When the Time Is Right

Your Memorial Day weekend reading just got a little more interesting.

And weird.

A few months back we mentioned that the editors of Plots with Guns were putting together a speculative-fiction issue for this spring. “Imagine you’re a crime writer living in the year 2509,” they explained on their submissions page. “What sort of stories will pulp & noir slingers be pumping out by then? What will crime look like?” The results are now available, complete with robots and ray guns and cyborg prosthetics. Among this issue’s contributions: “Ill Nature,” by Kyle Minor; “Creepier Than a Whorehouse Kiss,” by Frederick Zackel; “Rough Night in Toronto,” by Richie Narvaez; and Pinckney Benedict’s online comic, “Go, Killer, Go! Run, Killer, Run!”

Meanwhile, David Cranmer, who founded the short-fiction Webzine Beat to a Pulp in December of last year, finally makes his debut in its cyberpages with a tale of miscarried retribution called “Vengeance on the 18th.” As he explains in his blog, “I originally wrote this story for Out of the Gutter’s Revenge issue but it required a rewrite that I wasn’t prepared to do so instead I submitted the award-winning ‘Blubber’ (OK, it’s a second-place win but, dammit, it’s my only prize for writing and I’m going to own it!). I put ‘18th’ on the back-burner for a while until I could finally face it again. I think this version is stronger and with a more potent ending.”