Down In The Factory, Over on The Rap Sheet..

Okay, long radio silence here (which will be altering in the New Year) so I thought I’d give you all a heads up on where I’ve been.

Firstly, I’m curating a Derek “the father of brit-noir” Raymond season over at The Rap Sheet, which was announced here.

Tony Black’s strong review is already live and will be joined this Friday by John Harvey, then Russel D McLean, Cathi Unsworth and the formidable Ray Banks, who lands the series for us.

Thanks once again to all the contributors, you guys are rock stars (at least in my house.)

Secondly, the most satisfying and popular thing I wrote last year was my Hammett appreciation.

When I left Hub Magazine I searched high and low for a magazine looking to take a bi-monthly (those things are very satisfying and a nightmare to produce) column of interrogations/investigations of a piece, to no avail.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I was approached by the CRIME FACTORY boys to do just that. I am VERY happy to announce that CRIME SCENE returns, with the January debuting inaugural issue of Crime Factory.

I know it’s customary to profess excitement about these kind of things, but Keith and Cam have assembelled a really impressive roster of writers for this project and I’m honestly thrilled to be in the mix. (In fact, Cam tells me that the 'Factory' portion of the magazine's name is a nod to the Derek Raymond novels. See how this post ties together?)