The No Pants Cocktail Hour: Jeff Somers Talks & Reads

Author Jeff Somers drinks some Old Grandad and discusses and reads his story 'Negotiator,' which started off as a standalone story and then got subsumed into the novel 'We Are Not Good People' when the novel 'Trickster' sold like a lead balloon. www.jeffreysomers.com

Author Jeff Somers drinks Legent bourbon, discusses, and reads his story 'Drum Trial,' which was published in 2008. He talks about stealing from another story for inspiration, and about how he could have gone to the launch party for Legent bourbon because of his freelance writing. www.jeffreysomers.com

Author Jeff Somers drinks Glenmorangie Allta and discusses and reads his story 'Howling On for More,' which was published at Black Denim Lit in 2016 ( https://www.bdlit.com/howling-on-for-more.html ). The story features Jeff's recurring character Philip K. Marks. The whiskey features ... whiskey. www.jeffreysomers.com

Author Jeff Somers drinks Coors Lite and discusses the essay "Sift, almost invisible, through long afternoons of tedium: We Don't Have Much Time: Stop Wasting it at Work" which appeared in The Inner Swine Volume 7, Issue 4, which appeared in the Zine Yearbook in 2002. www.jeffreysomers.com

Author Jeff Somers drinks Wild Turkey 101 like a much younger man and discusses his short story 'The Company I Keep,' which appeared in "Life is Short and Then You Die" edited by Kelley Armstrong. Jeff discusses how the story started off as a 60,000+ word novel and was cut down to just 6,000 words. www.jeffreysomers.com

Author Jeff Somers uncorks a bottle of Corgi Cardigan whiskey out of Jersey City and discusses his short story 'No Stranger to Frustration.' The discussion includes references to suicide, The Descendents, and how Jeff manages to like himself very much despite acknowledging he's kind of a terrible person. www.jeffreysomers.com

Author Jeff Somers uncorks a bottle of Redbreast and discusses his Avery Cates short story 'This Was Education,' which began life as a deleted chapter from an early version of 'The Digital Plague.' He talks about killing off characters you love and how deleted material like this can still be part of a fictional universe. And also talks way too much about his love for Redbreast. www.jeffreysomers.c...

Author Jeff Somers drinks a barrel bourbon from Astor Wines & Spirits and discusses his short story 'The Unappeasable Host,' which was published in Bare Bone #5 in 2004. A short little piece of horror, the story is all premise and no grace notes. Just like Jeff himself. www.jeffreysomers.com

Author Jeff Somers some Togouchi 15-year old blended whiskey from Japan and discusses his short story 'And All the Days Like It,' which was published in The Portland Review Volume 51, Issue 1 in 2003. The story is bleak and depressing so Jeff's extremely drunk by the end of this. www.jeffreysomers.com

Author Jeff Somers drinks a few Smoke & Daggers from Jack's Abby brewing and discusses his never-published short story 'Jeff's Ongoing Fugue of Pain,' which began life as a series of incompetent drawings in MS Paint he used to leave on his roommate's computer to passive aggressively express his rage at various things. www.jeffreysomers.com

Author Jeff Somers drinks Glenmorangie's The Cadboll Scotch and discusses his short story 'sift, almost invisible, through,' which appeared in the MWA anthology 'Crimes by Moonlight' (edited by Charlaine Harris) in 2010. Inspired by Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The X-Files, and Jeff's deep terror of being photographed, it was the first story featuring his character Philip K. Marks to be published....

Author Jeff Somers drinks some Tyrconnel Irish whiskey and discusses his short story 'Dick for Eternity.' Published in the anthology 'The Urban Bizarre' (edited by Nick Mamatas) in 2004. Jeff reflects on the weird mood he was in at the time he wrote it in the closing months of his college career, and how it's an angry and kind of dark story he still finds hilarious despite a strong urge to disavow...

Author Jeff Somers mixes up a Manhattan against his better judgment when he discusses his short story 'I Don't Even Trust Me.' Published online in 1999, the story can still be read today at www.webdelsol.com,  and Jeff retains a lot of affection for its odd structure and experimental nature. He does not, however, retain any affection for cocktails, preferring his whiskey neat like a cowboy. www.je...

Author Jeff Somers drinks some awful blackberry brandy to relive his underage boozing days while he discusses the first short story he ever wrote, 'Bricks.' Written when he was 16 so he could join his high school's literary magazine, it is a terrible story, but he's fond of it because it was, after all, his first. Then he reads the story with some atmospheric sound effects, even though the only re...

Author Jeff Somers drinks some Black Dynomite from 902 Brewing while he discusses his short story 'The Amazing Martin Landawer,' originally published in The Whirligig #3 in 2001 and later in Brutarian in 2006. Then he reads the story with some atmospheric sound effects, which was especially challenging because this story is like 99% interior monologue. Jeff is the real hero here, is what he's sayi...

Author Jeff Somers drinks some Nikka Coffey whiskey while he discusses his short story 'Closer in My Heart to Thee,' originally published in GUD Magazine in 2008. Then when the bottle's half empty he reads the story with some atmospheric sound effects, because nothing says 'I Love You' like locking your spouse up in a room to die alone. www.jeffreysomers.com

Author Jeff Somers drinks some Mellow Corn while he discusses the origins of the short story that evolved into the sixth Avery Cates novel, "The Shattered Gears." Then when the bottle's half empty he reads the story with a lot of howling in the background. Seriously, if howling is a trigger, you've been warned. www.jeffreysomers.com

Author Jeff Somers opens a bottle of Jack Daniels to discuss and read the first short story he ever sold for money, "Glad and Big," originally published in Aberrations #34, 1995. www.jeffreysomers.com

Author Jeff Somers opens a bottle of Redbreast to discuss and read his short story "In This Slowly Rising City, So Bereft of Company," originally published in The Whirligig #5, 2002. www.jeffreysomers.com

Author Jeff Somers discusses and reads his short story "Ringing the Changes," which was selected for Best American Mystery Stories 2006. www.jeffreysomers.com