Rock and a Hard Place Issue Fourteen: Summer 2025
Published August 18, 2025
Print ISBN: 979-8-9912950-9-3; EBook ISBN: 979-8-9991000-0-9
Purchase on BOOKSHOP.ORG, BARNES & NOBLE, or AMAZON
One way or another, the ocean claims its own.
There are worse things than cancer.
Yeah, Maybe don't rob that bank during hunting season.
Some scammers are born with it.
Would you know all this without Rock and a Hard Place? Maybe, but why take the chance? Issue 14 brings a new batch of noir the way only RHP can: by dropping you in the shark-infested deep end. Hope you brought a life jacket.
Rock and a Hard Place is the literary magazine that knows that despite whatever they may tell you, yes, it can ALWAYS get worse.
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
(In order of appearance of work)
LIBBY CUDMORE (IG: @record_saturday; Bluesky: @libbycudmore.bsky.com) is the author of Negative Girl (Datura 2024) and The Big Rewind (William Morrow 2016) as well as the Wade & Jacks PI series in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Tough. Her work has been published in Eleventh Hour Literary, Smokelong Quarterly, The Dark, Stone's Throw, Dark Waters, Shotgun Honey, Orca, Monkeybicycle and The Coachella Review, as well as the anthologies At the Edge of Darkness, Burning Down the House, 120 Murders, Shamus & Anthony Commit Capers and the Anthony-nominated Lawyers, Guns & Money, which she co-edited with Art Taylor. She is five-year Barrelhouse Writer's Camp alumni, the recipient of the Eleventh Hour Literary Inaugural Prose Award, the Shamus Award, the Black Orchid Novella Award and the Oregon Writer's Colony prize.
CHRISTINE BLACKWICKS (FB: @christineblackwicks; christineblackwicks.com) is no stranger to the s***storm of a cancer diagnosis. She received her master’s in creative writing from Harvard University and is a huge fan of reading, candy, and daydreaming. Depending upon her mood, she’s been known to write anything from horror to nonfiction. This is her second story published by Rock and a Hard Place.
In 1995, JACQUELINE FREIMOR won first prize in the Unpublished Writers category of the MWA's 50th Anniversary Short Story Competition, which included publication in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Since then, her stories have appeared in both print and online magazines and have been reprinted in The Best Mystery Stories of the Year: 2021, The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022, and The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023. Her novella, The Case of the Bogus Cinderellas, which won the 2022 Black Orchid Novella Award, was published in the July/August 2023 issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
A native of Jacksonville, Florida, WIL MEDEARIS is the author of Restoration Heights (Hanover Square Press, 2019), named a CrimeReads Best Crime Book of the Year and deemed “an instant New York fiction classic” in a starred Booklist review. He holds an MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania and lives in Brooklyn.
AD SCHWEISS (Twitter / X: @ADSchweiss) has been a prosecutor for 14 years, mostly handling crimes against women and kids. His short fiction has appeared previously in Rock and a Hard Place Press, as well as BULL, Shotgun Honey, Molotov Cocktail, and elsewhere.
A former New York City homicide detective, JASON ALLISON's work has won the Al Blanchard Award for Crime Fiction, been featured in Rock and a Hard Place, and included in two editions of New England's Best Crime Stories. He lives now in Massachusetts with his wife and their Golden Retriever, and spends his days avoiding Patriots fans.
PHILIP ROBBINS is a clinical psychologist who began writing in earnest during the pandemic. He is currently pursuing his MFA in fiction from the Mountainview Program at SNHU. His short fiction has appeared in the Wilderness House Literary Review, Passengers, and Military Arts and Press: As You Were. He swears that he takes phone calls more seriously than Bud does.
ANDREA GOYAN (Bluesky: @andreagoyan.bsky.social) is an award-winning writer, playwright, and poet. In her spare time, she paints, walks her dogs, and co-host’s Metastellar’s Long-Lost Friends and Storytime. She lives in sunny Southern California with her husband, the aforementioned dogs, and two cats. Some of her stories are available on her website www.andreagoyan.com.
MIKE McHONE's (Bluesky: @mikemchone.bsky.social) work has appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Dark Yonder, Playboy, Mystery Tribune, the AV Club, Rock and a Hard Place, and the Anthony Award-nominated anthology Under the Thumb: Stories of Police Oppression, edited by S.A. Cosby. Although he currently lives in Detroit, anyone can pay him a visit at www.mikemchone.com.
Born and raised in Harlem, writer MICHAEL A.GONZALES has been a fan of crime fiction and movies since he was a boy. He currently writes about the genre for CrimeReads, where he also does true crime features and cultural reportage. His fiction has appeared in Under the Thumb: Stories of Police Oppression edited by S.A. Cosby, Dead-End Jobs: A Hit Man Anthology edited by Andrew J. Rausch, The Book of Extraordinary Femme Fatale Stories edited by Maxim Jakubowski, Get Up Offa That Thing: Crime Fiction Inspired by James Brown edited by Gary Phillips, Killens Review of Arts & Letters, Obsidian Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora and Vautrin Magazine.
CHRISTINA HOAG’s (IG: @christinahoagauthor) short crime fiction has appeared in Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, Black Cat Weekly, Shotgun Honey, Guilty Crime Story Magazine, All Due Respect and Crimeucopia and Black Beacon Mystery anthologies. One of her literary short stories was longlisted for The Commonwealth Foundation’s Short Story Prize 2024, placing in the top 3% of 7,359 entries. She is the author of noir novels Girl on the Brink (Suspense magazine Best of YA), Skin of Tattoos (Silver Falchion finalist), Law of the Jungle, The Blood Room, and I Am the Famous Carlos. A former journalist and Latin America correspondent, she lives in Los Angeles where she has taught creative writing to lifers in prison. More about her can be found on ChristinaHoag.com.
MICHAEL DOWNING (IG: @KMWriter01; Bluesky: @KMWriter01.bsky.com) is a writer originally from New Jersey, now living in a small college town in Georgia. Over the past fifteen years he has written some plays, published a few books, and his short stories have been featured in various publications and anthologies (some that have even been nominated for Pushcart Prizes). He is still everything New Jersey: attitude, edginess, and Bruce Springsteen . . . but not Bon Jovi.
MARK KAIJIM (IG: @markkaijim) is the author of two novels, The Lost Writer (2023) and The Wrong Person To Be Famous (2024). When he’s not writing, he enjoys rewatching The Wire or wandering the city while listening to Elliott Smith, Mac Miller, or The Wu-Tang Clan. He's an avid fan of birria tacos and mezcal.
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
(In order of appearance of work)
JAMIE GILL (Instagram: @jamie_gill_photography) is a singing mailman, unknown photographer and ex-chef, though he still cooks for his wife. His passions include family, this planet, music, literature, food, and photography. He refuses to wander this world with his eyes closed, and believes you will always find another perspective, if you look hard enough.
JIM THOMSEN (Threads / IG: @thomsenjim) is an editor, photographer and writer who lives in Kingston, Washington. His fiction and nonfiction has appeared in Noir City, Pulp Modern, Switchblade, Shotgun Honey and several other publications. He sees his "noir" photography as a subtle form of satire on the idea that noir is increasingly a matter of style rather than theme (he's strictly a theme guy), and that noir can be everywhere if you choose to see it as a visual-first concept.
A freelance journalist and photographer, SONALI ROY wears several other hats including a traveler, painter, 3-D art designer, music composer, and singer. While not working, Sonali enjoys listening to music and watching & feeding birds. Devoted to lacto-vegan diet, Sonali regularly practices yoga and meditation.