Welcome to a new year, and a new issue of The Big Click. Sadly, we are still without columnist Tom Piccirilli, who continues to battle brain cancer. He did write an essay about his brush with death, “Meeting The Black”, which is thrilling, shocking, and available for download via his digital publisher Crossroads Press. All proceeds go directly to Tom, as he faces enormous medical bills.

On to brighter news, we have three stories of street brawls, school shootings, and more! Our lead this month is “Pure Southern” by James Robert Smith, a straight-ahead crime/noir in the classic mode by a very cool writer. He’s also our first author to come to us via query rather than solicitation, so do contact us! It does work. We’re also thrilled to publish “Big Davey Joins the Majority” by Barry Graham. Graham, whose work combines the confessional and the noir, has been working away quietly—too quietly—since 1989. We also have our first ever reprint in the form of “Denny” by the acclaimed science fiction writer Kit Reed. “Denny” was acquired prior to the horrific school shooting in Connecticut, but we decided to go ahead with running it, as the story is not only entertaining, but illuminating.

That’s it for now. In our March issue we’ll have some East Bay noir by Sean Craven, more fun, and perhaps even some news about a crowd-funding campaign with neat prizes for you! Yes you, reading this, right now, in your underwear. We’ve been keeping tabs on you.