STORY SHOWCASE #17

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CATCH OF THE DAY

by Marek Z. Turner

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A little taster…

As the tired lobsterman shuffled closer, the moonlight illuminated the giant, powerful bodies of his quarry. The loud, frantic clicking of their claws against the steel mesh barely registered in Hugh’s mind. All he could think about was the cash that he stood to make selling them to the best restaurants in the county. Fuck Caleb’s money.

A dull thud broke the silence, and the vessel swayed, breaking the old seaman from his daydream. He shook his head. This was all for Britney. It was his chance to show her he was still a good man.

He grabbed a flashlight and scanned the surrounding darkness. The waves seemed calmer now, but the ropes attached to the remaining four pots writhed and banged against the flaking paint on the boat’s side.

Dropping the light, he reached overboard and pulled up another trap. The skin on his right hand burned as the coarse rope pressed into the expanding tear in the glove and rubbed against his damp palm.

Hugh planted his feet, clenched his jaw and yanked.

“Come on, ye fuckers!” he screamed as the pot lifted from the sea and into the boat.

About the author

Marek Z. Turner is a writer whose fiction primarily focuses on those for whom life hasn’t been kind. His published work spans the crime fiction, horror, noir and thriller genres, with a dash of black humour thrown in.

We asked Marek …

K&R: What was the spark or idea that led you to write this story?

MZT: I’m a big fan of creature feature / animal attack horror, and I also like to write about my home county of Devon, so when the anthology submission call opened, I combined the two. Crabs are synonymous with the county, but that creature had obviously already been successfully taken, so I shifted crustaceans and settled on the lobster. 

From then it was just a case of working out who my characters would be and what the issues affecting small towns in the Southwest were. 

K&R: Do you have any other work do you have out there, for folks to dig into?

MZT: If you read and enjoyed “Catch of the Day”, then there is a very strong chance you’ll like my short novel Killerpede (Severed Press) which is similar in tone, as well as my killer beaver short story “That Damned Thing”.

I also write crime fiction, some of it humorous, some not, which I’ve included in the list below. 

Born to Lose: Tales of Gigi (short story collection) 

That Damned Thing (Short)

Killerpede (novel) 

You can find a full list of my fiction, including links to other releases and online published short stories, on my website at poliziotturner.com.

K&R: What’s next for you as a writer?

MZT: I’ve recently released a dark comedy noir, The Reluctant Gardener, which you can find here. Beyond that, I’m in the planning phases for a couple of action thrillers.

K&R: What does “trashy fiction” mean to you, and what do you love about it?

MZT: Trash fiction to me is something that primarily seeks to entertain. It’s not pretentious, it doesn’t have illusions of grandeur (or at least it shouldn’t be), but it provides a quick shot in the arm of something you need. 

Sometimes it will tackle bigger subjects or emotions, but its primary goal is to elicit something in you (horror, excitement, humour… steamy sexy times) and to do it quickly. 

That’s why I love it. It doesn’t overstay its welcome; it just delivers what it needs to in the form of fun escapism. 

K&R: Hit us with your own favourite “trashy” fiction recommendations!

MZT: I’d have to say Shaun Hutson’s Slugs and its sequel Breeding Ground are both fantastic, and the main inspiration behind my novel, Killerpede. A few other, more recent, recommendations would be Night of the Mosquitoes by Brian G. Berry, Get Free by Mark Robinson and, for an action kick, the Frenzi series by R.J. Calder. You can’t go wrong with a bit of 70’s pulp paperback action either. I feature plenty of them on my Instagram account @poliziotturner.

K&R: If you’ve read the rest of the stories in Trash Tales, what’s your favourite and why?

MZT: For me, Trash Tales is an excellent anthology because of the breadth of variety it provides, and picking out a favourite is tough. 

That said, the hilarious absurdity of “You Always Drive Too Fast” by SJ Townend has remained with me long after finishing it, while “Bloodemic” by Hokunani Sorci was a terrific take on the last man genre. And the first line to “The Hit” by Debby Raynor immediately got my attention and didn’t let go.

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