First draft: Snuff Movies

Last night I finished the first draft of a short story collection, provisionally titled 'Snuff Movies'. I never thought I'd ever write a book with that title, but there we go. Here's the working blurb:

Jimmy Kiley is a keen amateur movie maker. He’s also the ruthless criminal boss of the north side of the city. He sees no reason why he shouldn’t mix business with pleasure. His kick is to provide a private viewing of his last venture to the star of the next. And his reluctant stars are only ever one hit wonders.

The project started life as a single piece of flash fiction (King Canute) focused on a fairly simple premise — an impending murder victim would be shown a video of the death of the previous victim and also get a sense of the movie in which he or she was about to star. As I drafted the story, I sensed that there was potential for a series of interlinked flash fiction stories. And so I've drafted another eleven stories (five of which have been recently published on flash fiction sites).

Writing the stories has been an interesting experience as I've been both fascinated and deplored by Jimmy Kiley’s ruthless imagination and his inventive means for killing his hapless victims (where he gets his ideas from I don't really want to think about). I should note that none of the stories involve any sexual violence - they're more gangland hits with cameras.

Now I'm done, I'm wondering what to do with the collection? I was thinking of submitting to a couple of e-presses, but their submissions are closed. I'll have a think about it. Suggestions welcome (and I'm also open to suggestions for an alternative title). Next step, I think, is to contact the editors of the various e-zines which published the first five stories. One way or another, I'll try to get the collection to a virtual bookshelf at some point.