COMING SOON - The Low White Plain by Paul J. Garth

"The Low White Plain", my entry in Frank Zafiro's longrunning A GRIFTER'S SONG series, will be coming from Down and Out Books on June 1st, and, today, I get to share the cover, description, and the first blurbs. 

In the coming weeks, I'll be on here talking about a few things related to the book, but the first thing you need to know is what the hell this thing is even about, so here's the back cover copy:

Terrified and on the run after a disastrous con in Dallas, grifters Sam and Rachel find themselves trapped by a blizzard in Nebraska. Low on cash and nerve, they find a local job that seems easy enough: orchestrate the fake kidnapping of a down-and-out academic, then split the ransom with the "victim."

But underneath all that open space, malice and hate breed quickly. Sam and Rachel soon discover everyone is lying, and that this simple job is a lot more complicated - and dangerous - than either of them expected.

Trapped by circumstance and need, the grifters find themselves hunted by occultist Neo-Nazis, extravagantly armed private security, a crazed art dealer with cartel connections, and some of the most powerful institutions in the state, all while another blizzard bears down.

Caught between family, faith, money, drugs and power, Sam and Rachel can only rely on their skills, and each other, or see their own blood spread atop the constantly falling snow.

In short, things are not going well for Sam and Rachel, and they're about to get a lot, lot, worse... But I like to think my character's bad times are actually a good time for my readers, and, thankfully, that seems to be the response! 

Here's what the excellent James D.F. Hannah had to say about the book: 

Set against the bleakest snowstorm this side of the Apocalypse, "The Low White Plain" bubbles with white-hot energy and tension that threatens to slit a throat with every turned page. Come for the neo-Nazis, religious fanatics, and gun nuts, but stay for Paul J. Garth's masterful exploration of two desperate criminals on the run. This is what they're talking about when they talk about "noir," and Garth knows its pulsing heartbeat—even as characters bleed out across the barren landscape. 

James D.F. Hannah, Shamus-winning author of BEHIND THE WALL OF SLEEP and SHE TALKS TO ANGELS

Nick Kolakowski (whose seriously good Payback is Forever is out now, which I really encourage you to read) had some really nice things to say as well:

With "The Low White Plain", Paul J. Garth has crafted a lean, mean, bloody machine. It zips as fast as a bullet on a winter's day and delivers all the satisfactions of a con gone wrong.

- Nick Kolakowski, author of "Love & Bullets" and "Payback Is Forever."

 And my collaborator (Yeah, we announced a little something over on Twitter), Dennis Tafoya says: 

In "The Low White Plain", Paul J Garth delivers breakneck action and a taut, razor-sharp plot that pits a couple of savvy con artists against a vicious Nazi cult, murderous hired guns and an old mark out to collect a blood debt. Another excellent addition to the Grifter's Song saga.

Dennis Tafoya, author of "Dope Thief" 

Well goddamn, I think that sounds like a bloody good time, don't you?

But what's it going to look like, you're asking. Well, let's get to that right now. 

Presenting, for the first time anywhere, the cover to "The Low White Plain":

I'm thrilled with this cover, to be honest. The color tones, the key picture. All of it. 

A lot of this book is about anxiety. How something within us drives us to try to control itself, while insisting that our lack of ability to control it is making everything worse. The other thing I was really writing about in this is Nebraska itself. How the land here, the soil, are running their own con on all those who would be hapless enough to stand atop it. This cover captures both those things (in part because we took direct inspiration from the most geographically specific and anxiety ridden album of all time, Springsteen's Nebraska). 

I'll be back next week with something not related to "The Low White Plain" but then, after that, it's probably going to be the main thing I post about for a bit. But for now, thank you for checking out the cover and the blurbs. I really hope you're interested, or even excited, to read it. 

"The Low White Plain" will be available on Kindle June 1st, with paperbacks dropping in early August.

 

The Hard Place

By Paul J. Garth

Here's my introduction: 

My first piece of fiction came out in the spring of 2014. 

Eight years ago, almost. Holy shit, time flies, doesn't it?

When I was first starting out, publishing my first stories in Shotgun Honey, making my list of markets I wanted to submit to, writing with the fervor only recently converted acolytes can attain, Do Some Damage was required reading. More than the algorithm juiced communities of Facebook or Twitter, here I found new authors I wouldn't have heard of otherwise. Heard of new magazines that featured the kinds of stories I was drawn to. Learned so much about what publishing is, the pitfalls, and how to avoid them. Learned to be a better writer.

And now, eight years later, here I am, sharing my first post. The first post of what will be a semi-regular Wednesday space for me. 

Things have changed in those eight years since I published my first short story and was reading DSD daily. To start, I've written a hell of a lot more stories. And a couple of novellas. And a few novels (One, you might actually see someday). The stories come slower these days, but they're better I think. 

Second, I've also somehow become an editor as well. At two places. One is the very first place I ever placed a story, the legendary Shotgun Honey. The other is (and I'll admit my bias here, but fuck it, I think it's true or I wouldn't say it) what I think is the best Noir magazine going: Rock and a Hard Place. 

At RHP, with every issue, we confront and then try to answer one of the most persistent questions in this space: What is Noir? 

For my first post, I thought I'd share the foreword to our most recent issue, written by the insanely talented Libby Cudmore. 

If good writing is capturing the Truth of a fleeting feeling, Libby not only captures the feeling of noir, but also answers why it is important. Now, maybe, more than ever. I hope you dig it, and, if you haven't already, check out Rock and a Hard Place. I truly think we're doing something special over there. Read Libby's foreword, below, and see if you agree:

   FOREWORD: 

A mentor of mine once told me that noir is “bad things happening to bad people.” He would know, he was a piece of shit who flushed his life and writing career down the toilet for a couple bottles of drugstore rum and the implied promise of grad-student pussy. It’s an easy sentiment to reach for. A cheap one even, mired in the mortal fallacy that if you stay behind the line that they’ve drawn – the cops, your boss, God – you have nothing to worry about. 

But what can I say? These are noir times we’re living in, through no fault of our own. And there’s a comfort, almost, in reaching for noir when life gets grim. Sort of like reading advice columns or relationship advice on Reddit. It puts your life in perspective. At least I’m not locked in a car trunk, as Leo Rosser finds himself in Jason Allison’s “The Trunk.” I’ve never found a dead body in a shitty motel bathroom, the way the characters in Rob D Smith’s “As Long As You Look Faraway” did. Maybe I can handle another goddamn Zoom meeting. Because we’re all good people, right? Okay so maybe we lie every so often. Maybe we go where we shouldn’t go. Maybe we do that little thing that our brain tells us not to do, because it’s wrong, morally or legally. But who’s keeping score, right? Everyone else gets away with it. No reason I shouldn’t too.

But if these days have proven anything, it’s that we’re all a little bad luck away from being the main characters in our own personal noir. You can be doing the right thing – protesting police brutality and violence against people of color – and some smug little shit will walk away clean after putting a bullet in your back. You get laid off. You get sick. You make a bad choice that seems like the only one to make in the moment, because you don’t have the gift of foresight. Anxious times. Last-ditch measures.
 

Noir isn’t about bad things happening to bad people. It’s about shitty things happening to desperate people.
 
And we’re all desperate sometimes.

God, that's just great, isn't it? 

Thanks to Libby for letting me run this. Thanks to the DSD crew for giving me my own little corner. Thanks to you for reading. 

Rock and a Hard Place Issue Seven is on sale now. You can get at the usual spots, but to make things easier for you, I've linked to the paperback version here. The Kindle is available at the same place, and for cheap, but that cover (designed by my brilliant wife!) looks especially menacing on your bookshelf. If noir is about bad decisions, I can promise, picking up that issue and displaying it proudly is about as safe a bet as you can make.