Welcome To Jack Cameron’s Newsletter
No algorithm sent you here. So welcome. I’m Jack Cameron, a writer, editor, and true crime researcher based in Tacoma, Washington.
A Shot of Jack is where I pour the stronger stuff—crime fiction, historical crime, and occasionally something that just doesn’t fit anywhere else. It’s gritty, sharp, and often pulled from the decades of forgotten headlines I’ve been collecting for years.
If you’re into stories about crooked cops, grifters, gangsters, thugs, well-meaning morons or the kind of violence that echoes through a city’s bones, you’re in the right place. Some of what you’ll find here ties into my novel-in-progress series called Grit City Stories, a historical crime saga set in mid-20th century Tacoma. This thing started as my MFA thesis and has since evolved into something much, much bigger.
Alongside A Shot of Jack, I also write and publish TacomaStories.com—a civic journalism project where I document every homicide that occurs in Tacoma. Each Monday, I post a write-up that aims to treat every victim as a human being rather than a statistic. It’s heavy work, but necessary. If A Shot of Jack is the noir novel, TacomaStories.com is the police blotter turned vigil candle.
Over the years, my work has shown up in Creative Colloquy, Grit City Magazine, The Pitkin Review, The Weekly Volcano, and a handful of places that no longer exist but mattered at the time. I’ve worked as a writing tutor, domestic violence counselor, and technical writer. I also wrote safety manuals for five years. If it involves writing, I’ve probably done some form of it at some point.
I hold an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. I’ve led community writing workshops, helped new authors shape their first books, and spent far too many hours in microfilm archives reading stories most people forgot—because some of those stories are worth remembering.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you. Seriously. You showing up means something.
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Thanks again.
- Jack Cameron
