Brit Grit Alley

Brit Grit Alley features interviews, news and updates on what's happening down British crime fiction's booze and blood soaked alleyways.

By Paul Heatley

STARTING IS HARD

Starting anything is hard.

            A short story? Hard.

            A novella? Hard.

            A novel? Hard.

            An article? Hard.

            A new job, a new friendship, relationship - a new anything. HARD.

            I’ve kind of hummed and hawed on this article for a couple of weeks now, not really sure what to do with it. And I guess all I can really do, is get down to it. Tear off that plaster and get it over with.

            Hi.

            My name’s Paul Heatley and I’ll be running Brit Grit Alley now.

            When Paul D Brazill (who’s done a great, GREAT job for a number of years now) first approached me about taking it over, I said yes instantly. I mean, what an honour, right?

            Then panic set in.

            How am I supposed to match up to what Brazill’s been doing?

            Well, I can’t. And I won’t try. All I can do is take what he’s created and run with it in my own way. Naturally things will be different round here, and it might be a bit ropey at first while I find my feet. But shit, stick with me and let’s see where we can take this.

  

There'll be more carryings on down Brit Grit Alley very soon, sorta kinda thing, like.

Paul Heatley lives in the north east of England. His short stories have appeared online and in print for publications such as Thuglit, Horror Sleaze Trash, Spelk, Near to the Knuckle, Shotgun Honey,the Pink Factory, and the Flash Fiction Offensive, among others. He also contributes music reviews to R2 magazine, sometimes. His fiction is dark and bleak, populated with misfits and losers on a hellbound descent, often eschewing genre and geography to create a nightmarish vision of a harsh and uncaring world. His books The Motel Whore, The Vampire, and The Boy form a very loose trilogy all set in the same nameless town and featuring recurring characters.