I don't watch Gossip Girl. I did happen to see the pilot episode while working as a professional teevee watcher back in New York, and the show wasn't nasty and dirty enough to sell me on it. I was hoping for Cruel Intentions meets Brett Easton Ellis, and it seemed like another teen soap opera.

But the billboards that have been up in LA all summer might make me give the show another shot. I can't speak for the show, but these ads, which match sexy images with quotes from the show's harshest critics, is beautiful trash at its finest.

Maybe you should kill the bitch first, seeing as how she was the one who promised you true love forever and then went and sat on another man’s dick.

That's the first line of my new story "Just Look What the Bitch Made You Do," which will appear in issue five of Out of the Gutter, available for pre-order now. Aside from housing one of my most disturbing stories, the new issue also sports new stories by Charlie Stella and fellow Write Club member Justin Porter. There's also a nonfiction piece on Aryan Circle (the inspiration for the Aryan Steel prison gang at the center of "Heart Check") that I'm looking forward to, and also an advice column from an ex-junkie. Out of the Gutter is going to break big soon, so you might as well get on board now and look extra-hep.

Now Reading: a lot of stuff about dogs and dog fighting for a new story (or possibly, novel).

My story "Red Hair and Black Leather" has been shortlisted by Best American Mysteries 2008, edited by George Pelecanos and Otto Penzler. Very cool honor. The story first showed up in Thug Lit, so thanks to Todd for sending the story to them.

Reading: Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton. Taking a deserved break from Reclaiming History.

I should have some more news in the next few days, but for now enjoy the gods of California stoner metal, Kyuss. Like bong vapors floating in hundred-degree heat, vodka breath in the morning, a sloppy late night fist fight that ends badly.

I've read all nine Fletch novel, making it the only mystery series I've followed all the way through. The original Fletch is a great book, and if you've only ever seen the movie then you are missing out. The Fletch of the novels is much more reserved, and far more intelligent, than the character from the film. I know the world mourns for David Foster Wallace, but it is Gregory McDonald who mattered more to me.

Crime Online is better organized and has a lot more links, so go waste some time.

I'd left "Johnny Cash is Dead" off the website for a while in honor of its appearance in Hardcore Hardboiled, but now you can read it here. Up next, I'm going to be posting a longer version of "I Wish They Never Named Him Mad Dog" that I think is a little better than the published version. Stay tuned.

Reading: Still Reclaiming History, which is a terribly big-assed book.

The first post-Deadwood Western looks to be bloody old-school fun.

"Just Look What the Bitch Made You Do," a second-person exploration of homicidal misogyny, will run in Out of the Gutter #5, the Revenge Issue. OOTG is balls-out the nastiest, most hardcore crime magazine in print today, so support them by buying an issue. OOTG also ran "Playing Dead" back in #3, so this looks to be the start of a beautiful, if very bloody, relationship.

What I'm reading now: Reclaiming History, Off Season (second time).

I got rid of the old News blog. Look for all future updates here. We're pretty much all set up in West Hollywood now. There's a medical marijuana dispensary around the block from us, not too far from the Santa Monica he-she hooker stroll. We take walks in Runyon canyon and eat better than we ever have.

In other news: This is Hollywood; I've started a script. Fiction continues apace, so look for updates soon. I went to Vegas this week to see Big Daddy Thug Todd Robinson and his wife Lady Detroit, both of whom were in town for a wedding. I enjoyed both the season opener of The Shield and the debut of Sons of Anarchy. More on that later.