Strike up the band, Johnny! Now it can be told: one of my short stories will be included in an anthology of crime fiction inspired by the works of the legendary singer and songwriter Warren Zevon (1947-2003).
Am I an excitable boy? Hell yeah.
I am one of 15 writers to be included in this collection, called Bad Intentions. It’ll be published in July by the good folks at Literary Garage, a Philadelphia-based lit mag that defines itself as a place “for writing that’s a little off the beaten path.”
How off the beaten path, you ask?
Think rock-and-roll garage bands from the ’60s and ’70s (plus the turbo-charged ’80s versions) – storytelling with purpose, no fluff, no filler. Imagine Elmore Leonard with a Ramones soundtrack. Hemingway with three chords and a driving beat. Hunter S. Thompson in a convertible, blasting Warren Zevon on an endless highway. Bukowski. Kerouac. Jack Ketchum. Jim Harrison. Virginia Woolf. And if that doesn’t excite you, picture Quentin Tarantino on stage, doing a monologue, with Red Hot Chili Peppers cranked to 11 behind him – fast, loud, a little off-kilter. Like a pulp novel with a funk beat and just enough blood on the page.
Edgy, unique, hard-hitting, with attitude to spare. Writing with a serrated edge.
– Literary Garage
The announcement of this anthology came via X/Twitter this morning:
The best part of this anthology? Proceeds will support a nonprofit food bank based in Philly called Philabundance. Nice touch, that, to transform our weirdo tales of criminals, desperados. mercenaries, gamblers, innocent bystanders, and other outcasts into something to benefit folks who really need it. Bad Intentions for a good cause.
When I first read the call for submissions, I said to myself, “Poor, poor pitiful me! I’m no writer of crime fiction!” (Okay, I’ll stop with the Zevon song references.) But I mulled it over while listening to many Zevon songs and decided I should give it a go. Zevon’s catalog is rich with material that would make for some good storytelling, and he was a masterful storyteller himself. He knew how to create quirky characters within the confines of a catchy three-minute rock song. The challenge became finding the right song to inspire. I didn’t want to pick one that was too well-known.
After a couple of false starts, I landed on what must have been the right choice, because the editors saw fit to include it. So now I can add “crime fiction writer” to my list of literary achievements. (Watch out, romantasy! You could be next.)
More details to come. Meanwhile, for those who may not have picked up on the Zevon reference of my opening paragraph–or for those who just love Zevon–here’s a video of the man performing “Johnny Strikes Up the Band” in 1982. (If you prefer a studio version, it’s the first track of Zevon’s Excitable Boy album.
Heeeere’s Johnny!
Andrew Careaga 