The question then becomes... How do writers connect with a population that is leaving the written word behind? I'm not sure I have the answer but this is the experiment. Watch the video for my poem "Slow Burned & Inked" on YouTube.
Character Arc and New Flash Fiction: “Vertical Blind”
When police detectives show up at his door, the narrator of “Vertical Blind” realizes a fight he heard the previous night coming from a nearby alley was the sound of a woman screaming for her life, not the usual everyday drunks he is used to. He comes to find out what he heard had been a woman being murdered.
Alienation and Interconnection – New Short Story in Every Day Fiction
Carl Robinette explores alienation in his latest flash fiction story, “The Night Crew,” which was recently published by Every Day Fiction. In this story the protagonist is attempting to rise out of his own deepening alienation from the world.
Carl Robinette’s 2020 Year in Review
The strangeness of 2020 is finally in the past and we are now living through the strangeness of 2021. See what Carl Robinette has been up to in 2020 and get some hints for what he has in store for 2021.
A Reading of “Bystander Boondoggle” Excerpt
Watch Carl Robinette read his short story "Bystander Boondoggle" which was recently published in Mystery Weekly Magazine's November 2020 issue. This story has all the classic suspense tropes, except the protagonist has no interest in solving anything. He's just a bystander waiting for things to get better.
Paranoia, Conspiracy, Thanksgiving – New Fiction in Mystery Weekly Magazine
The bystander is an often overlooked archetype in crime fiction. The exact opposite is true in Carl Robinette’s short story, “Bystander Boondoggle,” which was recently published in Mystery Weekly Magazine. Read and Excerpt from “Bystander Boondoggle”
Debut Poems in Entropy Magazine
Carl Robinette’s debut poems were recently published in Entropy Magazine’s “The Birds” column. The two poems are titled, “Barred White Noise and Blue” and “For God or Divinity or Something Else You Want It To Be.”
Brass Knuckle Fiction in Mystery Weekly Magazine – “Nothing Doing”
Daisy Belle is armed with nothing but brass knuckles and a misled sense of justice as she gets to the bottom of nothing. Hold on to your drink and watch Daisy bust open the criminal underbelly of her Southern California beach town as she leaves a trail of empty bottles in her wake.
Revenge & Literature – New Flash Fiction in Mystery Tribune
Carl Robinette explores revenge as a literary concept in his latest work of flash fiction, “Luck & Retribution,” a story published by Mystery Tribune about a hit man who finds the man he’s been hired to kill already circling the drain. It seems Mother Nature has first dibs on revenge in this story.
A Soldier’s Return – “The Hard Rise” in EQMM
In “The Hard Rise,” by Carl Robinette, originally published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Hank Garnier is already a small-town hero and the rural press in Los Pinos County is not ready to let go of the past. But when so many of his fellow soldiers were cast out as “baby killers” the last thing Hank Garnier wants is to be called is “war hero.”
