Mike Monson

See that big silver building there? That is 44 Montgomery, just off of Market Street in the San Francisco Financial District. That is where I am right now, typing this, in my office at the law firm where I work.

This is my last day. Since I am moving to Hawaii late next month, it is very possible that I will never be in this building again in my life. I may never be in SF again, or even California. There is also a good chance that I will never again work in a law firm or any other kind of office. Wow.

This all started because my wife Bec got very very sick during and just after our recent trip to Vegas. It was a serious illness that she has fully recovered from. However, there was something about that experience that made the fact that I got up every morning at four, left the house at five, went 90 miles to work from Modesto to SF, then returned each night at 7:30 p.m. or later seem just ridiculous. So, the next time I had a bad day at the office I went to my supervisor and submitted my resignation.

Boom — just like that, with no new job to go to and no real plan. I just freaking quit. Then, this week Bec — an optician at the Costco in Manteca — learned that the Costco in Kona, Hawaii, needed a licensed optician, applied for the transfer, and got the job.

She starts May 20.

So, on to Hawaii. Goodbye to long commutes, goodbye big silver buildings, and good bye to San Francisco and California.

So now what? I don’t know. I’m going to keep writing, that’s for sure. Sometime soon the edits on my first novella will be finished and that sucker will be published. And then, I sure hope to spent the bulk of my time from about this June 1 on — wearing shorts and a t-shirt, barefoot, out on an ohana, looking out towards the ocean, while I sit at a table typing away at my next book.

Art by Kevin Duncan © 2013

Here it is, Bitch Mother, another heartwarming family tale. Enjoy and let me know how you liked it.

Welcome to mikemonson.org, also known as the Joe Clifford fan club.

Here is my review of Clifford’s Junkie love which just came out today:

This is quite a book. Okay? I’m serious.
And yes it is a very realistic detailed and harsh story of the life a junkie and it pulls NO punches ever — and this is all good and fascinating.
But, it is also just a good story, you know? It is a fun read.
And, it is not just the story of ‘a junkie,’ you know, just some generic cliched character we have all become used to over the last 20 years or so. No it is the story of THIS JUNKIE told by the person himself and thus it is totally original and unique just like Mr. Clifford. So what I am saying is that luckily for the world we have a junkie memoir from a junkie who is at the very same time an awesome writer.
So, it is a poetic and lovely separate work of art apart from any kind of genre. It is a singular literary accomplishment.

And, jeez, it is fun to read.

I have this psychic/gut/instinctual feeling that it is going to do very well. And, I know my shit.

Check out the interview Ryan Sayles has out today with me at Out of the Gutter. Note that there is a long mostly fictional introduction that is basically about Ryan Sayles.

Also note that in this interview the news is finally out: my novella The Scent of New Death has been accepted for publication by Gutter Books. That is good, right?

Released just last week, Wake the Undertaker, by Joe Clifford is a wonderful fun read.

Okay, it is clear that I know Joe pretty well at this point and think of him as a mentor/friend/colleague in  many ways so I won’t be phony and pretend  this is some normal review and then just kiss his fucking ass the whole time because I love him. I’ll just tell you why I like the book, okay? Jeez.

It reminds me of a mid-to-late 1940s film noir starring Burt Lancaster or Kirk Douglas–or both. I think Mr. Clifford has likened the book to the super-hero comic books he loves such as Batman, but I must politely disagree — I think my own post-WWII film noir comparison is much more apt. This is because the characters seem very real, almost chiseled in stone — like the wonderful faces of Lancaster and Douglas.  It’s got all that stuff — the night clubs, the femme fatales, the dancer with a heart of … something valuable maybe not quite gold, the crooked yet somehow sympathetic youngish night-club owner, horrible crime bosses and their tough guy underlings, and lots of cops — both good and bad. But, unlike in comic books things are never simple and never quite how they seem and the plotting is very sophisticated and full of surprises.

That’s it. That is all I’ve got (oh and the writing just sings with lots of cool metaphors). I’m not going to tell you the plot and all that shit — that’s why there is a freaking book for crissakes, so you’ll read the damn thing and find out for yourself what happens. Okay?

Thanks. Goodbye.

I quit my job.

Yes, you read that right. I … quit … my … job.

And, it is a really good job too: great pay (way way more than I can foresee ever making again); good benefits and perks; pleasant working environment in a downtown San Francisco office building; and mostly nice supportive co-workers and bosses (as a paralegal one can have a LOT of bosses).

And guess what? I don’t have another job yet.

Yes, that is correct. I quit my job without having another one all lined up.

Ooops.

And yes, I have two mortgages, a car payment, various debts, huge internet/cable/phone bills, car insurance, a daughter in college full time, and a soon-to-be-18-year-old boy at home.

What a dumbass, right?

Did I mention that I live in Modesto, which is 90 miles from San Francisco and that my commute is horrific, that I get up a four a.m., leave the house at five and don’t get home until usually about 7:30 p.m. and that I have been doing this commute (with one brief break in 2005) since 1999?

My last day is April 26, which is a Friday. I may have a job to go to the next day or the following Monday and I might not. We shall see.

I’m not real sure on what I want to do, either. Here are my skills: legal assisting in a civil litigation environment (I’ve been a paralegal basically for 20 years now); writing (journalism and fiction); food service (I was a waiter for several years at pretty nice restaurants in Texas back in the 1980s) and, I tend to work hard and to be very dependable and good at showing up where I’m supposed to be. That’s it, those are my skills.

I’m horrible at stuff like Word and Excel and PowerPoint. I really know nothing about computer software. My B.A. is in English. I’m not sure if I even want to work in a law firm again and I really don’t think there are any writing jobs in Modesto that I’d be qualified for or even want. My fiction writing is going well and I am getting published but for me that is not a job that enhances my livelihood.

All I know is that I don’t want to commute five hours a day any longer and that I am open for anything and ready to work my ass off–close to home.

Stay tuned for more details on this amazing adventure.

Hey, check out my new story Tough Love, posted today on Shotgun Honey.

It is a poignant story of the love between a boy and his grandma.

Here it is

Brian Panowich read my story and today posted on my FB timeline: “Loved Sin City man. Brutal.” So there you go.

Have I told you about this?

Craig and Darren from the wonderful Near to the Knuckle crime fiction journal have just announced that their first anthology GLOVES OFF will be available on Amazon in the next 24 to 48 hours. So … watch for it …. jeez. Lots of great stories including one I wrote called An Evening in Sin City (VERY DARK AND CREEPY).

Oh, and I will have some GREAT news about the exciting writing career of Mike Monson very soon. Watch out for that too.

I just finished Getting Ugly, the just now published new novella from Mike McCrary.

I must say that after just a little bit of difficulty at the beginning sorting out characters and plot direction, the book became a relentlessly enjoyable read that I could and did not put down until the ending sentence.

Now, Getting Ugly is unusual. It’s not really about character or even about a main character (though one particular x-FBI agent comes closest to being the protagonist). And, the plot is not particularly complicated. No this book is about Getting Ugly, or getting this really bad guy named, “The Big Ugly.”

That is really it. McCrary gives us a lot of really good examples of what a horrible, criminal, cruel and dangerous guy Big Ugly is and why a large amount of people both in the gangster and the government/police world want to get to him and his treasure and then it is …. on.

The gangster war lords and the some corrupt federal and local undercover law enforcement officers assemble a crew of professional soldiers and assassins, then go to Big Ugly’s lair and then there is a long long battle with much death and destruction and a clever ending.

So basically the book is a short set up and then a long siege and battle.

And very fun to read.

The writing crackles and the action sequences are beautifully written. McCrary introduces some fascinating original characters in his assassin’s army, especially a madly in love male/female team of homicidal maniacs.

Here is is. Read it, enjoy it. Comment on it PLEASE.

It is definitely my favorite of all the stories I have written.

Special thanks to the sublime Renee Pickup and the perfectly wonderful Matt Funk for their editing help/suggestions.

oh SHIT — thanks to the impeccably tasteful Chris Rhatigan for publishing it.