Next DragonEye Story coming in Weird Noir

Woo-hoo!  My DragonEye story, "Sins of the Brother" is coming out in Weird Noir from Fox Spirit books! http://www.foxspirit.co.uk/

 “On the gritty backstreets of a crumbling city, tough dames and dangerous men
trade barbs, witticisms and a few gunshots. But there’s a new twist where urban decay meets the eldritch borders of another world: WEIRD NOIR. Featuring thugs who sprout claws and fangs, gangsters with tentacles and the occasional succubus siren. The ambience is pure noir but the characters aren’t just your average molls and mugs—the vamps might just be vamps. It’s Patricia Highsmith meets Shirley Jackson or Dashiell Hammett filtered through H. P. Lovecraft. Mad, bad and truly dangerous to know, but
irresistible all the same.”

Here's a story I was asked to write about its creation.

 

“It’s been done, Kitten.”

I sighed.  Talking to my well-read husband could be like sleeping on a bed of tacks—everywhere you turn, there’s a sharp point. For half an hour, I’d brought up story ideas only to have them shot down.

“Fine, but I need a unique angle for a dragon story.  I want to be in this anthology.”

He shrugged, his deep brown eyes echoing my frustration.  That’s when the kids called us down to watch Whose Line Is It, Anyway.  It’s a comedy improve show, where the actors perform sketches.  Much of the humor flew over the kids’ heads like a Concord, but we loved it anyway, especially when they did the noir skits.

That’s when it hit me:  I could do noir…with a dragon.

Meet Vern: an undersized dragon working off a geas from St. George to regain his dragon greatness.  Vern lives on the wrong side of the Interdimensional Gap and works as a professional problem solver for people on the right side of Good but the shady side of Law.  Vern first appeared in “DragonEye, PI” in Firestorm of Dragons, and has been in two published novels and numerous stories since.  He’s uptight, cynical, and sometimes, very funny.  

But not in the case of “Sins of the Brother.” Patterned after the 1954 movie, World For Ransom, Vern has to solve a kidnapping while protecting the kidnapper.  Rather than a femme fatal, Vern’s doing it for a friend who sacrificed his life to protect Vern in the past.  The romantic tension is replaced by the tension between Corsican twins, and the political backdrop of two worlds—one of magic, one of technology--forced to get along.

I hope you enjoy the story, and if you like it, you’ll check out Vern’s website at http://dragoneyepi.net.  There, you’ll find a list of his books and stories, plus his newsletter and blog.