Jay Desmarteaux is a drifter ex-con born from southern Louisiana who stars in several short stories and my upcoming novel, Bury the Hatchet. Jay spent 25 years in prison for killing the school bully, and became a mechanic, bare-knuckle brawler and thief while he languished in Rahway Prison. His background is murky, and he seeks out those who wronged his folks, and him as a child, as he tries to find his way in a selfish and inhospitable world.
Jay appears in:
“The Rockridge Ringer,” in Hills of Fire: Bare-Knuckle Yarns of Appalachia, from Woodland Press.1
“Gumbo Weather,” in Needle: A Magazine of Noir Fall/Winter 2012.1
“Kamikaze Death Burgers at the Ghost Town Cafe,” in Feeding Kate2 (all proceeds benefit the Lupus Foundation)
Bury the Hatchet, novel in progress:
Jay stood on the empty stretch of road outside the gates of Rahway prison, and the sun on his face felt like air on a fresh wound. He’d spent twenty five years locked inside, while the men who’d put him there lived free from fear.
Men who needed killing.
After serving 25 years for the murder of a vicious bully in a quiet northern suburb, Louisiana boy Jay Corso maxes out of prison looking for answers, his missing family, and revenge. As he shakes things up with old friends and new-found criminal cohorts, his bare-knuckled fists unravel a twisted tale of small town secrets and good old Jersey corruption. Jay wants payback, and it’s time to BURY THE HATCHET!
next:
Axe to Grind
Voodoo Cadillac
Hate Machine
Texas Red
1 Occurs after the events in Bury the Hatchet
2 Occurs after the events in Voodoo Cadillac
Thomas Pluck writes unflinching fiction with heart. His stories have appeared in Big Pulp, Needle, Stupefying Stories, The Utne Reader Burnt Bridge, [PANK] magazine, Crime Factory, Spinetingler, Beat to a Pulp, McSweeney's Internet Tendency and elsewhere. He edits the Lost Children charity anthologies to benefit PROTECT: The National Association to Protect Children, and writes 
"The Story of O Street" in Oh Sandy: An Anthology of Humor for a Serious Cause
"Kamikaze Death Burgers at the Ghost Town Cafe" in Feeding Kate
"Acapulcolypse" in Nightfalls: Notes from the End of the World
"The Rock Ridge Ringer" in Hills of Fire: Bare-Knuckle Yarns of Appalachia
"Train" in Shotgun Honey Presents: Both Barrels
"Garbage Man" in Beat to a Pulp: Superhero
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology (Amazon Kindle & Paperback)
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