BIO

KIERAN SHEA’s fiction has appeared in dozens of venues including Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Thuglit, Dogmatika, Word Riot, Plots with Guns, Beat to a Pulp, Crimefactory, and Needle: A Magazine of Noir ...as well as in some beefy-looking anthologies most of which will make you question the tether of his shiny, red balloon. To his self-deprecating astonishment he's also been nominated for the Story South’s Million Writers Award twice without sending the judges so much as a thank you note. He co-edited the satiric transgressive fiction collection D*CKED: DARK FICTION INSPIRED BY DICK CHENEY and his debut novel KOKO TAKES A HOLIDAY is out now from Titan Books. Kieran divides his time between 38°58′22.6″N- 76°30′4.17″W and 39.2775° N, 74.5750° W.

12/10/12

The Image in My Head

The image in my head this week. Well, from the air anyway. People always compare writing books to marathons. Kind of cliché for sure, but you'd be surprised what A-list authors have said this. Me, I've always looked at it as an open water swim. You stand marooned on a beach and in the distance there's an island about a mile away. There could be food or water on the island, possibly even people who can help you. You have no way of knowing. All you know is that to find out you have to commit to one hell of an open water swim. Scary stuff, like JFK PT-109 pluck in spades. No idea of what's out there. Predators. Reefs. Switchback currents. No idea if you'll make it or drown trying. Hell, you could end up yards from the beach and some nasty poisonous urchin could ruin your day. A wave could shred you to pieces on coral teeth. The islands pictured above are couple of the "Dog Islands" in the BVI.  I remember seeing these from the shores of Virgin Gorda a number of years ago. Early sailors called them the Dog Islands because they heard barking on them--which was probably a now extinct breed of seal. Anyway, this is what I'm thinking about this week...that long open water swim. It's a bitch.