Discount Noir!! ...'cause i heart WalMart

You guys know Patti Abbott, right? Wait, a few of you aren't raising your hands. Let me introduce you - Patti's a friend of mine who writes great dark, gritty short fiction (you'll love her, Mysti) and an amazing blog that is so much more than a, y'know, blog in the sense that *this* thing is a blog....blah blah blah, just take a look and see what I mean. Patti is SMART.

Anyway she and Steve Weddle, who appears to be really cool so far though our friendship is still in the "virtual" stage, have put together this anthology with a great hook: it's all about WalMart. Yeah, every story is set in or includes a reference to WalMart. It's a fact that every single one of my books so far contains a reference to WalMart - that should prove the depth of my relationship with the place. It's a complicated relationship, probably a little unstable...the rest of my family HATES the place and won't shop there, on moral grounds, but to me, merely the memory of the smell (Milk Duds, calico sizing and old popcorn) is enough to make me feel, well, happy and optimistic. WalMart, in my scrappy childhood, was my mecca, my place of plenty.

Anyway, enough about me, this post is supposed to be about Patti, Steve, and the book, which will be released by Untreed Reads.

Untreed Reads is very happy to announce that thanks to our partnership with Stacia J.N. Decker of the Donald Maass Literary Agency, Untreed Reads will be the ebook publisher for a new short mystery anthology tentatively titled Discount Noir. The anthology consists of super short/flash murder and mayhem centered around a very Wal-Mart/Target-esque backdrop.

The anthology contains works by: Patricia Abbott, Sophie Littlefield, Kieran Shea, Chad Eagleton, Ed Gorman, Cormac Brown, Fleur Bradley, Alan Griffiths, Laura Benedict, Garnett Elliot, Eric Beetner, Jack Bates, Bill Crider, Loren Eaton, John DuMond, John McFetridge, Toni McGee Causey, Jeff Vande Zande, James Reasoner, Kyle Minor, Randy Rohn, Todd Mason, Byron Quertermous, Sandra Scoppettone, Stephen D. Rogers, Steve Weddle, Evan Lewis, Daniel B. O’Shea, Sandra Seamans, Albert Tucher, Donna Moore, John Weagly, Keith Rawson, Gerald So, Dave Zeltserman, Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen, Jay Stringer, Anne Frasier, Kathleen A. Ryan, Eric Peterson, Chris Grabenstein and J.T. Ellison. The anthology was edited by Patricia Abbott and Steve Weddle.

Look for this title to be released in late September/early October.