December 4th, 2017, gird your fucking loins, folks. We’ve got ourselves a short story collection!

Here’s some sexy press release action:

From the off-beat mind that brought you the Song of Piss & Vinegar series and Anthony Award-nominated No Happy Endings comes some of most twisted, dark, and heartfelt short fiction on the scene…

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Synopsis: Angel Luis Colón invites you on a short tour of the world as a literary-mix tape to that strange Goth girl with the lazy eye who still wants nothing to do with you; no matter how good that fedora looks on your head.

So what’s in store for your brain?

Follow three major moments in the life of gambling addict and mafia muscle, Sean Clarke as he goes from soft-hearted kid to full blown bastard to broken old man.

Thrill at the short-lived and incredibly violent courtship, marriage, and honeymoon of Hank and Annie.

The set of the country’s most popular trash TV talk show is appropriately trashier than what makes the air.

Beards make absolutely terrible trophies.

Sometimes you’ll crawl through the fire and smoke for a chance at a semi-decent score and a way out of working in a place called “Meat City.”

All that along with even more violence, revenge, Lee Van Cleef, light sex crimes, and cannibals than you can shake a stick at!

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Advance Praise for MEAT CITY ON FIRE (AND OTHER ASSORTED DEBACLES):

“The beauty of what Angel Luis Colon does within the boundaries of the short story is you never know what you’re going to get. He seamlessly shifts from dark noir, to comedy, to character examinations with breakneck speed and the skill of a dozen writers.” —Todd Robinson, author of The Hard Bounce, Rough Trade, and founder of Thuglit

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Meet the Author: Angel Luis Colón is the Anthony and Derringer Award-nominated author of No Happy Endings, the Blacky Jaguar series of novellas, and the short story anthology Meat City on Fire (and Other Assorted Debacles). His fiction has appeared in multiple web and print publications including Thuglit, Literary Orphans, and Great Jones Street. He’s repped by Peter Steinberg at Foundry Literary.

Keep up with him on Twitter via @GoshDarnMyLife.

About Down & Out Books:

Celebrating six years as an award-winning publisher of literary and crime fiction, Down & Out Books is based in Tampa, FL. To obtain an eARC (PDF, mobi, epub) for review, to coordinate an interview with the author, or to find out more information about this book, contact lance@downandoutbooks.com. Find out more about Down & Out Books at DownAndOutBooks.com.

Media downloads: Cover art (1800x2700px); Author photo (1500x1000px).

Prices shown are in U.S. Dollars and may vary by country or market.

I was in day one of all-day training, paying more attention to my phone b/c that’s what you do in all-day training when I got a little message on FB Messenger.

I’ve been nominated for an Anthony Award.

Shit, my novella, NO HAPPY ENDINGS, is nominated for Best Novella.

And my response was that: “Wait, what?”

It’s easy to play at humility and I’m not going to resort to Hallmark-level shit right now. I’m pretty fucking proud. NHE was a lot of work and it was absolutely a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. That folks were willing to give it a nod to get as far as the shortlist? That’s fucking awesome.

That said, I’m grateful as hell.

Look at this incredible list of talent – LOOK AT IT – http://bouchercon2017.com/anthony-awards/

My competition alone, especially SW Lauden and Sarah Chen (amazing writers and wonderful folks) does indeed humble me but the rest of that list is staggering to me. I don’t think I’ve begun to process that my name is on there let enough alone believe it deserves to be.

I’m especially proud of my Shotgun Honey homey Jen Conley. If she doesn’t net that anthology award, I riot (that’s an amazing slate, and all truth told, I probably could not take Lawrence Block in a fight – STILL it’s the thought!).

Anyway, here’s to my fellow nominees. Writing is a bear – especially this past year and a half – and we keep fucking wrestling.

Much love, luck, and fortune to you all or, as Blacky Jaguar would say, “Slainte bradán bod mór agus bás in Eireann!”

Be easy,

Angel

NO YOU HAVE A REVISED NOVEL TO WORK ON.

Ahem…anyway.

So I’ve got a bear of a week ahead. Kid’s got Spring Break, house renovations, and writing that needs writering. At least I have a few days “off”.

Anyway – news!

Today we went and revealed the cover for the next installment in what I’m calling A Song of Piss & Vinegar (no idea where I came up with that clever name) BLACKY JAGUAR AGAINST THE COOL CLUX CULT.

Gaze upon it’s awesomeness courtesy of Ron Earl Phillips, the editor in chief of Shotgun Honey.

We’re launching 6/23/2017. Preorder details will be available soon.

In other story-type news, my latest, My Heart Died on Blackrock Ave., is available over at Great Jones Street for less than a buck!

Haven’t heard of GJS (as we super, mega, awesome writers call it)? It’s the Netflix of short stories and JAMMED with astounding talent. That I share app space with George Saunders and Tobias Wolff is coincidental but utterly mind blowing. Clicking above and downloading the app on your preferred mobile OS is very much recommended.

Bonus: you’re supporting an awesome venture that treats its writers with the respect that’s sadly unique these days.

Anyway, what else do we have…

Noir at The Bar!

I’m participating at an absolutely cool little weekend event, a Noir at The Bar Crawl, if you will. If you’re around Baltimore, catch me on May 21st. here’s the details.

It’s going to be an absolute beast of a good time. If you can make the dates before mine, do it, these are all writers you should be reading (some are even on Great Jones Street).

I should have other cool news soon (including other readings and Blacky release goodness).

Be easy,

Angel

There is a LOT going on and I need to be good about promo and whoring and pimping.

*hustlehustlehustle*

So what’s new?

Welp, we got us a new short story with ‘Kiss Me on The Bus’ in the outstanding new anthology, ‘Waiting to Be Forgotten: Stories of Crime and Heartbreak, Inspired by The Replacements‘.

You can buy it by clicking the title.

You can also check out an interview HERE with Tom Leins about the whys and hows regarding my contribution to what is an excellent collection of wonderful stories.

My Derringer-nominated short ‘Separation Anxiety‘ is also available to read for free over at Great Jones Street. It’s a lovely new app built to be the Netflix of short stories. You can find stories from a metric fuck ton of incredible authors old and new (Bullet to The Brain, my personal favorite short story of all time is now available for me to read every two weeks at a whim – LOVE IT). Go download the app – it’s incredibly worth it.

Last and certainly not least. next week sees the release of my new novella, ‘No Happy Endings’. The blog’s jammed with info on how to order and what people I paid (in fake money – HA) had to say about the book. So far, so good.

Still, check out the long list of articles and promos we’re running. I’ll be updating as stuff releases in case you’re a weirdo that needs a collected batch of links regarding my work…

I AM THAT WEIRDO.

SW Lauden was kind enough to interview me over at his blog this week. CLICK HERE to read more of my pretentious self drone on about my work and other fun stuff. While you’re at it, check out SW’s latest, Grizzly Season. It’s on my TBR pile, but if it matches up to the first in the Greg Salem series, Bad Citizen Corporation, it’s going to be a hell of a ride.

Alex Segura had me over on his newsletter (which you can sign up for HERE). Beyond an interview, Alex runs really cool pieces from other writers, talks about what he’s currently reading/writing/listening to, and provides great links to articles and other pieces from great authors. Worth signing up for! You can also check out Alex’s books HERE.

Spinetingler did a very cool breakdown of No Happy Endings and let me get my spiel out there earlier this month. Go read that HERE. Good folks over there and some great stories too. Take the time to browse their archives!

Dana King was kind enough to let me answer a few questions over at One Bite at a Time. Had a blast answering those questions. While you’re there, check out his books Worst Enemies and Grind Joint from my publisher, Down & Out Books!

Over at Crimespree, Dan & Kate Malmon grilled me (THE INTERVIEW) and did me the honor of dropping a REVIEW for No Happy Endings as well. Verdict: click the goddamn links. Give Crimespree some love and attention too (SUBSCRIBE, is what I’m angling at). They do so very much for the crime fiction community and deserve the love in return.

At Do Some Damage I talk about the eternal void that is releasing a finished work into the wild. The worst of it: work never feels finished.

There’ll be more added as we get closer to release day and beyond!

Lastly, if you’re in the NYC area and need something to do on December 9th, come on out to the release party for No Happy Endings! I’ll be at The Mysterious Bookshop (terrified) and enjoying the company of readers and writers alike. More eyes are always welcome.

Until then, be easy!

Angel