Tom Barlow

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About Tom Barlow
Tom Barlow is an Ohio writer. He writes crime, speculative and literary fiction. He has published over 100 short stories and four novels. "Everything is Inevitable" is a cozy mystery, "I'll Meet You Yesterday" science fiction, "Bringing Knickerbocker Home" a family drama, and "Blood of the Poppy" a noir crime story. His literary short stories are collected in "Welcome to the Goat Rodeo" and "Odds of Survival" features noir crime fiction.
He writes because conversation involves a lot of give and take, and he's always thought of himself as more of a giver.
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Blog postWell, I never got around to submitting this one anywhere, and I probably won't be around in 2038, so here goes. Enjoy.
The International Year of Same Old, Same Old Welcome back from 2004, you seventeen-year cicada /
the turkeys and raccoons have missed their tasty breakfasts so much /
what kind of life is yours, anyway, as fodder / though I suppose
we were all food back in The International Year of Rice /
two hundred1 year ago Read more -
Blog postMany people who I deeply respect have extolled the qualities of the series Mad Men, set in the 1960's Madison Avenue advertising world. I tried again this week to catch the drift, but failed for the third and last time. I've come to the conclusion that I simply don't enjoy television shows without heroes, and I could find no one to root for in Mad Men. They seem a collection of sad men and women with virtually no self-awareness. I've had the same reaction to Deadwood, The Sopranos, and other ser3 years ago Read more
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Blog postWarning- Spoilers ahead.
I finally got a chance to see Tarantino's latest film. From the buzz I had high expectations: perhaps not Pulp Fiction high, but high enough. I felt the film fell far short, however, for several reasons.
1. The character arcs were lacking. Neither of the main characters, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, evolved. DiCaprio's character came to his revelation that his career was in jeopardy early in the film and never moved on from that, while Pi3 years ago Read more -
Blog postSome time ago I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to up my game in the writing of crime fiction I needed to read as many crime short stories as possible. This week I've been reading through the latest issue of Crimewave Magazine, number 13. I was surprised to find that it was very different from the fiction found in other genre mags such as Ellery Queen, Mystery Weekly or Switchblade.
I found the primary difference in the approach to story. Unlike other genre magazines i4 years ago Read more -
Blog postI've had this story sitting on my computer for years, about a woman who, after her husband dies unexpectedly, decides to build a wall where people can go to complain to God about his injustices. Antithetical to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, if you will. Imagine my delight in finding a call for stories for an anthology of alternative theologies, for which my story seemed a perfect fit. I was particularly happy when I saw the contributors, many writers whom I have admired for years. It should be4 years ago Read more
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Blog postMy short story "Family Reunion" will appear online in the September issue of the Scarlet Leaf Review. I'm so proud of this piece; he's gone and found a home.4 years ago Read more
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Blog postThe stories I write don't seem to fit into the forms that the mystery mags that pay professional rates desire (Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, and the like). They're too edgy (dirty) or violent or lack a true mystery. Having given up long ago the notion that I could get rich with fiction, I now look for venues with a new criterium. Ideally, I'd like my stories to appear in journals that work hard to draw attention and readership (Switchblade Magazine is a good example), a hard sell in a market w4 years ago Read more
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Blog postThose of you who follow my progress in the crime fiction world, noting the occasional sale, might not quite appreciate the financial side of the business, what it is like to be an author selling short stories, I thought you might be interested in what crime/mystery magazines pay for the stories they run.
There are a small handful of magazines that are heads and shoulders above others in both sales and payment. As you might imagine, the competition for a slot there is fierce. Perhaps4 years ago Read more -
Blog postI grew up passionate about sports, basketball in particular. I'd like to know how many hours I spent on my home court practicing my jump shot, just so when game time came I would have at least a faint chance of burying one.
When I began to take my writing seriously, I unconsciously adopted the same strategies, and to some extent they have worked for me. These include:Practice: I took a hard look at my writing and had to admit that my skills were very unpolished, so I set about writing with5 years ago Read more -
Blog postI may have reached a point that I never anticipated. After reading fiction for 60 years, and writing it for 15, perhaps I've seen too many plots, because I'm having more and more trouble finding books which genuinely surprise me. Eeny Meeny by M. J. Arlidge, a crime novel, is the latest book whose plot line seemed easy to predict.
This isn't to criticize the writer, who did his/her best to follow the tried and true thriller progression (things get worse, over and over, until the climax) bu5 years ago Read more -
Blog postI finished Lee Child's latest Reacher novel, The Midnight Line, and thought it exhibited both the best and the worst of his writing. The best is a great deal of heart, as he deals with a war vet with disfiguring wounds and an opiate problem. It only enobles Reacher when he solves the problem in a very sensitive and compassionate way.
The worst of his writing is the padding that some of his novels contain, stretching a lean plot line over 300 pages. In this work, Reacher's repeated apprecia5 years ago Read more -
Blog postI'm excited to announce that my speculative fiction short story "Death Is Not the Worst Thing" has been selected for the upcoming post-apocalypse anthology Enter the Rebirth. This anthology is the final volume in a three-book set, beginning with Enter the Apocalypse and Enter the Aftermath, from TANSTAAFL Press. The book is expected to be released this winter.
The title is taken from a quote from Plato.5 years ago Read more -
Blog postThe wife and I viewed the new Emily Watson/Tom Hanks sci-fi flick The Circle. My reaction? Meh. The central conflict was interesting; how can a company like Google abuse the data bonanza they reap to bring about a world reminiscent of 1984? And the cast was excellent. I was glad to see an old face, Karen Gillen, who played the Doctor's sidekick when David Tennet was Dr. Who.
So what's not to love? The story was predictable, some of the character's most crucial actions were unmotivated, and5 years ago Read more -
Blog postI'm delighted to learn that my story "The Anvil" will appear in the summer issue of The Sonder Review, a lovely journal. This literary story explores the relationship between a man who needs a heart transplant and his suicidal sister, who has a perfectly good heart. It's not a comedy.5 years ago Read more
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Blog postI've been on quite a roll recently: my sales this year include-
"The Youngtown Tune-up," Mystery Weekly Magazine, February 2016
"The Jackpot," Thuglit Magazine #22, March 2016
"The Art of Addition by Subtraction," Ekphrastic Review, March 2016
"No Loose Ends," Dames and Sin Anthology, Spring 2016
"Empathy," Stories from the Near Future Anthology, Spring 2016
"Second-hand Monkey," Best of Ohio Antholog6 years ago Read more -
Blog postMy short story "The Youngstown Tune-up" is now available in the February issue of Mystery Weekly. Back in 1959, when this story is set, the tune-up was slang for a car bomb, so you can imagine what happens.7 years ago Read more
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Blog postHow the dog should be dressed photo by Arnold GatileoMy friend Ron and I continue on our quest to find the best Chicago-style hot dog in Columbus. To that end, today we tried out Daredevil Dogs in the OSU campus district. This very tiny restaurant must do a resounding business in carryout and delivery to the bar next door, because there isn't enough seating to pay for the operation. It makes Dirty Franks downtown look cavernous.
Our conclusion? The all-be7 years ago Read more -
Blog postIn my continuing search for the best low-budget sci-fi films I watched 2013's Coherence. It was entertaining if imperfect, with a talented cast and a story line that would amuse those of us who enjoy films such as Memento, Mulholland Drive and Inception.
This and other genre films made on a pauper's budget show what can happen with a good story, as opposed to films that rely heavily on special effects (I'm thinking Pacific Rim and the Transformers series, among others). People are interest7 years ago Read more -
Blog postI recently had a conversation with young-adult fiction author Suzanne Goldsmith ("Washashore") about finding actions for characters that suggest emotions, to avoid the need to directly name the emotion a character is feeling and thereby fall into the trap of telling rather than showing. Too often, I resort to a few physical manifestations; drumming fingers for nervousness, pinched eyebrows for suspicion, dodging eye contact for deceit. Over the years, I've tried to expand my collection7 years ago Read more
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Blog postMy story "Even Steven" is now available on Expound Magazine, Issue 3. It's a bit of magical realism exploring the healing of old family wounds. And it's free!
Expound's mission is to bridge the gap between writing from the African continent and the rest of the world. Accordingly, my story is surrounded by some very exciting content.
The handsome magazine is formatted as a PDF download.7 years ago Read more -
Blog postDaniel LoboAre you a fiction writer or poet? Do you submit your work? Then, if you're like most of us, you receive rejections. Do you sometimes wonder if the polite note you receive is the magazine's boilerplate or something that indicates a higher level of rejection? Then there's a wiki you might find fascinating, the Rejection Wiki. It shows the standard rejections text and higher-level rejections text from hundreds of journals.
Don't let those rejections get you down; rejection i7 years ago Read more -
Blog postAlphadesignerOccasionally I'll run across a story concept that I unabashedly envy and wish I'd conceived. Such is the conceit behind the novel The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters. This mystery, winner of an Edgar Award a few years ago, is set almost in present time, but in an America that has just learned that a planet-killing asteroid is on a collision course with Earth within the year.
Against the backdrop of societal anger and resignation, of the decay of essential services, the7 years ago Read more -
Blog postMy crime short story "Honor Among Thieves" is now available on Mysterical-e.com, for free. Enjoy!7 years ago Read more
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Blog postMy friend Ron and I have reserved no expense in pursuing our quest to find the best hot dogs in Columbus. Today we tried the city's oldest (over 100 years) and most revered coney dog palace, Phillip's Original Coney Island. Once a staple of the north side when High Street south of OSU campus was very iffy, it now occupies a large and comfortable building with plenty of parking on West Broad Street near the old Cooper Stadium.
Ron had been a regular at the old Phillip's 50 years ago,7 years ago Read more -
Blog postJon SeidmanI'm not one to read reviews of movies beforehand, as I find my tastes are not those of the general public. Sometimes this works to my disadvantage, as it did with the recent release, Mr. Holmes. I had the general impression that the critics had viewed it favorably, but had no idea about the plot except for the notion that it dealt with his last case. Given that, I expected a mystery story along the lines of the Jeremy Britt television episodes, but with better acting, since Ian McKell7 years ago Read more
Titles By Tom Barlow
• Thieves mistime a forest fire, and the cops aren't the only peril awaiting them.
• A cancer victim turns serial killer, but only of perps who deserve to die.
• Em's brother plays him for a sucker, and the cops play him like a fiddle. With a family like his, he figures orphans are the lucky ones.
• When a hit man is brought in to clean up a honey trap, he never expects to change sides.
• Is Ryan blessed to be a dead ringer for a Hollywood star? Dead is the key word.
• The bald chemo queen has a good scam going, until she hooks up with a pro who notices the carpet doesn't match the drapes.
• Donating a kidney makes Kevin feel like a hero. Until he meets the recipient.
• When Katie discovers first edition Dr. Seuss books, the road to grad school opens up. Too bad there's red blood, dead blood along the way.
• The painting is the only thing of value in her mother's estate, but the only way Kim can profit is by producing an exact copy. Over and over.
• When a move star wanna-be conspires to steal enough dough to fund her dreams, her partner should expect a little improv.
Barlow's stories have appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, Needle, Switchblade, Thuglit, Tough, Manslaughter Review, Mystery Weekly, Mysterical-E Magazine, Heater, and Pulp Modern. His writing has been described as, "brilliantly layered, hauntingly introspective and refreshingly offbeat" by Scotch Rutherford, editor of Switchblade Magazine. Rusty Barnes of Tough Magazine writes "(Barlow) always delivers the goods."
Contributing authors include:
Richard Jones, Kevin Wetmore, Lou Antonelli, Alice Weyers, Tim Starnes, Donyae Coles, Nicholas Gregory, Emily Devenport, Timothy Turnipseed, Chad Schimke, Davyne DeSye, Zac Roe, Tom Barlow, Tim Burke, David M. Hoenig, Tori Stubbs, Bruce Golden, Holly Saiki, Lisa Timpf, Mark Wolf, Peter Talley, Allyson Russel, Anthony Addis, Richard A. Shury, Russel Hemmell, Madison Keller, Calvin Spears, Adam Breckenridge, Keith Hoskins, Amelia Kibbie, Cullen Thomas, Stephen Miller, Geneve Flynn, James Austin, Elizabeth Eve King.
And while this book explores theology and beliefs, it is written to be kind as well as thoughtful, and at times funny. It will give you belly laughs, but it will also give understanding of the notion of believing. It will remind you that no matter what you believe, we make this journey together.
There are poems by some wonderful modern thinkers including Gwyndyn T. Alexander and Jane Yolen, that will explore the nature of our world.
Essays by David Brin and David Gerrold that explore the nature of why we believe what we do.
And then there are the stories. Funny stories, like First, that explains how Hell got started. Serious stories of redemption, as seen in Izzy Tells no Lies. Stories that explore familiar themes of the trials of Job, as seen by those around him. Questions are raised if we would even recognize a returning messiah after 2000 years of interpretations of the beliefs.
And most important, they are well written with craft and skill that you have come to expect from B Cubed authors.
Discover characters like the Moon Rabbit from Chinese mythology, a kitsune from Japanese mythology, and the aswang from Filipino mythology.
Find out what arises when a struggling Malaysian student seeks help for her studies in Chinatown, and what happens when the garbage in the Pacific Ocean is seen as a valuable treasure.
Futures imagined stretch from amazing advances in technology to depressing dystopias.
Read these stories and so many more in Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction.
Featuring stories by:
Brett Adams, Jo Wu, Kris Williamson, Recle Etino Vibal, Tabitha Sin, Ailia Hopkins, KZ Morano, TR Napper, Terence Toh, Kawika Guillermo, Barry Rosenberg, Eeleen Lee, Jax Goss, Jo Thomas, Daniel A. Kelin II, Fadzlishah Johanabas, Shenoa Carroll-Bradd, Dominica Malcolm, Aashika Nair, Celeste A. Peters, Agnes Ong, Rebecca Freeman, NJ Magas, and Tom Barlow
Enjoy these tales of Femme Fatales, bad dames and the gentle touch of power, sex and corruption in this edition of Hardboiled by these authors:
DG Bracey
Tom Barlow
Liz Johnson
Bruce Harris
Craig Faustus Buck
Christopher Davis
Preston Lang
Karen Robiscoe
Donald Glass
Callum McSorley
Ben Fine
Sarah M. Chen
JT Siems
Bill Baber
Aidan Thorn
Max DeVoe Talley
Joe Prosit
Bestselling writer Orson Scott Card founded the online magazine Intergalactic Medicine Show in 2006. It has been a big success, drawing submissions from well-known sf and fantasy writers, as well as fostering some amazing new talents. This collection contains some of the best of those stories from the past year.
There is fiction from David Farber, Tim Pratt, and David Lubar among others, also four new Ender's Game universe stories by Card himself. This collection is sure to appeal to Card's fans, and be a great ambassador to them for these other talented writers.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
"Tom Barlow's stories are quirky, sharply drawn, wildly varied, often funny and always deeply compassionate. His protagonists are almost always people who I would not ordinarily encounter (and some I would never dream of) and the window he offers into their inner lives makes even the strangest among them believable. The twists in his stories often have me flipping back to the beginning, thinking "should I have seen that coming?" Usually the answer is "yes, I should, because he threw out some clues"...but I got so absorbed in the characters and their stories that I didn't think to predict the ending."
FICTION BY
Jack Ketchum, Meg Elison, Tim Waggoner, David James Keaton, Larry Hinkle, Tom Barlow, Nick Manzolillo, Josh Scott Wilson, and Gil Valle.
"The Phantom Video Stream" by Nick Manzolillo sets the tone with red-room atmospherics in the story of a man who discovers a hidden channel streaming from what may be another reality.
Tim Waggoner's "Are You Crazy?" answers its own question in shocking Waggoner style.
Larry Hinkle's "Meat Cute" opens with "Stop staring at her tits!" and ends with a coldblooded revelation. Short and not so sweet.
Tom Barlow's "Selfie" demonstrates that two heads aren't always better than one, not when they're spitting images.
Meg Elison's "The Middle Child" takes an unflinching look at fame and greed and the mania underlying video virality.
In "Sick Jokes" Josh Scott Wilson takes political incorrectness to new heights--and depths.
David James Keaton, aka DJK, takes us for a ride into brutal biker mayhem that hits like a jackhammer in "The Flowery." Some tattoos ain't cool.
Jack Ketchum reprises "Megan's Law," a disturbing look at what can happen when a child molester moves into a concerned dad's neighborhood. If you've never read this classic, you're in for a creepy treat, and if you have then you know it's definitely worth rereading.
Plus, an exclusive excerpt from the NYPD's "Cannibal Cop" Gil Valle's upcoming Comet Press release of his first novel A Gathering of Evil, which parallels the message-board fantasies that landed him in jail.
FEATURES
Duane Bradley takes an irresistible look at the Video Nasties and the uproar those "obscene" video cassettes caused in the UK back in the 1980s. Ben Arzate reviews a formerly out-of-print classic horror novel, which is making a howling comeback. Patrick King reviews one of the best of the recent horror movie releases.
Red Room interviews the phenomenal Meg Elison, and David L. Tamarin interviews Gil Valle, getting him to open up about his incarceration by the "thought police."
Red Room regular Barfly Bob taste-tests the World's Most F**ked Up adult beverages.
A surreal, behind the scenes glimpse at the Red Room headquarters with rogue reporter Brian J. McCarthy.
Smart phones, smart cars, smart toasters, where can this lead? Will our new, interconnected life deliver on its Bellamyian proph- esies, or will we find ourselves in an Uber-tech, Orwellian world?
Such is the nature of the stories in this anthology. We asked our authors for stories envisioning life in the Near Future – a future recognizably related to the world in which we live today, but a smattering of years from now, and extrapolated from our present.
Do ya?
DO YA, PUNK???
Well, then—THUGLIT ISSUE 22 is here to knock your literary teeth out the back of your head with EIGHT brand new tales of misdemeanors, misdeeds, misanthropy and misbehavior.
IN THIS ISSUE OF THUGLIT:
THE JACKPOT by Tom Barlow
LAST REQUEST by Rob Hart
STRESS POSITIONS by Matthew J. Hockey
FKAKTED by Robert Hart
GAME DOG by Joshua D. Moyes
THE EASTER ISLAND JOHNNY by Jon Zelazny
CRANFILLS GAP by William Dylan Powell
THAT DREADED UNDERTOW by Nolan Knight
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