My crime fiction character, Sam the Thug, with a last name I’ve forgotten, celebrated a milestone this October when his tenth short adventure appeared in Guilty Crime Story Flash. It’s great to immediately connect with a character and have that character connect with readers! I love writing someone with rough edges, a worn-down soul, and only a few morals. For Sam, murder is out of the question. As for other crimes, it all depends. Usually it depends on whether his clients can afford his standard fee of two grand.
Sam is a former San Francisco reporter who turned to a life of crime to pay the skyrocketing cost of living in the city. He’s got a couple mouths to feed besides his own, his daughter “Little Sam” and their black cat Satan. The latter Sam acquired in the short story “Stuffing for a Sacrifice,” which appeared December 2020 in Pulp Modern Flash. Sam first appeared in 2019’s Shotgun Honey story, “Cosplayers Shouldn’t Kill.”
Below is a list of where you can read and/or purchase Sam’s complete tales, and look for Sam’s eleventh adventure coming soon. And, perhaps, a novel length adventure in the years to come.
- “Cosplayers Shouldn’t Kill” First appearance FREE here
- “Kerouac’s Second Scroll” Second appearance PURCHASE here
- “The Man with Moist Lips” Third appearance FREE here
- “Stuffing for a Sacrifice” Fourth Appearance FREE here
- “Art Model Noir” Fifth appearance PURCHASE here
- “Jimi’s Dime Bag” Sixth appearance PURCHASE here
- “Write on me, Sam” Seventh appearance FREE here
- “A Late-Night Touch of Death” Eighth appearance FREE here
- “The Palm Reader of Haight Street: A Halloween Tale” Ninth appearance FREE here
- “The Other Sam” Tenth appearance FREE here
Patrick Whitehurst 