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Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon

Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon

Noir, crime, and mystery short stories, scholarship, and so much more

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“Swamp Witch Blues” by Jason M. Tucker

FICTION: “Heavy, mud-scented air wafted in from the swamp and was warm enough to build up a sweat just sitting. It made everything a bit more miserable.”

Read More “Swamp Witch Blues” by Jason M. Tucker

“Leaving Rock Bottom” by Robb T. White

FICTION: “If there was a bottom beneath where I stood in that March wind, I didn’t want to know it.”

Read More “Leaving Rock Bottom” by Robb T. White

“Literary Mixtape: Coming Through in Waves – Crime Fiction Inspired by Pink Floyd” by John Talbird

REVIEW ESSAY: “Pink Floyd were so cerebral. Dark, but in a post-apocalyptic-cum-dystopian sci-fi kind of way, not a crime story way. However, the anthology, edited by crime writer and memoirist T. Fox Dunham, makes a certain kind of twisted sense.”

Read More “Literary Mixtape: Coming Through in Waves – Crime Fiction Inspired by Pink Floyd” by John Talbird

“Charged with Manslaughter in Her Boyfriend’s Suicide” by Charles Rammelkamp

POETRY: “goading him to take his life, / Lola claimed it was free speech….”

Read More “Charged with Manslaughter in Her Boyfriend’s Suicide” by Charles Rammelkamp

“Femme Fatale Assassins and the Time Clock” by Ken Hall

NONFICTION: “A more recent twist on the general narrative arc [of the hitwoman] places the female assassin as a child, perhaps orphaned, but certainly appropriated by a handler, who is trained from an early age, in a morally perverse adoption scenario, to become the ideal robotic killer…..”

Read More “Femme Fatale Assassins and the Time Clock” by Ken Hall

“Urbanología” by Giovanni Mangiante

POETRY: “the closest they got to heaven….”

Read More “Urbanología” by Giovanni Mangiante

“Tenderloin” by Steve Carr

FICTION: “I still wear my dog tags. They remind me of who I am, or was…. No one can see the damage but me.”

Read More “Tenderloin” by Steve Carr

NoirCon Returns in 2022 with a Virtual Conference

Share your ideas and help shape the NoirCon Virtual Edition in 2022 by taking our survey…. NoirCon is planning a virtual conference in October 2022, and we need your input to make it the best conference possible! We kindly ask that you fill out the following survey, which will help us plan for the event. All […]

Read More NoirCon Returns in 2022 with a Virtual Conference

Nuts and Bolts to the Eight Steps: Paul Tomlinson on Writing the Crime Thriller

INTERVIEW: “Thrillers are more complicated because there’s a lot more variation – many more sub-genres…. All the plots have much in common, but they all have distinct features that readers or film viewers demand – the genre conventions or tropes. Many writers don’t realise how important these are….”

Read More Nuts and Bolts to the Eight Steps: Paul Tomlinson on Writing the Crime Thriller

“Making Amends” by Julian Grant

FICTION: “And then nothing…. I explained to them the importance of making amends, the value of a rigorous moral inventory and doing the right thing….”

Read More “Making Amends” by Julian Grant

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Andrew Nette andy rausch Ann Chernow Barry Gifford BearManor Media Ben Himmelfarb Brian Greene Charles Rammelkamp Charles Willeford Chas Hansen Chris McGinley Chris Roy Clarinda Harris Craig Faustus Buck D.V. Bennett David Rachels Dolores Hitchens Earl Javorsky Fabrice Poussin Gary D. Rhodes Gerald So Graham Wynd Ian McIntyre J.D. Smith J.L. Delozier Jaap Boekestein Jack Dann James O. Causey Jay Flynn Jay Gertzman Jenean McBearty Jim Ruland Jim Shaffer Jim Towns John McCann John Talbird Jo Perry Joseph Goodrich Joseph Hirsch Ken Hall Kent Anderson Kurt Brokaw Lance Mason Lionel White Mark Krajnak Mark Mayes Mark SaFranko Martin Goolsarran Matthew Sorrento Matt Phillips Melanie Dante Mike Madden Mitchell Grabois Nick Sweeney Patricia Abbott Paul D. Brazill Paul Greenberg Peter Rozovsky Reed Farrel Coleman Rick Ollerman Robb T. White Robert Cooperman Sharon Dempsey Stark House Press Stephen D. Rogers Steve Hodel Steve Levi T.L. Huchu Theresa Rodewald Thomas Pluck Tom Leins Vicki Hendricks Warren Moore William Blick Woody Haut

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