HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS COLLECTION: Chris Rhatigan

How I Came to Write This Collection: Chris Rhatigan, WATCH YOU DROWN

In May 2010, I sent a short story to Christopher Grant at A TWIST OF NOIR. He wrote back a few short hours later saying the piece was exactly the kind of thing he was looking for. It was the first time I'd been published—and I was thrilled. Earning the support of a writer and editor who I respected was awesome.

From there, I became immersed in the online crime fiction community. I published stories at a lot of different sites that I dug, places like YELLOW MAMA and PULP METAL MAGAZINE and SHOTGUN HONEY. Pretty quickly, I built up a nice cache of stories, and I considered releasing a collection.

But I wanted to do it right. There were a lot of ebooks coming out. Some were fantastic. Others were terrible. And a good number were decent, but maybe not ready for prime time.

Obviously, I wanted mine to be in that first category.

After talking with a few trusted sources, I decided to keep my collection 1) short, 2) in one genre, and 3) only stories that I really believed in. I even went back and polished already published stories.

I took my leanest crime/noir stories and put them together. Found an order that made sense. Some of these stories are published, some are unpublished. I sent the collection out to those trusted sources and got some excellent suggestions. Then I sent it over to Jason Michel with Pulp Metal Fiction, who made all the formatting and cover art happen.

So what category will my ebook belong in? Well, the reviews have been good so far!

Chris Rhatigan is the editor of ALL DUE RESPECT. WATCH YOU DROWN is available at Amazon and Amazon UK for 99 cents/63 pence. If you dig short fiction, check out his blog, Death by Killing.