A TRIBUTE TO THE LATE, GREAT AJ HAYES (BILL), WHOSE PROFOUND STORIES GRACED THESE PAGES AND MANY MORE...

With a very heavy heart, and with AJ's wife's blessing, we hand you over to his close friend, Richard Godwin...


"AJ Hayes, exceptional crime writer, poet, and endless supporter of other writers, sadly passed away at 3 AM West Coast time on Saturday 8th March. He was battling lung cancer with the kind of courage that is an example to us all. He was an omnivorous reader, a man who deeply understood literature in its many forms, and who always had time for other writers. His kind words, and wise encouragements were widely appreciated. He will be sadly missed."


Tributes from the Editors...


From Col Bury:
"I'm so proud to call AJ (Bill) a friend. He was a selfless gent with boundless wisdom and great wit, and was one helluva writer to boot. His classic short, DARK GENESIS gleaned the most comments (and most 'wows') on this site in 2012. He was always on hand with unwavering encouragement and pertinent advice. I'll always cherish meeting him and his lovely wife, Thury, down in London (sincere condolences to you and your family, Thury). The writing community will ensure that AJ Hayes lives forever. R.I.P. mate."


From Matt Hilton:
"Sadly I never had the pleasure of meeting AJ Hayes in life, but I did have the opportunity of discovering his incredibly atmospheric, poetic skill as a writer through the pages of Thrillers, Killers 'N' Chillers, where I recall his "Dark Genesis" tale evoked a buzz for its incredible and sheer poetic inventiveness. Not only was AJ a real talent when it came to writing, but he was incredibly open and supportive of his fellow authors, regularly offering feedback at the site that was thoughtful and meaningful, and I'm certain his advice went a long way in making better writers of us all. His sage words and advice are a legacy many of his friends and peers will remember AJ for."

From Lily Childs:
"An outstanding writer in the Noir and crime genres, it was my absolute pleasure to publish AJ Hayes, ‘Bill’ on Thrillers Killers ‘n’ Chillers. Not only was Bill a unique voice in the genre, he also spent his valuable time supporting and promoting the writers he believed in. To say he will be missed is an understatement. I wish his family and friends peace and send them my sincere condolences."

From David Barber:
"AJ was a gent in the truest meaning of the word, always there to give advice and inspiration. He was a true professional when it came to the writing game and was also a fine editor in his own right, having taken the time to edit and enhance a couple of stories and a poem of mine recently. The man in the fedora will be greatly missed, not only by his family and friends but also by the online community who he helped and inspired over the years. R.I.P. Bill Hayes."

From Absolutely Kate:
"The 'Fedora Fella' was, IS and ever shall be the razz-a-ma-tazz and every bit of the smoothest, smokiest jazz to how I write and think and love and laugh, and even wear my own fedora. We share authors saluting all the good stuff in authors, the grittiest crime tales crunching delight outta our keyboards and the most gloriest music heard between all the right lines. AJ ~ Bill ~ and 'Clyde' in good 1940's lingo to me is an extra part of why my heart grows. Here's my Tribute reveal: In ANGEL TOUGH, from Matt Hilton's 'ACTION: Pulse Pounding Tales', I created the ongoing character Doc Aloysious Jeremiah Nelson to honour our friend and authorly colleague. Angel said she'd just call him Doc because all those other AJ names were too much a mouthful to say quickly, but she'd know his essence for all of time itself. As I type this - "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing" is playing now. I know the Guardian Angel under the fedora... just made it so. Love you, man, with all that swing."

Read AJ Hayes' classic short story, DARK GENESIS here.

And please feel free to leave your own tributes in the comments.

DARK GENESIS by AJ Hayes

I was so pleased and excited to receive a tale by AJ Hayes at TK'n'C, being a great admirer of his noir and poetry. This story is a chilling and beautiful other side to his dark demeanour - and I hope you'll join me in bidding AJ welcome with...

DARK GENESIS

I am a thousand million years old and you know my name. You think there is more than one of me, but there, you're wrong. I am and have been and ever will be, alone. You have grown wiser these days with your science and data machines tracking some of my deeds. The ones I've let you know. You've found my places. The ones I used to use. Over the years you've inched closer and closer to me. And now, you're outside my final stand. Our final stand I should say, mine and hers. Backs to the granite walls we wait in the flickering light.

"Kiss me, love.” she says, her trellised scarlet hair loose and flaming down her back.

I do. Long and slow and sharp.

The amethyst stain of blood marks my claim between her breasts.

“Yes,” she says slow and death drowsy. “Yes.”

I lift my lips from her flesh that is my flesh.

“Remember the garden?” I ask and she nods and sleeps in my arms.

“Goodnight, Lilith,” I whisper and turn to face the great, brass-bound doors as they fall and your chain guns speak and a thousand thousand needles of cold iron shred us into a thousand thousand tiny pieces.

***

You were right about one thing you thought you knew about me. You were right in thinking it would take me a long time to reassemble my body from the tiny, bloody bits you made of it. It would have taken me eons to do that. You were perfectly correct to use the needle guns. It was brilliant.

The other thing you thought you knew though . . . was wrong.

***

I wake floating in the darkness of the primal deep. In my arms Lilith stirs and looks about us, her green eyes soft with sleep.

“Ah,” she murmurs. “Again.”

“Yes,” I answer.

“They were much more clever this time.”

“Yes.”

I gather her closer and let my nails lightly caress her. She shivers and her hair trails across my chest.

“But not clever enough,” she says.

“No.” I say and cup her tight curved belly. “They thought that fire would save them.”

Her lips track slow and soft on my chest and abdomen.

“Foolishness,” she whispers and moves further down.

“Yes,” I say.

***

You sought and scraped and collected every microscopic scrap of us, sealed us in a lead sarcophagus and placed us in your needle-pointed rocket. Then you fired us into the sun because you knew that the only thing that could destroy us was sunlight. You knew that we flamed into oblivion when the sun's rays struck us because we were, after all, the children of darkness. And, as everyone knew, light was the enemy of dark.

Pah! The sun has never hated us. The sun loves us. We burn in the sun because our very darkness incites the sunlight to greater glory. We are kerosine to its flame. Even sun rays weakened by ninety-three million miles of travel burn a hundred times hotter than the surface of Sol itself when we are engulfed by them.

Thus, when your rocket blew apart and the lead box around us melted and scattered our bits of flesh across the heart of the sun, that star heated instantly to a billion billion degrees hotter than it had ever burned. So hot, it slashed its exploding flames across the face of the cosmos in a microsecond and tore a hole in time. So hot that when the explosion became an implosion, it sucked the entire universe down into a shimmering bubble about the size of a beach ball.

And there was darkness on the face of the deep and the universe was void.

Except for us.

***

Lilith slides like lava up my body and poises above me, her mouth wide and our tongues dance a ballet. I hold her hips and slowly lower her. She gasps and her legs widen while she tightens around me.

“Father,” she says as her body thrusts slow and deep. “It's time.”

“I know, dear one,” I say, answering her movements with my own. “Only this time, I think I'll call you, Gaea.”

“Yes, that's a nice name. But quickly, please,” she moans. Her back arches and she thrusts harder. “The words, Father,” she moans, shuddering. “Now.”

I slash upward with my hips as sun fire runs through me and I stab my needled talons into the beach ball universe and it explodes into being.

“Let there be light,” I say.

And there is.

__________________________________

BIO: AJ Hayes lives in a small town near San Diego and he admires that particular patch of crazy a lot. Southern California is a never ending source of the weird and goofy and just plain scary and he finds comfort in that.

He's been published around the web and in a couple of anthologies. He finds great comfort in PT Barnum's saying about "Fooling all of the people some of the time."