RuckerWrites Amazon | Smashwords

Makin’ a Livin’ Makin’ a Killin’ III: For a Day’s Pay | A Dribble

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{ 50 words } A man on his knees, begging for his life, mercy, anything as light glints off the pistol aimed at his sweat-beaded brow. Loud, bass-heavy music blares from the stereo as a cloud of smoke from marijuana and crack-cocaine lingers in the air. “Delinquent, again. We’ll have to consolidate your debts.” Written: December 29, 2001. Copyright © 2001 – 2016 by Brandon L. Rucker. All Rights Reserved. brandonrucker.com | RuckerWrites | @RuckerWrites Amazon | Smashwords

Story Quote from “Four Deep”

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Well, last call’s come and gone. My guys are getting impatient, especially Bert who already thinks the jobs I find for us are bunk. And then there’s Percy with his delusions of grandeur, thinking we should be going Big Time, but the reality is we’re tiny fish in a large pond. We ain’t Italian or Russian, and none of us are connected, really, not to made guys anyways, so any mob work we get is going to be for scraps. That’s just how it is on the lower level. — Zane Mitchell in “Four Deep” Read the story here @ Dead Guns Press

“Four Deep” by Brandon L. Rucker @ Dead Guns Press

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Your after-hours reading may commence.  Published today (albeit a few days late) over on Dead Guns Press.com is my short story “Four Deep”. DGP specializes in modern crime stories written in the new era of pulp, and as a lover of all things crime fiction, I was happy to contribute to the site and am now honored to have my work featured there.  The story in question was originally written in 2010 as a workshop prompt involving time and the number four, from what I can remember. Naturally, I thought of these four scumbags: Zane Mitchell, Bert Simmons, Percy Collins and Tevin O’Brien as an easy reach to fulfill the number four. Add ‘just another night in the life of…’ approach and the rest is history. Mind you, it’s not your typical hardboiled crime story, which is evident by the fact that the editor at DGP (a fine and ultra-friendly British chap named Marcus Leon Smith, an author in his own right) was at a loss for finding a suitable image to accompany the piece (give’em time, …