sold: "The Life Business"

I was mighty pleased to hear this morning from Mike Stone (mylefteye) that he and co-editor Gerard Brennan (gerardbrennan) would like to include my 7700-word short story "The Life Business" in their forthcoming anthology The Red Hand of Crime.

The idea for the anthology is a fascinating one, which was what drew me to write something for submission in the first place: these are modern-day Irish crime stories (not just crime stories set in Ireland that could as well be set anywhere else) that have a thematic or other reference to Irish mythology or legend . . . which is, of course, not to say they're just modern re-enactments of ancient stories.

The myth I chose was St Patrick's ridding the island of serpents; other myths/legends/icons used apparently include Tir na nOg, the Bull of Cooley, Dairmuid and Grainne, the Salmon of Knowledge, the Red Hand of Ulster, King Lir, the Druids and Ogham script, the Banshee, and Queen Macha.

Contributors so far include people like Brian McGilloway, Garry Kilworth, Ken Bruen, Dave Hutchinson (hutch0) and Adrian McKinty; you can understand why I'm so inordinately chuffed to be among their number! And also why I can't wait to get my hot little hands on a copy of the book . . .

So, that's: The Red Hand of Crime, edited by Gerard Brennan and Mike Stone, coming from Morrigan Books in late summer 2010.

gutless

today people are rioting on the streets of Tehran
because their presidential election was rigged
the US might reach out to them, but cannot
because two out of the past three US presidential elections have been rigged
you know it
I know it
only liars don't know it

so what happens?

there are Iranians on the streets of Tehran
who're risking death because their election has been stolen
what did Americans do
when their elections were stolen?

there are Iranian women on the streets of Tehran
baring their faces because their election has been stolen
even though for this crime
they may suffer a slow death

we watched television when our election was stolen

let's name some names

Katherine Harris and the Supreme Court stole the US election in 2000
Kenneth Blakewell and perhaps Jeb Bush stole the US election in 2004
Karl Rove and who knows how many anti-democratic foot soldiers stole the US elections in 2000 and 2004

and those people, and the rest of us who rolled over quiescently
who didn't riot in the streets
who let US democracy be made a laughing stock
who thought it was okay to just hang around another four years for a fair election
who didn't notice a million Iraqis being killed
who still bought newspapers that regurgitated lies
who forgot the lessons of Buchenwald
who kept on going to Wal*Mart
who just did not fucking care

all of us are the reasons we cannot complain about the Iranian election being rigged

and, you know, we could have done things differently
but we didn't
we squandered our moral authority
because to do otherwise might have been . . . inconvenient

the people I admire
are the people who're rioting on the streets of Tehran
they have more courage than I'll ever have
and they're right