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.
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.
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.”
It's time to say goodbye to 2019, but before we do, it's always good to reflect on the path we've taken over the last 12 months. Check out what Carl has been up to the past year with fiction, news articles and videos, and keep an eye out for more in 2020.
"Baby Idiots," Written, performed, edited and scored by Carl Robinette. Reading from LitCrawlLA 2019. The Baby Idiots series started as a simple story with a simple question in mind. How do you write a story about an irredeemable jerk you just have to love, even when that jerk is bashing someone's brains in?
Carl recently reported on an indigenous people's celebration in Los Angeles for the Los Feliz ledger. Though much of native American history has been erased or mistreated, the article hopes to give local residents a sense of connection to the indigenous history of the land on which they live and help foster a sense of one community.
In Carl Robinette's debut short story “The Hard Type,” originally published by Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, we meet Hank Garnier. A 14-year old boy in the badlands of rural California during the wild 1960s. Will Hank show us the path of righteousness when his manhood is tested violently, or will he succumb to his own viciousness?
Technology is changing at breakneck speed and it's changing the world around us, or at least it is for some people. For the nameless narrator of this flash fiction story, “8 Big Time Bummers About Buying A New Phone,” mobile technology is for suckers and smartphones are dumb anyway. See what happens when he hits a few speed bumps at his local phone store. In this fourth installment of the Baby Idiots series, our hero will defend the honor of a damsel in destress, even if she’s not a damsel or in distress.
Accidents happen. So do intentions. Sometimes the two get mixed up together and somebody’s head happens to smash into a brick wall. In a city where there are more cars than parking spaces, you can’t be too careful about where you leave your vehicle. See what happens when the narrator of “The Spot” defends his own treasured vehicular real estate. Baby Idiots #3
Even in the best-case scenario, every love-based relationship ends with heartbreak. “Happily ever after” never meant anything except one living to see the other die. In this second installment of the Baby Idiots series, we find our nameless narrator love sick and down on his luck, until she comes into his life. But love is fleeting, especially for the narrator of “Enjoi.”
