Tag Archive for: Best Short Story

Macavity, Shamus, and Silver Falchion Short Story (and Other) Award Nominations

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by Paula Gail Benson

The nominations for Macavity Awards, Shamus Awards, and Silver Falchion Awards have been announced for best short story or best short story collection or anthology.

The Macavity Award is named for the “mystery cat” of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats). Each year the members of Mystery Readers International nominate and vote for their favorite mysteries in five categories: Best Mystery Novel, Best First Mystery, Best Mystery Short Story, Best Non-Fiction/Critical, and the Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery. Here are the nominees for best short story:

Best Mystery Short Story:

  • Brendan DuBois: “The Landscaper’s Wife” (Mystery Tribune, Aug/Sep 2022)
  • Barb Goffman: “Beauty and the Beyotch” (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, Jan 2022)
  • Donna Moore: “First You Dream, Then You Die” (Black is the Night, Titan Books)
  • Anna Scotti: “Schrödinger, Cat” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mar/Apr 2022)
  • Catherine Steadman: “Stockholm” (Amazon Original Stories)
  • Jess Walter: “The Angel of Rome” (in The Angel of Rome and Other Stories, Harper)
  • Melissa Yi: “My Two-Legs” (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Sep/Oct 2022)

Previously, Brendan DuBois’ short stories have won three Shamus awards.

Barb Goffman’s “Beauty and the Beyotch” has been nominated for the Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity. It won the Agatha.

Donna Moore’s “First You Dream, Then You Die” was nominated for an Edgar.

Anna Scotti is a former journalist whose stories regularly appear in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. “Schrödinger, Cat” received a third place Ellery Queen Readers’ Choice Award.

Catherine Steadman’s “Stockholm” won the Thriller for best short story.

Jess Walter’s “The Angel of Rome” comes from his collection of stories by that title.

Melissa Yi is an emergency room doctor who writes a medical crime series as well as romance and YA.

The Private Eye Writers of America, an association of fans, writers, and publishing professionals, is devoted to elevating the private eye story from a sub-genre of mystery to a genre of its own. It categorizes private eyes as private citizens paid to investigate crimes. Private eyes may include investigators, company employees, and reporters. Each year the Private Eye Writers of America presents Shamus awards in four categories: Best PI Hardcover, Best Original PI Paperback, Best First PI Novel, and Best PI Short Story. Here are the nominees for best short story:

Best PI Short Story:

  • Lori Armstrong: “No Place for a Dame” (Edgar & Shamus Go Golden, Down and Out Books)
  • Libby Cudmore: “Charlie’s Medicine” (Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon, Down and Out Books)
  • O’Neil DeNoux: “A Jelly of Intrigue” (Edgar & Shamus Go Golden, Down and Out Books)
  • Carolina Garcia-Aguilera: “The Pearl of the Antilles” (Edgar & Shamus Go Golden, Down and Out Books)
  • Elliot Sweeney: “Bad Actor” (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Nov/Dec 2022)

Lori Armstrong has won two Shamus awards for her novels.

Libby Cudmore writes the Martin Wade PI series for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.

O’Neil DeNoux won the 2020 Shamus award for his short story “Sac-a-lait Man” in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’s Sep/Oct 2019 issue.

Born in Cuba and based in Miami, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera has been a private investigator for twenty-five years. She is known for her Lupe Solano mystery series.

Elliot Sweeney, born in London, had his debut novel The Next to Die published in February 2023.

The Silver Falchion Awards are presented annually at Killer Nashville, which takes place August 17 through 20. (Note: there is still time to register to attend the conference. Also, online voting for the Readers Choice Awards continues until midnight Tuesday, July 25.)

Here are the nominees for best short story collection or anthology:

Best Short Story Collection or Anthology:

  • Chris Chan: Of Course He Pushed Him & Other Sherlock Holmes Stories: the Complete Collection (MX Publishing; 1st edition; September 2, 2022)
  • Marianne Donley, ed.: An Element of Mystery: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Tales of Intrigue (Bethlehem Writers Group; September 27, 2022)
  • Marissa Doyle: Countess of Shadows: The Ladies of Almack’s Omnibus No. 1 (978-1-63632-094-6; November 1, 2022)
  • Catherine Jordan, ed.: That Darkened Doorstep (Hellbender Books; September 21, 2022)
  • Lindy Ryan: Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga (Black Spot Books; November 8, 2022)
  • J.B. Stevens: A Therapeutic Death: Violent Short Stories (Shotgun Honey Books; February 16, 2022)
  • J.D. Webb: Incredible Witness (Wings ePress, Inc.; June 27, 2022)

I’m very proud to be a member of the Bethlehem Writers Group and to have a story in An Element of Mystery. Debra H. Goldstein has a story in it also. Two of our other members, Dianna Sinovic and Diane Sismour, have stories in An Element of Mystery as well as in That Darkened Doorstep.

While I’m mentioning Silver Falchion nominees, let me brag on several of my Stiletto Gang blogging partners whose books placed in other categories: Debra H. Goldstein’s Five Belles Too Many was nominated for Best Cozy and Saralyn Richard’s Crystal Blue Murder and Joyce Woollcott’s A Nice Place to Die were nominated for Best Investigator.

Many great stories, collections, anthologies, and novels for your reading pleasure. Please enjoy!

Celebrating the Agatha Nominees for Best First Novel and Best Short Story, Part One

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by Paula Gail Benson

Each year, it’s a special joy for me to conduct mini-interviews with the Agatha nominees for best first novel and best short story. I love these categories because they introduce you to new writers (and the fascinating worlds they are creating) and they showcase gifted practitioners whose short works are amazing in their clarity and complexity.

This year, I’m doing back-to-back blog posts, today in The Stiletto Gang and tomorrow in Writers Who Kill. As always, the answers are revealing and intriguing.

For today, I asked each group an individualized question, then followed up with one I’ve come to traditionally use about footwear (after all, The Stiletto Gang is all about highlighting shoes as well as writing).

Please join us today and tomorrow to hear from these talented authors.

Best First Novel
The Finalist, Joan Long (Level Best Books)

Cheddar Off Dead, Korina Moss (St. Martin’s)

Death in the Aegean, M. A. Monnin (Level Best Books)

The Bangalore Detectives Club, Harini Nagendra (Constable)

Devil’s Chew Toy, Rob Osler (Crooked Lane Books)

The Gallery of Beauties, Nina Wachsman (Level Best Books)

 

What made you decide to become a writer?

Joan Long

Joan Long:

I became a writer because I love stories. After reading every Nancy Drew book I could get my hands on, I tried to write a mystery myself—at age ten. Needless to say, I wasn’t quite ready to write a novel! But I never gave up on my love of reading and writing.

Korina Moss:

For me, writing was a natural extension of my love of reading. It was always a part of my life, but in June of 2016, two major life events caused me to make it a priority. I switched my perspective from thinking of writing as a lifelong dream to pursuing it as a career goal. Within four years, I had acquired an agent and my first publishing contract for the Cheese Shop Mystery series.

M.A. Monnin

 

M.A. Monnin:

I’ve known I wanted to be a writer since I was in 5th grade, when I realized how wonderful it was to immerse myself in a really good book.

 

Harini Nagendra:

I started writing when I was very young–I loved reading and thought it would be fun to write stories of my own. I wrote little ‘books’, tearing out pages from my notebook and stitching them together with thread, co-opting my father as a reader. Later in life, as an ecologist, I wrote quite a bit of non-fiction. I didn’t plan on writing a full-length fiction novel though. Not until I was reading a mass of archival documents on old Bangalore in 2007, and the main heroine of The Bangalore Detectives Club, spunky 19-year-old amateur detective Kaveri Murthy, parachuted into my mind one day, demanding I write a book about her. Kaveri made a compelling case–and got me started on a murder mystery set in 1920s colonial India. It took a while–4 years and a number of false starts and complete rewrites to get to publication in 2022. Now that I’ve started, though, I can see there’s no turning back.

Rob Osler

Rob Osler:

Becoming a writer was in many ways a way to create the type of book I want to read. I love mysteries written in the Agatha Christie whodunnit tradition. I read them as a child and enjoyed the game of guessing the villain’s identity. So I chose the traditional mystery genre. As for featuring gay and lesbian characters, I am gay and believe that many LGBTQ+ readers desire more stories that feature characters like themselves, who are not victims, villains, or cliche’d sidekicks.

Nina Wachsman:

I’ve always wanted to write, since my mother was a writer, and always encouraged me. In high school I had the chance to either go into writing or art, and chose art, and went to Parsons School of Design, where I hoped to major in book illustration, combining both loves.  I always kept a subscription to The Writer Magazine to indulge my someday goal of being a writer, and finally went to my first conference, Killer Nashville, with a start of a manuscript. After getting great feedback on my manuscript, and joining Sisters in Crime, attending a few other conferences and learning from other writers, I finished the manuscript which became my debut novel, the Agatha nominee for Best First Novel, The Gallery of Beauties.

 

Best Short Story
“Beauty and the Beyotch,” Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, Feb. 2022)
“There Comes a Time,” Cynthia Kuhn, Malice Domestic Murder Most Diabolical (Wildside Press)
“Fly Me to the Morgue,” Lisa Q Mathews, Malice Domestic Mystery Most Diabolical (Wildside Press)
“The Minnesota Twins Meet Bigfoot,” Richie Narvaez, Land of 10,000 Thrills, Bouchercon Anthology (Down & Out Books)
“The Invisible Band,” Art Taylor, Edgar & Shamus Go Golden (Down & Out Books)

 

How much of your real life do you incorporate into your short stories?

Barb Goffman

Barb Goffman:

Many of my stories draw from my life. My most recent story, “The Joys of Owning a Dog” in issue 13 of Black Cat Mystery Magazine, involves a dog that often escapes from his yard. Anyone who knows me will recognize my current dog, Jingle. The dog in the story also wore a pink pig costume, as did my prior dog, Scout. I have a story coming out later this year (probably) in Black Cat Mystery Magazine called “Real Courage” in which I conflated two incidents from my teenage years and then pumped them up to fit the plot. My story currently up for the Agatha, “Beauty and the Beyotch,” was based on an incident from my life too. That incident is part of just one scene in the story, and everything around it is fiction, but it’s a key scene. I find it useful to mine my past for events that can spark stories. I try to create stories that will affect the reader emotionally, and real-life events that stick in my memory usually serve that purpose well.

Cynthia Kuhn:

I don’t think there are details from my real life intentionally going in the short stories, but responses to certain topics or incidents can serve as a catalyst for the writing of a new story.

Lisa Q. Mathews

Lisa Q. Mathews:

Truth is a lot stranger—and far more entertaining—than fiction. I don’t draw from my own boring life, though, as much as I “borrow” and recast snippets from other people’s lives. Even the seemingly outrageous setup for “Fly Me to the Morgue” is based on a real-life story. My (heavily disguised) secondary characters in particular are often inspired by people I’ve known, or at least observed from a safe distance. It’s fun to see how they interact—especially after I throw in a murder. My first boss in publishing claimed that, if you added all the characters in a story together, they’d equal . . . the author. Scary, but also probably true.

Richie Narvaez:

Lots! Whether or not I want them to, my opinions, my likes and dislikes—those things find their way into my stories. Now I usually write about my home town, New York, but “The Minnesota Twins Meet Bigfoot” got me out of my real life and got me to explore the North Star state. But I did write that one in part because I’ve been to many sci-fi conventions, and I wanted to bring some of my experiences, good and bad, into a story.

Art Taylor

Art Taylor:

It’s interesting the ways that real-life sneaks into stories. Specific parts of “The Invisible Band” have some very specific foundations in my own life, related to our son Dash. I started thinking about a hotel as a setting because of the LEGO hotels Dash has built, both from his own imagination and then part of a new set, the Boutique Hotel. When he put that together, we actually added our Sherlock Holmes mini-figure to the outside deck! And as for the Sherlock Holmes in the story—the “free-range child” whose parents dressed him up with “deerstalker hat, Inverness cape, even a stylish pipe” (the latter blowing soap bubbles) . . .  Well, we dressed Dash up as Sherlock for one of his first Halloween costumes, and whenever we go to a hotel, he likes to hitch a ride on the baggage cart, which the young boy here also does. So in those ways, I’m inspired by things happening in my own life, but there are other, more subtle ways as well in which all of us probably draw on a gesture we’ve seen or a concern we’ve had, those kinds of things, to enhance the depiction of character or ways in which a situation in the real world sparks a “What if?” in our minds, and the stories unfold from there.

 

 

 

 

If you could invite one of the characters in your short story to the Agatha Banquet, what shoes would they wear?

Barb Goffman:

I wouldn’t want to invite Elaine to the banquet, but she’d guilt me into it, thinking it’s her due. She’d wear the most expensive, stylish shoes she could find. Her daddy would pay for them, and she’d want—and expect—all the girls to be jealous of them.

Cynthia Kuhn

Cynthia Kuhn:

Kate, the protagonist of “There Comes a Time,” would wear black ballet flats. Simple and elegant. Plus, she’s ready to dance at a moment’s notice, which is a good thing.

Lisa Q. Mathews:

Joey Romano, Sinatra impersonator extraordinaire, is between gigs at the moment, so he immediately volunteered to be my plus-one. He’s already begun his preparations, which include intensive vocal exercises (in case he’s invited to sing) and . . . repairing his tux shoes. His usual guy on Court Street told him they were beyond repair, but Uncle Joey was undaunted. He Sharpie-d the scuff marks, applied Gorilla Glue to the soles and a little spit polish to the faux patent leather, then buffed them up with Vaseline. Bada bing.

Richie Narvaez

Richie Narvaez:

Since they got me here today, I’d invite both Cece and Casper Reyes, the twin private eyes of “The Minnesota Twins Meet Bigfoot,” and I know Casper would want to wear brown wing-tips, but Cece would convince him to wear Converse sneakers to match hers.

Art Taylor:

Ha! I’m gonna cheat here and build off my last answer a bit—not a character but the partial inspiration for one: Our son Dash is actually coming to his first Agatha Awards Banquet this year! He won’t be wearing a Sherlock Holmes outfit, I should stress, but he does take pride in his shoes, a nice pair of gray dress shoes that look awfully sharp with his suit. Stay tuned!

 

 

Joan Long:

I would invite my character Jackson Butterfield to the Agatha banquet. Jackson is a jovial, middle-aged Texan. He enjoys flowered shirts, smokes cigars, and wears his graying hair in a short ponytail. He also loves to laugh and would likely show up at the banquet wearing beachy sandals with black socks.

 

Korina Moss

Korina Moss:

I’d have to invite my main character, Willa. She’s a cheesemonger and is on her feet all day, so even for fancier occasions, she sticks to being comfortable. She would definitely wear her nicest pair of white triple platform Keds.

 

M.A. Monnin:

I’ll invite Thomas Burkhardt from Death in the Aegean. He’ll be looking sharp in a black suit with no tie, wearing black oxford cap toe shoes with rubber soles, which will be silent if he goes exploring where he isn’t supposed to be.

Harini Nagendra

 

Harini Nagendra:

Kaveri would wear Indian sandals–called juttis or mojaris. They are slip-on flat heeled slippers with a curled leather tip, lined with blue velvet, embroidered with her signature logo–a magnifying glass. The shoes perfectly complement the rest of her outfit – her peacock blue Kanjeevaram silk sari, and the custom-made jewelry set that her husband Ramu gave her when she concluded her first case – a gold chain with a magnifying glass pendant, and matching earrings.

Nina Wachsman

 

Rob Osler:

Burley, the gentle giant. She wears Orange Crocs. Size 13.

Nina Wachsman:

One of my main characters, Belladonna, is an elite courtesan in seventeenth century Venice, and as a sign of her status and power, she would wear the highest platform shoes, the tops made of satin and silk from the Far East.

 

BIOS:

 

Barb Goffman has been a finalist for major short-story crime awards 38 times and has won the Agatha, Macavity, Silver Falchion, and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Readers Award. She’s an editor of Black Cat Weekly and a freelance editor, often working on cozy and traditional mysteries. In addition to her current Agatha nomination, she’s a current finalist for the Thriller Award for her short story “The Gift” from the Bouchercon anthology Land of 10,000 Thrills. Look for her story “Real Courage” in Black Cat Mystery Magazine later this year. www.barbgoffman.com.

 

Cynthia Kuhn writes the Lila Maclean Academic Mysteries and Starlit Bookshop Mysteries. Her work has also appeared in Mystery Most Diabolical, Mystery Most Edible, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Copper Nickel, Prick of the Spindle, Mama PhD, and other publications. She lives in Colorado with her family, where she is professor of English at Metropolitan State University of Denver. cynthiakuhn.net.

 

Joan Long:

Joan Long is a third-generation Floridian who writes mysteries and suspense. Her debut novel, The Finalist, is an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Mystery. Joan earned a bachelor’s degree in English/Creative Writing from Florida State University and a master’s degree in Journalism and Communications from the University of Florida. Her short story “The Extra Ingredient” is in the Anthony Award-winning anthology Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible. https://joanlongbooks.com

 

Lisa Q. Mathews

Lisa Q. Mathews used to make Nancy Drew’s life miserable. Then she set her beady sights on Lizzie McGuire and Mary-Kate and Ashley—all part of early jobs as a kids’ book editor and writer-for-hire. Now Lisa is the author of an odd-couple sleuth series for adults, The Ladies Smythe & Westin, and runs an independent editing service. A co-founding member of the Chicks on the Case blog, Lisa lives in New England. https://www.lisaqmathews.com/

 

M.A. Monnin’s debut mystery Death in the Aegean has been nominated for an Agatha Best First Novel Award. Her second in the Intrepid Traveler series, Death on the Grand Canal, launches May 18th. Mary also writes short crime fiction, with her latest short story in the SinC Guppy anthology Hook, Line & Sinker. Find her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. www.mamonnin.com.

 

Korina Moss is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series (St. Martin’s Press) set in the Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award nominated first book, Cheddar Off Dead. Her books have been featured in PARADE Magazine, Women’s World, AARP, and Fresh Fiction. Her latest book, Curds of Prey, released on 3/28. https://korinamossauthor.com.

 

Harini Nagendra is a professor of ecology at Azim Premji University and a well-known public speaker and writer on issues of nature and sustainability. The Bangalore Detectives Club is her first crime fiction novel. The sequel, Murder Under a Red Moon, will be published in 2023. https://harininagendra.com/

 

Richie Narvaez is the award-winning author of Roachkiller and Other Stories, Hipster Death Rattle, Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco, and Noiryorican. https://www.richienarvaez.com/

 

Rob Osler’s debut novel Devil’s Chew Toy was a Lefty Nominee for Best Debut Mystery and Agatha Award Nominee for Best First Novel and named a 2022 Year’s Best by Crime Reads, BOLO Books, PopSugar, and Book Riot. His first publication, “Analogue,” (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine), won the 2022 Mystery Writers of America Robert L Fish Award for best short story by a debut author. Forthcoming projects include “Miss Direction” (EQMM), Cirque du Slay (sequel to Devil’s Chew Toy), and a new historical series featuring an LGBTQ+ detective. Rob’s a member of MWA and Sisters in Crime. On good days, he writes, plays tennis, and eats pie in California, where he lives with his partner and Andy Action Cat. https://robosler.com

 

Art Taylor is the author of two collections—The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions and The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 and Other Tales of Suspense—and On the Road with Del & Louise: A Novel in Stories, winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. His short fiction has won three additional Agatha Awards as well as the Edgar, Anthony, Derringer, and Macavity Awards. He is an associate professor of English at George Mason University. www.arttaylorwriter.com.

 

Nina Wachsman majored in book illustration at the Parsons School of Design and studied under Maurice Sendak. She is currently the CEO of a digital marketing agency in New York City. She attends the Venice Art Biennale every two years and is a descendant of a chief rabbi of the Ghetto, a contemporary of her characters. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the Historical Novel Society, and has published stories in mystery and horror magazines and anthologies. The Gallery of Beauties is her debut novel, and its sequel, part of the Venice Beauties series. The Courtesan’s Secret will be released in Summer, 2023 by Level Best Books. https://ninawachsman.com

Interview with Agatha Nominees for Best Short Story!

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Each year, I feel very privileged to be able to host interviews with the Agatha nominees for best short story in The Stiletto Gang and Writers Who Kill. I always learn from their answers and appreciate so much what goes into the craft.

Following is a list of the nominated stories with links on the titles so you can read and enjoy. Thanks to Gretchen, Barb, Debra, Gigi, and Art for taking the time to answer the questions. And check in at Writers Who Kill tomorrow to hear more from these talented authors. Best wishes to all. — PGB

“Double Deck the
Halls” by Gretchen Archer (Henery Press)
“Whose Wine is it Anyway” by Barb Goffman in 50 Shades of
Cabernet (Koehler Books)
“The Night They Burned Miss Dixie’s Place” by Debra
Goldstein in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (May/June 2017)
“The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn” by Gigi Pandian
(Henery Press)
“A Necessary Ingredient” by Art Taylor in Coast to
Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Seat (Down & Out Books)

How do you know an idea is “short story worthy”?

Gretchen Archer: If the elements
are there—story arc, strong characters, interesting setting, and a puzzle to
solve—I find the idea worthy. There are many colorful characters in the Davis
Way series, so I had a surfeit of choices for a protagonist in Double Deck the
Halls. From my character list, I chose Granny. The setting is always the
same—the Bellissimo Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. And the puzzle?
What could be more fun than an octogenarian MacGyver?


Barb Goffman: When considering if an idea is better suited to be
developed into a short story or a novel, I think the key is how complicated the
plot is and how early you want to bring your main character in on the action.
If your story involves multiple murders, for instance, and you want to show
that your protagonist is on the case from the beginning, then you’re likely
describing a novel. That idea seems too complicated to develop properly in a
short story. But if you have the same scenario and your protagonist comes in at
the last murder and quickly figures out whodunit, then that could be a short
story. Which way to go? I think that’s a style decision for the author. 


This is why
I tell people that a short story is about one thing. One specific tight tale.
The more complicated the idea, the more detail you need to show, the more pages
your tale will take. The plot of my story “Whose Wine Is It Anyway?”
has two inciting incidents– twice within a few days my main character, a legal
secretary, feels slighted by her long-time boss–and the resolution comes
quickly thereafter, so it was well suited for a short story. (For those who
haven’t read the story, in Myra’s last week before retirement, she learns her
boss has hired an airhead to replace her and he does something that makes her
realize he’s been taking her for granted. So Myra devises a plan to teach him a
lesson.)

Debra Goldstein: I don’t initially
know if an idea is “short story worthy.” When a story works, it flows and ends
exactly where it should. The idea of the story may come from a prompt, a phrase
stuck in my mind, or a character’s voice. In “The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s
Place,” the opening sentence “I remember
the night they burned Ms. Dixie’s Place” was the first thing I thought of, but
then I realized that most of the story had to be told on that night, when the
main character was only nine years old. Once I recognized the voice would be a
child’s, the importance of the premise became evident. I write both novels and
short stories, but there was no question that this idea and the portrayed characters
and incident would only work as a tightly written short story.



Gigi Pandian: I love short
stories that have a satisfying twist. In my own short fiction, the twists that
I like to play with are seemingly impossible crimes that have a rational
explanation.


My full-length novels are adventures in addition
to being mysteries, so while my books do have twists in them, the twists and
the puzzle aren’t necessarily as important to keep the story going as the
characters themselves and the adventures they’re having.


Therefore when I come up with an idea for a
story involving an impossible crime twist, instead of an idea that centers
around a specific character or a larger plot, then I know it’s a short story
rather than a novel.

Art Taylor: I’m primarily a
short story writer, so most of my ideas seem suited to that length—it just
seems to be the form I’m most naturally drawn toward, the one I’m most
comfortable in. Ideas come from a variety of places, of course: a bit of
overheard conversation, a dream, a trip (the travel kind, not the
hallucinogenic kind!), even other short stories or novels that prompt the
imagination along. While I tend to think in narrative arcs at short story
length, I also try to fold in other threads as well to help enrich the story’s
texture and its breadth—by which I mean balancing several characters’ narrative
arc and the ways they intertwine, for example, or by layering in some thematic
arc alongside the arc of the plot, letting several things speak one to another.
I may not be able to write long very often, but I try to write dense at
least—dense in a good way, I hope!


Tell us about the publisher of your nominated
short story and how the story came to be published.

Gretchen Archer:
“Double
Deck the Halls: is a short-story companion to my Davis Way Crime Caper mystery
series published by Henery Press. I knew where Deck would land before I wrote
it.

Barb Goffman: “Whose Wine Is It Anyway?” appeared in the
anthology 50 Shades of Cabernet,
which was published by Koehler Books. This book is the brainchild of author
Teresa Inge. She came up with the idea of a lighthearted anthology involving
mystery and wine. She wanted to help promote the Virginia wine industry. So she
reached out to a bunch of Virginia authors and asked if we’d be interested in
submitting stories for the book. After doing a lot of interesting research I
came up with a workable story idea, wrote my story, and submitted it. Teresa
shopped the manuscript around and Koehler ended up picking it up. They’re based
in Virginia Beach, near where Teresa lives, so it all worked out very nicely.
Koehler gave us multiple rounds of edits and proofreading. And royalties.
What’s fun about them is for each book they publish, they put two potential
covers on their website and the general public can vote on which one they like
better. The cover with the most votes becomes the cover of the book.



Debra Goldstein: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine not only published my first submission to it, “The
Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place,”
in its May/June 2017 issue, but featured it on its cover. Neither of these
exciting events almost happened. Even though several of my short stories had
been accepted by other publications, I lacked the confidence to send my work to
AHMM or Ellery Queen. Several friends, including Art, Barb, Bob Mangeot and
Terrie Moran encouraged me to submit my work to these Dell magazines, but the
one who made me believe in myself was B.K. (Bonnie) Stevens.


When I read her story, “Thea’s First Husband,” I was so blown away
by it that I wrote her a fan email asking if she taught online classes. She
didn’t, but she sent me suggested readings and we subsequently became friends. She
encouraged me to reach beyond my fears. Last year, every Malice Domestic recipient
received the AHMM which contained “The
Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place” in
their book bags. A few weeks after Malice, I received a package and note from
Bonnie. She wrote she believed it was an award-winning story and knew, because
it was my first Alfred Hitchcock submission and acceptance, I would want extra
copies of the issue. I wish she had lived to see that her encouragement, as
well as that of so many friends, made this wonderful ride happen.

Gigi Pandian: Henery Press
publishes my Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mysteries. The most recent book The Ninja’s Illusion, is set in Japan,
and I had an idea for a locked-room mystery twist that needed to have the
characters stranded in a remote place. I was having such fun with the
characters in The Ninja’s Illusion that
I wondered if Jaya and her friend Tamarind could get waylaid on their way home
from Japan. I came up with the idea to have them get stranded due to bad
weather, so “The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn” is set at the remote inn
where they’re forced to seek shelter from a storm.



I had a lot of fun writing a
story-within-a-story, because in “The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn” there’s
a ghost story about an avenging ghost that killed an unscrupulous man who was
reading an Agatha Christie novel at the hotel nearly a century ago—and now the
“ghost” is striking again while the guests are trapped. Can Jaya figure out
what’s really going on? The team at Henery Press loved the story idea, and they
published it as a short story single the month after the novel came out last
fall.


Art Taylor: “A Necessary
Ingredient” was published in Coast to
Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea. Paul D. Marks—a good friend,
fellow blogger at SleuthSayers, and co-editor of the first volume of the Coast to Coast—reached out to say he was
doing this second volume with the same publisher, Down & Out Books, in this
case focused on private eyes, and would I like to contribute something? I don’t
generally write private eye stories, but the geographical slant on the
anthology attracted me—the opportunity to explore the intersection of that
subgenre of crime fiction and my home state of North Carolina, which was the
region I was assigned. That’s also one of the things I enjoyed about writing
the story, trying to navigate the shadow of one tradition (hardboiled PI
stories) against another (traditional, regional mystery fiction, specifically
here with nods toward one of my own mentors, Margaret Maron, another North
Carolina native). An additional inspiration was the tonka bean itself, the
“necessary ingredient” of the title, which I’d first heard about from another
NC-based writer, Wilton Barnhardt—but to reveal more about that story would give away too much about the story I wrote.
 
If you could bring your protagonist as a guest
to the Agatha banquet, what shoes would he or she be wearing?
 
Gretchen Archer: Easy Spirit Happy
Feet Walkabouts. With Velcro. She’d pair them with a gold velour track suit.


Barb Goffman: Myra would choose
something stylish and practical. I’m not quite sure what that would be, but it
surely would be nicer than what I’ll be wearing. I go for comfort, so I’ll be
in the equivalent of stylish slippers.


Debra Goldstein: My protagonist
would be wearing these scuffed basketball shoes:



Gigi Pandian: “The Library
Ghost of Tanglewood Inn” has two main characters, historian Jaya Jones and her
librarian friend Tamarind Ortega. Jaya is only five feet tall in socks, so she
loves her heels. She’d dress in black slacks, a sleeveless black blouse, and
three-inch shiny black stilettos. Tamarind is tall and big-boned, with short
hair she dyes different colors (it’s blue right now). She thinks of herself as
post-punk and loves her purple combat boots, so for the Agatha banquet she’d wear
those boots with a homemade dress that looks like Molly Ringwald’s dress from Pretty in Pink.



Art Taylor: Ambrose Thornton comes from
a fairly proper Southern family, so I’m sure he could spiffy up if he needed
to: a sharply polished pair of wingtips maybe? But honestly, he strikes me as
someone who would rather be back home reading than out socializing most nights. 


Meet the Authors of the 2015 Agatha Best Short Story Nominees!

/in /by



Each year at Malice Domestic,
writing excellence is recognized by the Agatha awards. This year’s nominees for
Best Short Story are:
“A Joy Forever” (PDF)
by B.K. Stevens (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, March 2015)
“Suffer the
Poor” (PDF) by Harriette Sackler, History & Mystery, Oh My (Mystery
& Horror, LLC)
“A Killing at the
Beausoleil” (PDF) by Terrie Farley Moran (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine,
Nov. 2015)
“A Questionable Death” (PDF) by Edith Maxwell, History
& Mystery, Oh My (Mystery & Horror, LLC)
“A Year Without Santa
Claus?” (PDF) by Barb Goffman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine,
Jan./Feb. 2015)



Please enjoy the opportunity to read
these stories, if you haven’t already. We are so fortunate to have with us
today B.K. Stevens, Harriette Sackler, Terrie Farley Moran, Edith Maxwell,
and Barb Goffman.
All are not only fabulous writers, but also delightful people. Thanks, Bonnie,
Harriette, Terrie, Edith, and Barb for stopping by to share your work and
thoughts with us!—Paula Gail Benson
What are your writing habits?
B.K. Stevens
B.K. STEVENS:         Usually,
I spend a lot of time planning, especially if I’m working on a whodunit and
have to make sure all the evidence will come together. I may or may not make some
sort of outline, but I almost always take a lot of notes on the
computer—exploring various plot possibilities, planning clues, writing profiles
of characters and describing their backstories, and so on. Usually, my notes
are much longer than the final story; for the last story I submitted to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine,
they’re over three times as long. I like to have a clear idea of where I’m
headed before I begin to write, even though I usually end up making lots of
changes during drafting and revising. I draft fairly quickly and try (often not
successfully) to resist the temptation to revise while I’m drafting. Once the
first draft is done, I put it aside for at least a week and then spend a long
time revising and editing. For me, revising always involves a lot of cutting—my
first drafts are always much too long. I try to have at least two projects in
progress at all times. That way, if I get stuck on one, I can put it aside for
a while and focus on the other.
HARRIETTE SACKLER:      Since
I’m involved in many different projects, I write when I can. Once I have a
kernel of a story idea in my mind, I put it down on paper. I do seem
to accomplish more when I’m under deadline. I’m a great procrastinator.
Terrie Farley Moran
TERRIE FARLEY MORAN: I write
seven days a week. I get up every morning leave the house and do some kind of
exercise (walking, visit the gym, water aerobics or bike ride) then I come home
and sit at the keyboard. I write until I break to eat lunch and watch a few
minutes of news. Then I go back to the keyboard until about six o’clock when I go
out for a walk or a bike ride. If I am falling behind on a deadline I write
after dinner until bedtime. Under the heading “writing” I include all writing
related chores: editing, research, website, blog posts, etc. And, of course, I
still try to have an actual life!
EDITH MAXWELL:  I am a full-time
fiction writer now and I treat it like a job. I’m always up by six AM and am
working by seven. Whether I’m working on the first draft of a book, a short
story, or revision, I do my creative work before noon. Then I head out for my
brisk long walk—often plotting the next day’s
scene as I go – and reserve the afternoon for admin jobs like writing blog
posts, arranging author events, and other items of author business. So far it’s
working—I have three multi-book contracts, so
I have to write three books a year, plus one or more short stories.
Barb Goffman
BARB
GOFFMAN:    When I come up with a story
idea—be it organically, or more often, in response to a story call—and don’t
have the time to write the story immediately (that’s ninety-nine percent of the
time), I’ll write some notes about the idea: the beginning, the end, maybe a
bit of dialogue or the voice I hear in my head. Then those notes will sit,
sometimes for a long time, until I find the time to write that story. I prefer
to write in large chunks rather than a few minutes a day, so I can go a long
time between writing stretches when my day job keeps me busy.
Once I
start writing, I’ll write a few paragraphs, then read them out loud, revising
them before I go forward. Any time I take a break or get stuck, I’ll re-read
the last few paragraphs out loud, trying to get a feel for what comes next
(and, of course, revising as I go). While I’m writing a story, I may also sleep
on it, take a short drive, or a hot shower, trying to think on it—consider if I
have plot holes, how I could spice up the dialogue, create a plot twist, and
more. Once I finish, I try to let the finished story sit for a few days (or
longer if I have the time) before I read it again and try to spot and fix any
problems. And then I send the story out to a trusted friend or two for feedback
before I revise once more and then send the story out for submission. (Though I
must admit I’m often so eager to see what my friends think that I may send a
story to them before I’ve cleaned it up perfectly. Letting the story sit for a
few days is hard, even though I know that’s the best way to proceed. I keep
trying to reign myself in. It’s a work in progress.)
How long does it take to plan and complete
a short story?
B.K.
STEVENS:         Generally, it takes a
long, long time. Once in a while, I’ll get an idea, do only a little planning,
and sit down and write the story straight through. That doesn’t happen often,
though—maybe four or five times in the last thirty years, usually for flash
fiction stories, and even then I’ll spend days cutting and revising. Most of
the time, depending on the length and complexity of the story, the whole
process takes several weeks or several months. (But remember, I work on more
than one project at a time.) If I’m not satisfied with a story, I may put it
aside for months or even years until I think of a way to fix it. Right now,
I’ve got a half-written story that’s been sitting in a folder for at least
three years, waiting until I come up with a better murder method.
Harriette Sackler
HARRIETTE
SACKLER:      I’m not one to churn out
stories in a short time. It takes me a while from conception to finished story.
But that feels fine to me.
TERRIE FARLEY
MORAN: I am a very slow writer and writing
is a very contrarian occupation. If I think a story is going to take a long
time to write, it usually gets itself down on paper without a problem. If I
expect the story to be a quick slam dunk, it generally turns out to be
torturous to write. Basically when I see a call for submissions that interests
me, or when I get an idea for a potential story, I tend to think about it for a
good long while. Once I think of a direction the story could take, I begin to
research anything that could possibly relate. I do far more research than
necessary because…I love research. Then I think some more. While all this
thinking and research is going on I am generally working on another project or
two. Eventually I write the story. I don’t outline, I just plunge into it. Of
course if there is a deadline that sets the time frame.
Edith Maxwell
EDITH
MAXWELL:  That really varies. Once the
story emerges in my head, sometimes I can talk it through on my hour walk (see
previous question, and yes, I’m the crazy author lady who talks out loud to
herself on the rail trail). Then I take a day or two to write the first draft.
But the finishing, editing down, and making sure it works can take a lot
longer. And with historical stories set in a real location, there’s always more
research to be done, too.
BARB
GOFFMAN:    It varies. If I get a detailed
idea, I might finish the first draft in a few days. (That’s how I prefer to
proceed. I like to know the beginning, a few high points, and the end before I
start writing. It makes the process easier.) But sometimes I’ll hear a voice in
my head—a story’s beginning—and I’ll start writing. I might write a couple of
paragraphs or a page or two, and then I’ll get stuck, really stuck, because I
have no plot to go with the voice. Those stories can become big problems
because I’ve found my writing flows best when I come up with conflict first and
let character react to it, and the plot unfolds from there. When characters
show up first without the conflict—those are my problem children.
That’s
what happened with my nominated story “A Year Without Santa Claus?” I saw a
call for whodunit stories set in New Jersey. I woke up soon thereafter with the
main character’s voice in my head. I wrote the first page, and that was all I
wrote on that story—for years. Whodunits are hard to write (at least for me). I
needed a mystery and suspects and all that good stuff. I needed a plot in which
my character could solve the crime when the police couldn’t. And I had none of
that. Perhaps three years later, one morning out
of the blue, I had an idea in the shower—a plot that worked. I hurried to my
computer (thank goodness I had the time to write that day and week) and banged
out a solid draft within a few days. So sometimes it takes a few days to come
up with an idea and write a story. Sometimes the planning can take a few years
and then the writing a few days. It’s nice when it all comes together fast.
What shoes would you, your protagonist, or another character from
your story wear to the Agathas banquet?
B.K. STEVENS:         I’ll wear boring,
sensible shoes, because I always wear boring, sensible shoes. Gwen seems like
the type to wear boring, sensible shoes, too. Considering the way the story
ends, though, this time she might just wear stilettos.
HARRIETTE SACKLER:      I’m at the age when comfort is my most
important priority. Gone are the days of high heels and pointed toes.
I’ll be at the banquet in a pair of
strappy and low-heeled shoes.
TERRIE FARLEY MORAN: I intend to wear this pair of MUNRO AMERICAN bright
red shoes. I think Sassy and Bridgy would wear similar bright red shoes but with
fewer straps and a higher heel.
EDITH MAXWELL:  I’m SO not a shoe person. And my Quaker
midwife Rose Carroll from “A Questionable Death” would wear something very
modest, as well. But her unconventional friend and co-conspirator, postmistress
Bertie Winslow? She loves fancy hats and colorful clothes. She’ll wear these
satin embroidered evening slippers to the banquet.
BARB GOFFMAN:    Kyle Coyote, my main character’s security chief, would wear
rocket skates from the Acme Company because when something goes wrong, he needs
to reach his destination fast. Plus, he loves Acme’s innovative products (how
many companies are selling rideable rockets?), despite his boss’s concerns
about defects.
I’ll be wearing open-heeled black
shoes with a tiny heel because I believe in comfort.

Meet the Authors of the 2014 Agatha Best Short Story Nominees!

/in /by


Each
year at Malice Domestic, writing excellence is recognized by the Agatha awards.
This year’s nominees for Best Short Story are:
“The Blessing
Witch” (PDF)
by Kathy Lynn Emerson, Best New England Crime Stories 2015: Rogue Wave
(Level Best Books)
“Just
Desserts for Johnny” (PDF) by Edith Maxwell (Kings River Life Magazine)
“The
Shadow Knows” by Barb Goffman, Chesapeake Crimes Homicidal Holidays
(Wildside Press)
“The
Odds are Against Us” (PDF) by Art Taylor, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Nov.
2014
“Premonition” by Art Taylor,
Chesapeake Crimes Homicidal Holidays (Wildside Press)
Please
enjoy the opportunity to read these stories, if you haven’t already. We are so
fortunate to have with us today Kathy Lynn Emerson, Edith Maxwell, Barb Goffman, and Art Taylor. All are not
only fabulous writers, but also delightful people. Thanks, Kathy, Edith, Barb,
and Art, for stopping by to share your work and thoughts with us!
How do you compare short story writing with
novel writing?
KATHY:
Writing short stories is much
harder. In quite a few cases, it took me longer to finish a short story than it
did to write an entire 80,000 word novel. With at least one story, it took me
years to get it right. When I write novels, they get longer with each revision.
When I revise a short story, it almost always ends up even shorter.
EDITH:
A heck of a lot shorter, for one thing!
When I had two-thirds of a novel in the drawer twenty years ago and then
reentered the paid work force while raising two sons, there was no way I could
carry the plot and characters of a book around in my head and fit them into the
tiny snatches of time I had available to writer. But I could manage a short
story, and wrote nearly a dozen, five of which were eventually published in
juried anthologies. Short stories are simpler. They’re not necessarily easier,
but they don’t take as much time or brain space to complete.
BARB:
For me, writing a novel is like the
long con. I start in one place, and I know that eventually I’ll bring the
reader to another place. But in the middle there will be detours and red
herrings and subplots. I want to keep readers from seeing where we’re going. I
want to fool them. To surprise them. I might set something up in chapter two
that will pay benefits three hundred pages later. That’s the long con.
With a short story, there’s no space
for the long con. I’m writing the equivalent of a bank robbery. I get in, get
the cash, and get out. No detours. No subplots. It’s a quick ride. Sure, short
stories and novels both should have a great beginning and ending and hopefully
a surprise or two, but the way I approach the middle is different.
ART:
Each time I’ve tried to write a full
novel, I’ve struggled with structure and pacing to the point that the results
have always been bumpy at best, dismal at worst—and none of them has seen the
light of day. With my upcoming novel-in-stories, On the Road with Del and
Louise (coming out this September from Henery Press), I’ve tried to
capitalize on what I think I do well: manage the narrative arc—the structure
and pacing—of a short story, and link those stories together in contribution to
a larger narrative arc featuring the bigger story of these characters. To some
degree, I think I just understand short stories better, for better or worse.
What advice would you give to short story
writers?
KATHY:
Keep it simple. In a short
story there is no room for subplots, information dumps, or complicated
relationships. I’d say limit the number of characters, but that would be a tad
hypocritical since I’ve never managed to follow that piece of advice myself.
EDITH:
Don’t send it in too early. Get the
first draft done and let it stew for a while. Then work to eliminate everything
unnecessary, whether a description that doesn’t move the story forward or a character
you can do without. And then work it over again, polishing, trimming. I’ve seen
a couple of beginning writers dash off a short and send it in (well, I did the
same myself when I was starting out) when it wasn’t quite ready.
BARB:
Read. Read novels. Read short stories.
Read, read, read. It gets your brain moving. It teaches you technique, even if
you don’t realize it as it’s happening. It helps you learn what works and what
doesn’t.
And when you write, keep two things in
mind: (1) Everything in the story should move the plot forward. If a scene or
character can come out without affecting the plot, it doesn’t belong in the
story. (2) But don’t make your plot move so quickly that your main character
doesn’t have the time to react to what’s happening. Reactions are interesting.
They bring the character to life and add richness to the story. So show us her
thoughts, and then move that plot along.
ART:
Write the biggest story you can and
then cut and fold, cut and fold, cut and fold until the only words left are
those that are key to the story—that’s the ideal for me, even I personally feel
like I’m always falling short of that goal. The novelist’s art strikes
me generally as one of accumulation, where the short story writer should
ideally focus on subtraction—the most effect in the fewest words—and training
yourself to see where to cut and combine and condense is a challenge. Beyond
that, read widely in the short story form. There are so so many great
short story writers out there, each of them with different stylistic and
structural approaches, and there’s so much to learn from them and then maybe
apply in your own way to your own craft.
For the Agatha banquet, what kind of shoes would you (or if
you prefer, your protagonist, a character from your story, or your spouse)
wear? [This is, after all, The Stiletto Gang!]
KATHY:
The same ones I wear every
year—black SAS sandals with one-inch heels. Definitely no stilettos. I have
trouble enough walking in the sandals. By rights I should be wearing old-lady-with-arthritis
orthopedic lace-ups!
EDITH:
I’m so shoe impaired in terms of what’s
conventional. I’m trying to come up with a pair of party shoes that aren’t
either stilettos or some version of little-girl shoes. I have short wide feet
and refuse to wear heels, so it isn’t easy! You’re going to have to wait and
see what I find. Maybe we can do a follow up post with a picture of all our
Agatha banquet shoes…
[Edith sent her picture early, so I
wanted to share it. I’ll see if I can get shots of the shoes actually worn at
the banquet!—Paula]
BARB:
Gus, my main character from my
Agatha-nominated story “The Shadow Knows,” wouldn’t go to a banquet. It’s way
too fancy for him. But if he were forced, Gus would wear plain, comfortable
shoes. I’m similar in that respect. My shoes will be black and nearly flat and
above all else, comfortable. I want to enjoy the evening, which means doing
what I can to avoid aching feet.
ART:
I’ve got a pair of suede saddle shoes that
I regularly want to wear (khaki green panel over off-white), but my wife Tara
says they don’t ever match what I put them with, so…. We’ll see if I can ever
come up with a good combination! [Here are Art’s shoes for your viewing pleasure!—Paula]