Time Flies

pleasantly with a smile …

Welcome to The Roll Top Desk anniversary.

I’ve been dropping posts on this platform for two years already—yes, I know the cake has five candles, consider it aspirational! It may seem like a long time but it doesn’t feel that way. And I’m far from being a Substack veteran; there were people here way before I decided to add my pages to the pile.

I reread what I posted last year at about the same time (Every Other Thursday) to make sure I was not repeating myself, always a concern, even if I doubt you, the readers, will remember what I wrote two months ago, let alone a year. (To be honest, I don’t remember either.)

My routine on this site has changed over the past twelve months. Not on the writing front. I still find myself scrambling to deliver on my self-imposed due date, especially when I travel, although I’ve gotten better at anticipating potential time snags. What has changed is the reading. I read a lot more on Substack than I used to. The platform is like a very cool magazine. I do not publish fiction here but many people do, and they’re incredibly talented. Most mornings, the first thing I do with cup of coffee number 1 is read a little flash piece. Some people jump on social media, I go to The Stack for story time.

So, instead of talking about my travails, I’ll give you a few examples of great writing I discovered under this digital roof. If you have recommendations to share, please let me know in the comments.

Jim Cummings writes the blog All Day Long. He doesn’t post on a schedule like I do, but each of his entries is a must-read. Here’s an excerpt from a story I love called Bulls of Branton:

And on the county road that runs east from town, we have little houses on ten or fifteen acres that we call farms or ranches, depending on what we convince ourselves we’re doing there. If you Street View my place, you’ll see Bronto, my stud bull, with his head out over the front fence, busted out of the bull pen and in the garden, chomping and drooling, trampling everything and shitting randomly. It’s from about a year ago, a day or two before he killed the mailman’s Rottweiler. The picture is still up on Google Earth. At least it was last time I checked.

You can’t go wrong with Jim.

Then there’s Scott MacLeod posting on Son of Ugly. Nothing ugly at all in what Scott puts up. This is the beginning of a Thanksgiving-themed story called Marching Powder.

Ernie needed to move ten kilos of China White, street value $2 mill, give or take. And he needed to do it fast. That junk needed to be humped across the Hudson for street distribution, pronto. The DEA knew he had it. Not knew in the “can get a warrant” sense but knew as in just God-damned knew it.

I have a soft spot for sly humor, and there’s plenty to find in this yarn, in the Elmore Leonard and Donald Westlake vein.

If you’re in the mood for a serial novel, James Ross has a couple going at James’ Substack. Serials are hard to pull off. The hook has to be anchored solidly in the reader’s mind because a few weeks can pass between episodes. James does this extremely well. From the first sentence, I know where I am in the story. Ben Woestenburg also handles serials deftly at Scribbler. He has a few running concurrently. I don’t read them all but his Dawn Patrol was addictive. I was eager for each installment to land in my mailbox. Dawn Patrol is a complex story, beautifully written, with a lot of heart, and it plays with a double timeline. I love that. Ben kept the episodes flowing smoothly.

On a different note, Tom Fish posts a funny travel diary, and Richard Donnelly’s Bookish manages to be deep and tongue-in-cheek at the same time. All this is delivered in snack bite size. And I enjoy reading the posts as much as reacting to the comments. They’re funny, insightful, and remarkably civil. Anybody who’s dipped a toe in social media knows that is rare and to be treasured.

I wish I could feature more authors, but I don’t want to overwhelm. It’s easy to get discombobulated by all the goodies on display around here …

Let me tell you a bit about what’s in the drawers of The Roll Top Desk in the year to come.

- I will stick to the every other Thursday routine. It works well with everything else I have on my plate.

- The author interviews will continue, one every quarter. They’re a nice change of pace and they give you an opportunity to hear somebody else’s voice and discover books from cool writers.

- There will be more excerpts from work in progress or upcoming publications. Little teasers to whet your appetite. A lot is coming down the pike in 2025: a retro-noir novel written in collaboration, and a new Declan Shaw thriller. And stories, of course.

- Occasionally, I will highlight blogs published on this platform. People who make me go “wow”. And make me a little jealous, you know, like: I wish I’d written that!

What happened since last time …

My guest editing stint a Punk Noir Magazine has ended. 71 stories landed in the mailbox and 21 were selected for publication. The choice wasn’t easy. The stories are all posted on the site, here, free to read.

The Aerosmith anthology Janie’s Got a Gun is out and making its way into Christmas stockings, it’s just the right size. I got my copy and can’t wait to read what the other contributors came up with. My story is called Drop Dead Gorgeous and yes, the lady is to die for!

Black Cat Weekly published my Thanksgiving-inspired story, Magpie. It’s the cover feature too, woohoo.

Here’s how it starts:

The moment she stepped into the kitchen and saw Carla put the final touches on her green bean casserole, Alice knew this Thanksgiving would be like the one last year, and the one the year before that, and every year since she had moved in with her sister. The realization gave her a tickle of trepidation, part fear, part pleasure, desire and curiosity mixed with danger. The feeling was very true to her nature. She’d always preferred her fun with a little bad sprinkled on top.

Black Cat Weekly must offer the best magazine deal on the planet. Each issue is a whopping 400 pages (for $2.99), you can get a monthly subscription (4 issues for $3.99), and 52 issues for a ridiculous $19.99 … I don’t know how they do it.