“Four Deep” by Brandon L. Rucker @ Dead Guns Press

Your after-hours reading may commence.  Published today (albeit a few days late) over on Dead Guns Press.com is my short story “Four Deep”. DGP specializes in modern crime stories written in the new era of pulp, and as a lover of all things crime fiction, I was happy to contribute to the site and am now honored to have my work featured there.  The story in question was originally written in 2010 as a workshop prompt involving time and the number four, from what I can remember. Naturally, I thought of these four scumbags: Zane Mitchell, Bert Simmons, Percy Collins and Tevin O’Brien as an easy reach to fulfill the number four. Add ‘just another night in the life of…’ approach and the rest is history. Mind you, it’s not your typical hardboiled crime story, which is evident by the fact that the editor at DGP (a fine and ultra-friendly British chap named Marcus Leon Smith, an author in his own right) was at a loss for finding a suitable image to accompany the piece (give’em time, this may be rectified). I figured the story’s oddness would either make it somewhat attractive, or make it easy rejection fodder. Looks like the sun decided to shine on me and these low-rent wannabe gangsters. Please take a moment to indulge yourself in their sunless world. See if you can be charmed by Zane, the groups de facto leader and the story’s narrator.

Four Deep

by

Brandon L. Rucker

@ Dead Guns Press