To be chosen by Steph Cha and Don Winslow and to be among some of my favourite people and writers is an overwhelming honor. Huge thanks to Starlite Pulp for its first home. Please get yourself a copy, if not for my dirty little spite story, than for one of the other 19 amazing ones.

It’s a wild, wild life at That Noise at 2 AM, where we’re celebrating the release of this year’s Best American Mystery and Suspense. My story “Road to Nowhere” is part of this year’s collection. open.substack.com/pub/jamesdfh...

Got a hot tip from @andymboyle.bsky.social that copies of BAMS '25 were out in the wild, so I had to check it out. He was right! Get your copy today! #bams2025

No matter what Christopher Cross says, if you get caught between the moon and New York City, falling in love is NOT the best you can do. You are in serious "Sandra Bullock in GRAVITY" jeopardy, and quick thinking and survival skills are in order. Priorities, people.

Wow. Republicans being racist. I'm fucking shocked. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Come out, come out, wherever you are, because it’s That Noise at 2 AM, talking to @tonywirt.com about his latest thriller, SILENT CREEK. open.substack.com/pub/jamesdfh...

When you’re revising your novel but you’re also testing how much “track changes” can handle.

I've been talking to a lot of people the last few days, and, in case there's any doubt, I want to be clear: What Down and Out Books is doing is goddamn shameful, and staining an otherwise really incredible legacy.

Mark your calendars! On Nov 14 @ noon PST, I'm interviewing my friend, the brilliant @sheilakathleen.bsky.social virtually about her new book on @realgdt.bsky.social's FRANKENSTEIN on behalf of Scottsdale's @poisonedpenbooks.bsky.social. You can tune in via FB/YT: calendar.time.ly/9plshfqx/pos...

When the bell tolls, it tolls for thee at That Noise at 2 AM, where we’re talking to @curtisippolito.bsky.social about his climate change anthology, ON FIRE AND UNDER WATER. open.substack.com/pub/jamesdfh...

Nothing good comes from hanging out with right-wing Germans. Absolutely nothing. www.politico.eu/article/top-...

What does it mean to you to be a Southerner? Someone asked me that today in an interview To me being a Southerner is the center of my identity as a black man, as a human , as a writer. This place of blood and toil, of pain and passion, of joy and agony. Of hatred and hope This place that -

For the morning crowd.

Go see it this weekend, the biggest screen you can find. Here's a movie that can express and amplify all your rage, frustration, alarm, fatigue...and most of all your need for hope.

Listen, if you’re getting raptured this week, we’d appreciate it if you set the contents of your liquor cabinets outside now and left your car unlocked and the keys on the dashboard. This will save time for all of us left behind. Thanks!

This was a cool exercise—writing about which books share DNA with “On Fire and Under Water.” Grateful to the @wirobooks.bsky.social for inviting and hosting me. With mentions of work from John Woods, Ivy Pochoda, @jordanharper.bsky.social, and Delfina Cuuero.

Literally more shit to deal with.

What movie do you consider perfect?

I'm off the internet for four hours and suddenly everyone's talking the rapture is Tuesday when we all know it happened on January 12, 1981 as the second single from the "Autoamerican" album.

Quality content.

Thanks to Craig Francis Coates at Cold Caller for letting me ramble about writing and my story “Road to Nowhere,” in this year’s Best American Mystery and Suspense. coldcallermag.substack.com/p/bams-25-me...

The Department of Justice has removed a study showing that white supremacist and far-right violence “continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism” in the United States. 🔗 www.404media.co/doj-deletes-...

Still time to sign up for my VIRTUAL short story, query writing and beginnings workshops! Classes start this week, so get those registrations in! writerscircleworkshops.jumbula.com/fall-2025-ad...

I’m not saying “Kathleen” by Josh Ritter is the greatest love song of all time. What I am saying is, there haven’t been any better ones.

For Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month, I put together a @bookshop.org list of my favorite mystery books by Latine authors, including @cynthiapelayo.bsky.social @gabino.bsky.social @nodarse.bsky.social @latinasleuths.bsky.social @silviamg.bsky.social. bookshop.org/lists/must-r... @crimewoc.bsky.social

Not that anyone asked, but here's my definitive list of the 10 greatest rock songs about heroin*. *The list was limited to one song by the Velvet Underground, a band whose entire catalog seems like an ode to the drug.

One of the many things I love about Jordan’s intensely powerful and almost violently prophetic crime fiction is that, with each new book, I’m convinced THIS ONE is his masterpiece. Then he goes and outdoes it with the next one. (That said, A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE is indeed that, and drops April 28).

"You are being musically mean to me and it's hurting my feelings so I am going to call the police department that we are supposed to be supporting to report a feels violation."

This is a country song about how people in appalachia should have empathy for black people. Its by Tyler Childers

A friend of mine was on Charlie Kirk's "watch list" of Black professors. She received so many death and rape threats that her university offered her a security detail for the walk to class. This is Kirk's legacy. You would never know it from reading all of these legacy newspaper op-eds about him.

My story "Haggling Over Price" from the @rhppress.bsky.social anthology THE ONE PERCENT is available to read for free. I would love a day where it’s never relevant, but today isn’t that day. jamesdfhannah.substack.com/p/44-hagglin...

I was worried that the scene in my new book where a crowd of rich and famous sex creeps in the VIP section of an ornate orgy toast themselves as "the Kids in the Candy Store" was over the top but now I'm mostly worried I didn't go far enough.

No one should have murdered Charlie Kirk. No one should lower their flag for Charlie Kirk. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

Remembering MN house speaker Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark and their beloved dog Gilbert. Murdered in June at their home by a rightwing Trump-voting evangelist, who also shot another MN lawmaker and his wife at THEIR home, 9 and 8 times, respectively (miraculously, they survived).

It has been 88 days.

We're still tired after last week here at That Noise at 2 AM, talking to Archer Sullivan about her debut novel, THE WITCH'S ORCHARD. jamesdfhannah.substack.com/p/43-five-fo...

The people you run into at #bouchercon #bunchawriters @kirstynpetras.bsky.social @jamesdfhannah.bsky.social @jdallen.bsky.social @cwblackwell.bsky.social @browneallover.bsky.social Fun was had!

We're scheduled for takeoff at That Noise at 2 AM, talking to @louberney.bsky.social about his new book, CROOKS. jamesdfhannah.substack.com/p/42-five-fo...

It's Tuesday, which sometimes means it's That Noise at 2 AM, and we're talking to @johncopenhaver.bsky.social about the queer crime fiction anthology CRIME INK: ICONIC. jamesdfhannah.substack.com/p/41-five-fo...

Gov. Pritzker: “Earlier today in the Oval Office, Donald Trump…asked for me personally to say, ‘Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?’ Instead, I say, ‘Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here.’”

It was great talking to @armandauthor.bsky.social about WHATEVER KILLS THE PAIN, though I spent much of the time talking about how amazing @pauljgarth.bsky.social, @coyhall.bsky.social, @jamesdfhannah.bsky.social, @libbycudmore.bsky.social, and @meaganlucas.bsky.social are 😎 youtu.be/RAolFA8NCZA

A recent story of mine from the great folks at Reckon Review - so honored to have it there. A moody piece about a young musician and the dark forces that powered his muse and rise to the top. reckonreview.com/song-of-the-...

As basic of an answer as this is, Pulp Fiction, because it altered how I looked at narrative and character and even attitude. It changed how I wanted to tell stories.

“I don’t care what anyone says, I like that movie.”

Sometimes resisting fascism looks like a Mexican flag bumper sticker on a white woman's Tacoma. #antifa, #chingalamigra, #abolishice, #fuckice, #nooneisillegal, #YourBordersKill, #refugeeswelcome

It's the pictures that got small at That Noise at 2 AM, where we discuss seeing smaller movies on bigger screens. open.substack.com/pub/jamesdfh...

Y'all, I'm moderating a panel at Bouchercon 2025 in New Orleans! @jamesdfhannah.bsky.social, Michael Cody, Michael Ferreter, D.R. Ransdell and Brian Silverman will be taking questions about MUSIC in MYSTERY. ... and then we'll all go to the record store... #mystery #bouchercon #writing #author

Fine, but how else am I supposed to get shrimp super powers?

Google's data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa used 1 BILLION gallons of water in 2024 - enough to supply all of Iowa's residential water for five days. Researchers in water law and policy explain how companies rarely tell the public exactly how much water data centers consume: buff.ly/KtLcLZ2