Sarah Cortez - Houston Noir

He didn’t hear any of those things her raised hand was trying to tell him. He did what his big brother taught him to do in such situations. He aimed at her chest and shot her.

He’d never shot anyone before. It was dark and he was scared, so the shot was low. His arm circled back and tucked the gun into the waistband of his jeans. He pivoted like a dancer and ran.

The blow knocked her against the back wall of the service station convenience store. She stepped back and out of one fine leather high heel, her foot landing on the gravel and the loam of garbage. She clasped her belly as the fiery pain and the warm rush spilled down her legs. The pain and the blood a surprise all over again. She sank down to the damp weeds and plastic bags and pooling blood, back against the brick wall, knees splayed.

I won’t bury Jamie , she thought. I won’t bury Jamie .

She cried this time too. This was so good. She was so grateful.

Thank you , she thought. To God, probably.

Tom Abrahamsis an award-winning television journalist and a member of the International Thriller Writers. He is a hybrid author (traditionally and self-published) who writes postapocalyptic thrillers, action adventure, and political conspiracies. Abrahams lives in the Houston suburbs with his wife Courtney and their two children. Read more about his work and join his Preferred Readers Club at tomabrahamsbooks.com.

Robert Boswellhas published seven novels, three story collections, and two books of nonfiction. His play The Long Shrift was produced off-Broadway. He has earned NEA fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the PEN West Award, and the John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award. His stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Harpers, the Atlantic, and Best American Short Stories . He holds the Cullen Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at the University of Houston.

Sarah Cortez, councillor of the Texas Institute of Letters, has had poems, essays, book reviews, and short stories anthologized and published in Texas Monthly, Rattle , the Sun, Texas Review, Louisiana Literature, Arcadia, Midwest Quarterly, and Southwestern American Literature . She has won the PEN Texas Literary Award and the Southwest Book Award. Her most recent book is Vanishing Points: Poems and Photographs of Texas Roadside Memorials .

Anton DiSclafaniis the New York Times best-selling author of two novels, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls and The After Party . Both were Amazon Books of the Month and Indie Next picks; her work is being translated into thirteen languages. She lives in Alabama with her husband and son and teaches creative writing at Auburn University.

Stephanie Jaye Evansis a fifth-generation Texan. Her first book, Faithful Unto Death, was a Library Journal Debut of the Month, and a Houston Chronicle Ultimate Summer Book List pick. Kirkus Reviews writes of Safe from Harm , second in the series, “As charming and wry as Evans’s bright debut, filled with reasons to own dogs, love your children and your wife, and have faith.” She is currently working on a Southern gothic set in the Houston Heights.

Deborah D.E.E.P. Moutonis an internationally renowned performance poet, a three-time Slam Champ formerly ranked the #2 Best Female Poet in the World. She was named Houston’s poet laureate in 2017. Her work has been compiled on two albums and has been featured on BBC, NPR, Upworthy, Blavity.com, in Black Girl Magic , and was featured in the opening video of the Houston Rockets 2017 season. For more information visit LiveLifeDeep.com.

Wanjiku Wa Ngugiis the author of The Fall of Saints and former director of the Helsinki African Film Festival. She has been a columnist for the Finnish development magazine Maailman Kuvalehti, and her essays and short stories have appeared in St. Petersburg Review, Wasafiri Magazine, Auburn Avenue , the Daily Nation, Pambazuka News , and Chimurenga , among others.

Adrienne Perrygrew up in Wyoming. She earned her MFA from Warren Wilson in 2013 and her PhD from the University of Houston in 2018. From 2014 to 2016, she served as the editor of Gulf Coast . She is a Hedgebrook alumna, a Kimbilio Fellow, and a member of the Rabble Collective. Perry’s work has appeared in Copper Nickel, Black Warrior Review , and elsewhere. She is at work on a novel and an essay collection.

Pia Picoresides in Houston, Texas, where she teaches high school. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she spent the nineties touring the Australian outback and east coast with her punk band Killy. She earned her MFA in creative writing from New York University, and her writing was included in the anthology Gynomite: Fearless Feminist Porn .

Reyes Ramirezis a Houstonian. In addition to earning an MFA in fiction, he won the 2017 Blue Mesa Review Nonfiction Contest and the 2014 riverSedge Poetry Prize, and has poems, stories, essays, and reviews in or forthcoming in: Southwestern American Literature, Gulf Coast Journal, Glass Poetry Press, Origins Journal, the Acentos Review, Cimarron Review , the anthology pariahs: writing from outside the margins , and elsewhere. You can read more of his work at reyesvramirez.com.

Icess Fernandez Rojasis an educator, writer, and former journalist who lives in Houston and is a longtime North Shore resident. Her work has been published in Rabble Lit, Minerva Rising Literary Journal , and the Feminine Collective’s anthology Notes from Humanity . Her nonfiction has appeared in Dear Hope , NBCNews.com, the Huffington Post , and the Guardian . She is a recipient of the Owl of Minerva Award and is a Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation alum.

Sehba Sarwar’sessays and poems have appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Callaloo, South Asian Review, and elsewhere, while her short stories have appeared in anthologies published by Feminist Press and HarperCollins India. Her novel Black Wings was published by Alhamra Press in Pakistan. Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, Sarwar lived in Houston for several decades and is currently based in Southern California.

Leslie Contreras Schwartzis a fourth-generation Houstonian of Mexican heritage. Her essays and poetry have recently appeared in Catapult , the Collagist, Tinderbox , and Luna Luna Magazine . Her book Fuego was published by Saint Julian Press and her second book of poems, Nightbloom & Cenote , was published by the same press in 2018.

Larry Wattshas published six novels and a book of short stories during his twenty-one-year career in law enforcement. His latest book, Dishonored and Forgotten, written with his wife Carolyn, is a historical novel about Houston’s first police narcotics scandal.

Gwendolyn Zepedahas published three novels, one short story collection, two poetry collections, and five children’s books. She served as Houston’s first poet laureate from 2013 to 2015.