Guest Post from Thomas Pluck
Thanks to Steve Weddle for letting me grab the wheel today. I
don't normally read blogs about writing, but I read this one. Because the
writers at DSD don't serve up BS.
That is what my collection, Steel Heart: 10 Tales of Crime and
Suspense, is about. That's what "steel heart" means. Having a heart
of steel, to stand up and say it like it is. There is a lot of
"unflinching" fiction out there. I write some of it myself. But when
I describe mine, I say it also has heart. Some consider that a weakness, that
the "true" stories must pay homage to the god of nihilism, that the
one cold truth is that man is wolf to man. If that were true, we'd be all
nibbling baby McNuggets like the cannibals in a Cormac McCarthy novel. And I
love the books of Mr. 'mac Mac. But their brutality is strengthened by the
glimmers of humanity he puts in there. Llewelyn Moss's troubles begin when he
gives a dying man water. In The Road, the father cannot see the good left on
earth, but his son can, and carries the fire for him.
That's heart. There is evil in the world; I prefer fiction that
acknowledges it and explores the decisions that send people down that left hand
path, telling themselves that what lies at the end of their road is worth the
bloody shortcuts and the trodding upon of fallen comrades. Evil is not the
mystery we wish to think it is; it is a collection of choices and the excuses
we make for them.
Steel Heart collects ten of my most popular stories. Two
starring Jay Desmarteaux, an ex-con who served 25 years for his own collection
of bad choices, who still fights to decide what path he will take today.
Another with Denny the Dent, the hulking manchild who lives in a Newark
junkyard and metes out his own brand of street justice. A Vietnam Vet trying to
connect with his son before it is too late. And a wise-cracking P.I. who takes
on the biggest mystery of them all.
Each character finds themselves making a decision that will
weigh heavy on their heart. In the afterlife of Egyptian mythology, your heart
is weighed against a goddess's feather to decide if you are worthy of rebirth
or deserving of annihilation. In these stories, the answer may seem clear, but
it is never easy. For me, a story lingers like gunsmoke when it makes you
consider such a choice yourself. Wondering whether it will leave you with a
heart of steel, or just a heavy, steel heart.
Steel Heart: 10 Tales of Crime and Suspense is available from
all the usual e-book retailers:
Amazon for Kindle
Barnes & Noble for Nook
Smashwords, in many formats, including to read
online.
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