Editor Interview: Close to the Bone Magazine

Edgy Crime Fiction

I particularly enjoyed Byker Books when they were bringing out satirical, humourist anecdotes from the pubs of northern England. It was that olden, culture of 1970s England that appealed to me that was apparent in a lot of the work they published.
I'm currently reading 'Jerusalem' by Alan Moore, a hybrid of genres, ranging from fantasy, to crime, to drama - it spans two millennia and is an interesting twist of characters, plots and sub-plots.

One of my favourite has to be Tom Leins. He's just a sick puppy when it comes to descriptive technique. What he sucks from the depths of his mind is truly sickening, that I just have to put it on the site. Some of it is ferocious, and bewildering, but doesn't cross that line we will not step over.

It's edgy, and it cuts above the normal veneer of literature. We have a lot of authors here and often we will publish purely because the work is wonderful, but the content may not strictly be 'Near To The Knuckle'.

Re-read and get someone else to read it for you. Take criticism with an open mind - and take it for what it is meant to be - help and guidance.

It would be 1000 - 3000 words. A nice opening that will grab my attention. Flawed characters that interest me. A twist in the tail (though it's not essential).
A short bio. A good image for the bio. It has to be in .doc format and not .docx.

They don't explicitly mention their 'Pen Name'. No bio attached. It's in docx format. There are multiple errors in the first paragraph and there's no 'hook' in that paragraph.

Not interested in cover letters. A simple introduction email with a bio in the body of the same email will suffice. What previous books published, any accolades won? Where they're from.

I like to read all of it, though sometimes I have only made it halfway through the first page before rejecting. This is usually down to poor punctuation or extremely poor grammar.

I wake at 0445hrs. Go to the Gym. Get back, read a short story and either ; reject or accept. Go to work. Return at 1700hrs and post a short story that same evening after I've took the kids to bed.