“Hammered – an Ode to Mickey Spillane” Story Event: Official Support Thread

ChloeTzang

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I’m posting this thread to officially kick off the “Hammered – an Ode to Mickey Spillane” Story Event. Laurel will be creating the Event Page shortly, but the “go live” date is 1 October 2021, so you got a whole 11 months to think, contemplate, plan and write for this one.

What’s the theme, you ask? Well, it’s an Ode to Mickey Spillane, so think gritty, dark, and overflowing with violence and sex in the best traditions of Spillane’s Mike Hammer. Spillane knew he was writing pulp, and his guiding principle serves as the theme for this event “violence will outsell sex every time,” but, “combined, they will outsell everything.” Spillane’s books were a huge commercial success, but their plain style and often violent content didn’t tend to sit well with critics. His works were variously referred to as “atrocious” and “nauseating,” while his most famous creation was called a “homicidal paranoiac” by Malcolm Cowley, who called Spillane himself "a dangerous paranoid, sadist, and masochist."

So there you go, and if you’re still not sure, go read a couple of Spillane’s Mike Hammer novels and go for it. Vivid descriptions. Short words. Fast transitions. Violence. Sex. Stereotyping and caricatures. Minimalism. The suggestion that allows your imagination to fill in the blanks. Like Spillane’s writing. Set the scene. Switch to dialogue.

Anyhow, the intent of this event is, well, to write something that reflects Spillane’s stylistic approach to writing as much as anything. Call it noir. Call it hard-boiled. I’d say, as much as anything, go for the style, the violence and the sex, but really, interpret it any way you like, and…

Have fun!

This thread is to SUPPORT and ENCOURAGE authors to enter their stories in this 2021 Story Event. If you have any questions, post them here, and someone will answer. It might be me, it might be someone else, but don’t be shy. Ask. There’s no such thing as a dumb question. And if you’re still shy, PM me. I’ll answer.

If you’re a first time writer, or this is the first time you’re thinking about doing a story for an “Event” or a Competition on Literotica, hey, don’t be stressed about it. We’ve all been there, and a “story event” like this is a great way to test the waters without getting into the competitiveness of a writing competition. This ain’t a competition, it’s open to everyone, from the complete novice to the writers that have been here since Literotica started.

Also, there no scores, no placing, and no prizes. This is just writing for fun with a bunch of other people doing the same thing. If you’re not sure about what to do, how to submit your story, or anything at all, just ask here. We’ve all been there, and we’re a bunch of very helpful people, and we like to pass it on.

So without further ado, are you interested in writing for the “Hammered – an Ode to Mickey Spillane” Story Event? If you are, get started! You've got almost a year to get something done! First time writers and veteran Literoticans alike are invited and encouraged to participate. You’ll be in good company

The rules are really simple
1. Stay more or less with the theme.
2. You can write in any category and any length, as long as you keep in mind Rule #1
.3. Please include “Hammered Story Event” in the notes field. Please use this exact wording so Laurel can identify the entries.
4. Please use “Hammered an Ode to Mickey Spillane” as a story tag
5. You can submit anytime from 1 September 2021 on, but all entries need to be submitted by 11:59pm, Thursday 30 September, 2021.
6. All stories will Go Live on Literotica on Friday 1 October 2021.

So what are you waiting for? Next year? Get started now.

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Sounds like my kind of thing. I love the combination of violence and hardcore erotica. It really raises the stakes.

The date is pretty far away though.
 
Sounds like my kind of thing. I love the combination of violence and hardcore erotica. It really raises the stakes.

The date is pretty far away though.

Yes it’s almost a year out. Wanted to get it on the calendar and get everyone thinking about it. Going to be inviting writers you don’t see here on the AH too so I have a lot of messaging and emailing t do. Plenty of time.
 
This sounds fun. Spillane lays the hard bitten cynical detective thing so hard that his stuff can read like camp, but it's fun. If you are not familiar, read I the Jury. Classic ending.

I wrote a Mickey Spillane parody with my story BTB incorporated. Lots of fun to write. If I do this character I probably will refuse my detective character Sonny Biggs.
 
Not gonna enter, mostly because every time I think "hard boiled" I picture an egg...

love to read the genre, so looking forward to the entries.

Back to trying to finish my Christmas story...
 
I've got a title, a protagonist, and a rough plot. Now all I need is cheap booze and one of those clacking keyboards for all the ambiance.
 
I got a leading lady in a red dress, her dead brother (= plot), Kittie from the diner, the movie actress and the gum-shoe, drives an old Ford.

To be honest, I'd always thought Mickey Spillane was the character, not the author, because I'd not read any pulp noir - but always been a fan of movie noir. Now I've just got to read all this stuff about minimalist style and wonder how the fuck I manage that!
 
I'd highly recommend Robert Aldrich's 1955 film of Kiss Me Deadly as the best of the several films made of Hammer novels. Gloriously nihilistic and apocalyptic, with the bizarre glowing suitcase that has been referenced in films from Repo Man to Pulp Fiction.

You might also check out The Girl Hunters (1963), in which Hammer is played by Mickey Spillane himself.
 
I'd highly recommend Robert Aldrich's 1955 film of Kiss Me Deadly as the best of the several films made of Hammer novels. Gloriously nihilistic and apocalyptic, with the bizarre glowing suitcase that has been referenced in films from Repo Man to Pulp Fiction.

You might also check out The Girl Hunters (1963), in which Hammer is played by Mickey Spillane himself.

Good call. Found it online for later viewing on a dark night with a bottle of whisky.
 
Okay, never read him. What's the best work to get the tropes down?


The Stacey Keach '84-'87 series. Saw a few of another one with Darren McGavin, but Keach nailed the role. Plus it has Lindsay Bloom as Velda:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ca/75/8e/ca758eaa2d389e72df2b35b64f7b31f2.png


And Donna Denton as 'The Face':

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ja2qjLT5L6g/VPcyiuDkkYI/AAAAAAAAh-c/G_8qHlw0dy8/s1600/10.%2Bphone%2Bbooth%2Bchick.png

Her non speaking random appearances always left Hammer, well, sort of ....

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ud0JagGPNVo/VPcwdAn9U5I/AAAAAAAAh-I/hXouqpwEgyE/s1600/6.%2Bunh%2Bface.png


An interesting sideline story angle might be to explore a relationship between Hammer and The Face. Some sort of undisclosed back story.
 
I've been reading a lot of pulp fiction stories lately. Because of the HBO series I have recently read several Perry Mason stories by Erle Stanley Gardner. I haven't read any Spillane, but will check some out. This sounds like a fun challenge.
 
Keep in mind it doesn't have to feature Mike Hammer or a character who's just like him. There are plenty of other authors who've written novels with similar kinds of characters (often, but not always, detectives), plots, and style.

Raymond Chandler is one of the earliest practitioners of the style, and his novel The Big Sleep is one of the very best. He's more "literary" than Spillane, and a bit more subtle, but the style shares a lot of features.

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain is a good noir book, combining sex and violence in generous portions.

Dashielle Hammet's The Maltese Falcon is a good example, and the movie is great.

A great more contemporary film take on noir is the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple, which pretty much has it all -- sex, violence, cheating, murder, plus the Coen Brothers' quirky style.
 
Keep in mind it doesn't have to feature Mike Hammer or a character who's just like him. There are plenty of other authors who've written novels with similar kinds of characters (often, but not always, detectives), plots, and style.

Raymond Chandler is one of the earliest practitioners of the style, and his novel The Big Sleep is one of the very best. He's more "literary" than Spillane, and a bit more subtle, but the style shares a lot of features.

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain is a good noir book, combining sex and violence in generous portions.

Dashielle Hammet's The Maltese Falcon is a good example, and the movie is great.

A great more contemporary film take on noir is the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple, which pretty much has it all -- sex, violence, cheating, murder, plus the Coen Brothers' quirky style.

Exactly, Simon. It’s all about the style, and the sex and violence combo. I’d say, read a few and then go for it. It’s an Ode to Mickey Spillane, It doesn’t have to BE Mickey Spillane.

And movies? There some great Japanese Noir movies too from the look of it. And I found “I, the Jury” on YouTube.
 
Keep in mind it doesn't have to feature Mike Hammer or a character who's just like him. There are plenty of other authors who've written novels with similar kinds of characters (often, but not always, detectives), plots, and style.

Exactly, Simon. It’s all about the style, and the sex and violence combo. I’d say, read a few and then go for it. It’s an Ode to Mickey Spillane, It doesn’t have to BE Mickey Spillane.

Well, I would have said yes, but the challenge organizer says no, so that opens up the whole realm of PIs, including Mannix, Magnum PI, Peter Gunn, et al.


One other thing of note for writers tackling this. One of the key features of both the McGavin and Keach TV series was the satire and tongue-in-cheek, backhanded humor mixed with non-PC wisecracks.
 
Keep in mind it doesn't have to feature Mike Hammer or a character who's just like him. There are plenty of other authors who've written novels with similar kinds of characters (often, but not always, detectives), plots, and style.

If you're looking for visual representations, try the movie Brick, which is a noir story set in high school, or the trade paperback version of The Fade Out by Ed Brubaker. It's a twelve-issue comic series that nails the tone perfectly.

Heck, my inspiration is coming from an old, old, OLD computer game, a text adventure called The Witness.
 
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