It's Birmingham, England in 1986 and Billy Zero has just walked out the hospital after trying to kill himself at the age of twenty-three. Amid ceaseless drinking in seedy nightclubs, backstreet bars, drug-fuelled parties and long, amphetamine charged nights punctured by his sense of demented loneliness, Billy Zero is sifting through the pieces of his broken life, compulsively searching for love and cheap thrills in an effort to assuage his feelings of alienation. With its frenetic and chopped-up narrative, 'Black Cradle' backtracks the grotesque personal life of Billy and his freakshow of bored and bewildered friends - fusing together the grim omens of his rootless childhood and the brutal events leading up to his suicide attempt.

"No one loves anyone else just for who they are. In the end we simply choose to acquaint ourselves with people who make us feel better in some way, someone who fills a void within us. We are all trapped within the shell of ourselves. That's how it is, and I don't care if anyone else disagrees with me because that simply indicates that they are wrong and I am right. It's all about voids. Voids in the universe. Voids within ourselves." Mark Karzoso has spent his life distancing himself from humanity. Drugs, booze, cynicism and venom guide his world view. He's become unashamedly selfish, misogynistic and hostile. But can anyone's ego survive the wrong woman and a savage killing? u.v. ray's caustic novella "Spiral Out" explores the depths of humanity against a 1980s' British backdrop of crime, drugs and women. It will appeal to fans of Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, Hubert Selby Jr. and Eddie Little.

Over the last 20 years u.v. ray's fiction, poetry & articles have appeared in magazines and anthologies around the globe. u.v. ray's acerbic work refuses to fit the conventions of even outsider literature. The seventeen new short stories in 'We Are Glass' explore fuck-ups, sleaze, booze, sex and drugs...but all are also infused with u.v. ray's uniquely venomous philosophising. Richard Godwin ('Apostle Rising') introduces 'We Are Glass', recognising that "You are about to read a man of letters in the truest sense of the word. The things you thought were true may never have been so. Writing exists at the edge of the world as we know it...u.v. ray's voice is undeniable, and a gratifying antidote to the tastelessness that masquerades as Art."

The sixth issue of THE SAVAGE KICK features another line-up of ballsy and - at times - shocking tales from some of the leading writers in the crime and confessional genres. Headed by an exclusive excerpt from Dan Fante's 2013 release POINT DOOM, SK#6 features exclusive interviews with both Fante and Debbie Drechsler. At over 200 pages, SK#6 delivers a jolt to the gut, never shying away from dark themes in twelve punchy tales that'll stick in your memory.