Monday, March 5, 2012

Why I decided to publish You Dirty Rat by Nigel Bird

For a few months now I've been thinking about writing a series of short essays or blog posts that explain why I decided to publish each of the stories and books that Snubnose has published so far. I will start off with the individual stories in Speedloader then move on to the other titles in the order that we published them. I'll run them here at Do Some Damage then post them at the Snubnose site.

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Nigel Bird is one of the finest writers currently working in the crime short fiction scene. His fiction comes from a different place then a lot of the other fiction coming out of the zines. He is also one of my favorite writers in the crime short fiction scene so inviting him to participate in the Speedloader anthology was a no-brainer.

Nigel's writing style is often filled with short, staccato sentences and short paragraphs. It's a deceptive style because each of those sentences and paragraphs are concentrated bursts. He is able to fill each line with great weight and import.

Nigel is able to cut right to the core of his characters and scenes so there is never a wasted word and every story is the right length.

"You Dirty Rat" is a story of the horrors of war and of the ways that small men will use war as a cover for their own failings and the ramifications of such acts of cowardice.

And that is why I decided to publish "You Dirty Rat".

Currently listening: I Wasn't Built for a Life Like This by Caleb Stine.

Currently reading: The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty

2 comments:

Nigel Bird said...

And that's why I'm sitting at my computer welling up right now. Bowled over by the comments. I think Speedloader is tremendous, as is Snubnose, so I'm very proud to be there. Very proud and very grateful.

Thanks.

Chris Rhatigan said...

He is a hell of a writer and this story is tops in my book.