There I sat, on the overstuffed, too-low, stained, green chair (“Donated to the United Nations by the Government of Hungary”) in the lounge on the fourth floor, squinting to read my laptop in the glare coming in through the window on my lunch break from covering a meeting of a certain crime commission, where things such as human trafficking, money-laundering, narcotics and arms trafficking and their connection to terrorism (kaching!) were being discussed with soporific effect, when she walked in.

Well, not exactly she.
It.
A metafilter projects link. Metafilter is good to read when you’re using a dim iBook and the sun is bright, because good contrast, the blue and yellow.

The link was to a website of short neo-noir hardcore hardboiled fiction by Jordan Harper. Here, I will link his site: Jordan Harper crime fiction

After taking notes at the conference that morning, it was like looking at crime through the other end of the telescope, if turning around a telescope made it work like a microscope.

I really like his writing. My sister sent my wife a collection of America’s Best Crime Fiction for a certain year, 2007 maybe, that I am reading on the toilet lately, and Harper’s writing is as good as anything in that. I read through all the stories on his site and couldn’t get them out of my head, a couple in particular.

I even sent him a gushing fan email.

His writing, in fact, reminded somewhat of my writing on this site, if instead of sentimental marine creatures talking about their dreams you had neoNazis cutting people in half with shotguns, and stuff (I don’t want to spoil anything for you).

Actually, upon further reflection, his writing does not strongly resemble mine, but it did remind me heavily of my young man-hood, and the sorts of people and situations I would have chewed my arm off to avoid. And the scary men I sensed at the edge of my peripheral perception. The demons of my youth, or something.

Rasputina has a song, “State Fair”, that reminds me vividly of situations of my youth. In a totally different way, Harper also brings to life dialects and characters I have not seen elsewhere. Maybe I just lead a sheltered life, who knows. You should go look at his stuff, though, and let me know what you think.