Tag Archive for: Short Stories

Fishy Business – Guppy Anthology – The Motivation Behind its Capers

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Fishy Business – Guppy Anthology – The Motivation Behind its Capers by Debra H. Goldstein

Fishy Business: the Fifth Guppy
Anthology edited
by Linda Rodriguez was officially released last weekend at Malice Domestic. The
submission call required the story to include a caper. I blanked when I thought
about writing a caper. The only caper(s) that came to mind were the ones I get
at the deli on my bagel, nova lox, and cream cheese. And that’s when it hit me –
I should build my caper around what I knew. The result is Nova, Capers, and a Schmear of Cream Cheese.

Reading
the fantastic twenty-one other stories in the anthology, I wondered about the motivation
behind each one. So, I asked:

Did
your personal background play into your caper story? If so, how. If not, what
was the motivation behind your story?


Rita A. Popp – Windfall

The call for caper stories for Fishy
Business fired up my inner Nancy Drew. As a girl, I loved reading about
Nancy fearlessly sleuthing in the dark of night with a flashlight. For my story
“Windfall” I imagined two girls sneaking into an empty house in pursuit of some
sort of hidden treasure. I made the house an old adobe in New Mexico, my home
state for many years, and drew on my experiences teaching community college
students for the contrasting characters of the two girls. So yes, my personal
background played into this story. It was a fun one to write, and I hope
readers will enjoy the caper aspect of it.  


Susan Alice Bickford – Payout
Payback

Absolutely.
Silicon Valley, where I have spent past 28 years, is a place of mythical
success but a lot of that is based on luck. Should you take a chance on this
job or that? What is the upside? How many commas do you have in your personal
net worth? This leads to a great deal of envy and even deceit based on power
and greed. The perfect fertile garden for growing–and justifying–bad
behavior.

Vinnie Hansen –
Room and Board

I’ve been living in Santa Cruz, California, for over
35 years. Its unique environment creeps into all my mysteries. Although I’m not
a surfer, you can’t live here without a bit of surf culture rubbing off. I’ve
stood on the cliffs above Steamer Lane or The Hook many a day admiring the
riders on the waves. And I’ve visited the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum, ranked
one of the best surfing museums in the world, many
times. From a special trip my idea for Room
and Board took hold. When I created my characters, I thought of my
neighbor’s twins. They’d grown up fifty yards away, swinging by our house at
the end of Trick-or-Treating so we could dump all our remaining candy into
their bags. They once spontaneously scampered up our towering liquid amber to
rescue our cat. My husband and I sadly witnessed these handsome, likable boys
sink into drug addiction. They gradually wasted away until they were nothing
but skin and bone and hollowed-out eyes hurrying down our street to their next
fix. My stories are always built of these Lego pieces of my life. How they snap
together is a creative, magical surprise—every time. 

James M. Jackson – Power
of Attorney

Two of the themes I write
about are financial crimes and abuse of power. Power occurs when people have
unequal footing. Attorneys, with their knowledge and often positional
authority, often find themselves in positions of great power. With great power
comes great responsibility. In the US, we have a growing population of elderly,
who, because of frail bodies and/or minds are at risk of abuse. The
intersection of these two groups of people was fertile ground for me to explore
through my story.

My personal experiences
shaped the story in two ways. In recent years, I have taken over responsibility
for my mother’s finances and have had to deal with an advisor who I did not
think always had my mother’s best interests in mind. I played soccer in the
distant past and many of those details in the story come from my personal
experience.

T. Y. Euliano – For
Want of a Grade

Though I never decided to steal an exam, my story is
based on my background as a physician who took the MCAT many years ago. As the
mentor to many pre-med students, who invest thousands in test prep resources, I
realize how valuable a stolen entrance exam might be. Because the exam is now
computerized, I had to set the story back before 2007, when it was still
printed in paper booklets. Hence the reference to MySpace instead of Facebook.
It was fun trying to go back in time.


Joan Leotta – It Tastes Like
Cardboard

Not long before the anthology call came up I heard a
news story about a company that put actual wood shavings into some fiber
formula…if memory serves, it was ruled ok by FDA that they did this! So, when
the caper challenge was posed, I decided a flimflam artist who did not hurt
people with her product would be my heroine. I like to cook, so her prowess in
the kitchen is fun for me. Of course I put her in jeopardy because of her poor
choices..but that’s the fun of this story.

Susan Daly – My Night
with the Duke of Edinburgh

My Night with the Duke of Edinburgh takes place in
1951, when Princes Elizabeth and her husband the Duke made a cross-country tour
of Canada. Well, I wasn’t old enough for that tour, but I was up for
many others in subsequent years. I think the massive excitement generated by
the Royal Tour made for a great backdrop for my caper story, when I have a
group of students do a little activism. 

K.M. Rockwood – Scrabble-Rousers

My story, Scrabble Rousers, is based on people I
have known. Old folks who are losing some control over their lives, but still
know what they like, and are not above a bit of chicanery. Young care-giver
types who are determined to “improve” the lot of their clients, whether the
clients like it or not. And my grandmother. She lived to be 104. Volunteer
church ladies would come to the nursing home where she resided for the last few
years of her life, and ask her what she’d like to do. She’d look vague, say,
“Oh, I used to play this word game. Scrabble, was it? Could we try that?”
They’d smile, get out a Scrabble game, and she’d beat the pants off them.

Anna Castle
– The Lost Mine of Don Fernando


My parents retired to Taos, New
Mexico. My mother’s masters degree is in Anthropology and she has long been a
student of the indigenous cultures of the Southwest. She has lots of great
stories, and likes to share interesting things that she reads. She told me about
the Battle of Cienegula in 1854, which took place just north of Taos. A group
of Jicarilla Apaches and Utes defeated a troop of American dragoons. Somehow
that intrigued me. Then I was researching mining fraud for my Moriarty series,
which is all about fraud in the late nineteenth century, and discovered there
are in truth lots of lost mines in the New Mexico wilderness. So then my mother
told about the terrible abuses perpetrated by the American government on the
Apaches in particular and this story came together. It was a lot of fun to
write and I hope to meet all these characters (except the bad guys) in another
story.

Beth Green – Exit Interview

I didn’t pull inspiration
for my story Exit Interview from my
personal experience directly. Instead, I thought it would be fun to play on the
“right man for the job” trope in heist films. For example, in the Oceans
movies, Danny and Debbie Ocean pull in members of their crews based on the
individual’s special skills. Since I wanted to write a slightly satirical
story, I decided to see what would happen if you hired an assassin to do a
thief’s job. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say it doesn’t quite work out as
the client planned!


Raegan Teller – The Great Negotiator

Once you read my story, you’ll understand why I hesitated in answering this question truthfully. The way it happened is that my husband and I were sitting around one evening, sipping a glass of wine and fantasizing about, well, let’s just say, a certain person in our family. What if …? After we finished laughing until we were crying, I sat down and wrote The Great Negotiator. Okay, I’m probably in trouble now.


Chelle Martin – Nine Lives of Husbands & Wives

No, my personal background has nothing to do with
this story. I’ve never swindled anyone, gone through a bad divorce (happily
single), or even owned a cat (allergies). I just decided to write a “cat
story” and somehow it turned into “Nine Lives of Husbands & Wives”. A
few friends have gone through nasty divorces, so maybe they influenced the
storyline a bit. Otherwise, it was just a fun story to write.


Buylink:  https://www.amazon.com/Fishy-Business-Fifth-Guppy-Anthology/dp/1479441376 
https://www.amazon.com/Fishy-Business-Fifth-Guppy-Anthology-ebook/dp/B07QVDWTM8


Time for Christmas and Holiday Shorts!

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by Paula Gail Benson



On the day before
Thanksgiving, Dru’s Book Musings featured Sleigh Bells and Sleuthing,
an anthology of 16 cozy mystery novellas to celebrate the season. Here’s a link
to Dru’s post. One hundred percent of the
proceeds from sales of the anthology will benefit Good Fortune Farm Refuge, a non-profit ranch
located in Semmes, Alabama, which rehabilitates abused and abandoned animals
and finds homes for rescued animals.

Dru’s post reminded me
that this is the time for reading seasonal shorts, so here are a few anthologies you might wish to consider:

Murder Under the
Christmas Tree: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season, edited by Cecily Gayford, has stories by Ian Rankin, Val McDermid,
Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers, Edmund Crispin, G.K. Chesteron, Ngaio
Marsh, Carter Dickson, Margery Allingham, and Ellis Peters.

Otto Penzler’s The
Big Book of Christmas Mysteries contains 60 stories divided into
categories like traditional, funny, Sherlockian, pulpy, uncanny, scary,
surprising, modern, puzzling, and classic. It features authors like Mary
Higgins Clark, Sara Paretsky, Max Allan Collins, Edward D. Hoch, John D. McDonald,
and O. Henry.

Mistletoe Mysteries,
Tales of Yuletide Murder were
compiled by Charlotte McLeod. It contains 16 stories by McLeod, Mary Higgins
Clark, Sharon McCrumb, Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini, Peter Lovesey, and others.

Last year, I
discovered and was completely charmed by The Usual Santas. It
includes stories by Helene Tursten, Mick Herron, Martin Limón, Timothy
Hallinan, Teresa Dovalpage, Mette Ivie Harrison, Colin Cotterill, Ed Lin,
Stuart Neville, Tod Goldberg, Henry Chang, James R. Benn, Lene Kaaberbøl &
Agnete Friis, Sujata Massey, Gary Corby, Cara Black, Stephanie Barron and a
Foreword and story by Peter Lovesey.
In
2013, my December post for Writers Who Kill was
the final installment of a series about writing short stories and compared the
story structures of three excellent holiday short stories:

B.K. Stevens’ “Little
Dumber Boy” (individually published under the Fingerprints imprint by Untreed
Reads, December, 2010) (available on Amazon).
Barb Goffman’s
“Christmas Surprise” in the collection Don’t Get Mad, Get Even: 15
Tales of Revenge and More (Wildside Press April, 2013).
Earl Staggs’ “Caught on
Christmas Eve” in the collection Short Stories of Earl Staggs: 16 Tales
of Mystery from Hard Boiled to Humor (Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
2011).

At the end of the post,
I listed the following holiday anthologies:



Lori Avocato, Dana
Cameron, Mary Daheim, Cait London, Suzanne Macpherson, Kerrelyn Sparks, Sugarplums
and Scandal (HarperCollins Publishers 2010).

Carols and Crimes, Gifts
and Grifters (Wolfmont Press
2009) (Authors Tony Burton, Austin S. Camacho, Thomas H. Cook, Herschel Cozine,
Gail Farrelly, Margaret Fenton, Chris Grabenstein, Sue Ann Jaffarian, Frank
Zafiro, and others).
John M. Floyd,
editor, The Gift of Murder (Wolfmont Press 2009) (Authors
Austin S. Camacho, Hershel Cozine, Bill Crider, Kris Neri, Randy Rawls, Carolyn
J. Rose, Elizabeth Zelvin). 
Steve Hockensmith, Naughty:
Nine Tales of Christmas Crime (an e-book collection of stories that
previously appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine or Ellery Queen
Mystery Magazine).
Stuart MacBride, 12
Days of Winter: Crime at Christmas (HarperCollins Publishers 2011).
Margaret Maron, Five
Christmas Gifts (Maron & Company; Ebook edition December, 2012).

John Mortimer, A
Rumpole Christmas (Penguin Books, 2009).



May all your holiday reading be merry, bright, and only a little murderous!

Meet the 2018 Anthony Short Story Author Nominees!

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by Paula Gail Benson

 

What a true pleasure to host the 2018
Anthony nominees for best short story! Here for your reading pleasure is the
list with links to each story. [Please note: You’ll need to scroll down at some of the links
below to get to the stories.]

 

“The Trial of Madame
Pelletier” by Susanna Calkins, Malice Domestic 12: Mystery Most
Historical: http://www.susannacalkins.com/short-stories.html 

 

“God’s Gonna Cut You
Down” by Jen Conley, Just to Watch Them Die: Crime Fiction
Inspired by the Songs of Johnny Cash: https://www.jenconley.net/ 

 

“My Side of the Matter”
by Hilary Davidson, Killing Malmon:

 

“Whose Wine Is it
Anyway” by Barb Goffman, 50 Shades of Cabernet:

 

“The Night They Burned
Ms. Dixie’s Place” by Debra Goldstein, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery
Magazine, May/June 2017: http://www.debrahgoldstein.com/otherwritings/night-burned-ms-dixies-place-alfred-hitchcock-mystery-magazine-mayjune-2017/ 

 

“A Necessary
Ingredient” by Art Taylor, Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea
to Shining Sea: http://www.arttaylorwriter.com/books/a-necessary-ingredient/ 

 

Thank you to the nominees, Susanna
Calkins, Jen Conley, Hilary Davidson, Barb Goffman, Debra H. Goldstein, and Art
Taylor, for taking the time to answer a few questions and share their nominated
stories!

 

(1) Where and when does your nominated
story take place?

 

Susanna Calkins
Susanna Calkins: “The Trial of
Madame Pelletier” is set in Tulle, a town in central France, in 1840. It
focuses on the court trial of a “Lady Poisoner,” a woman accused of killing her
estranged husband with rat-paste and truffles.

 

Jen Conley: The story takes place in Ocean County, New
Jersey, present day. Ocean County is considered central-south New Jersey, known
for its Jersey Shore beaches, but mostly it’s a blue collar/middle class county
on the edge or in the Pine Barrens.

 

Hilary Davidson
Hilary Davidson: “My Side of the Matter” is set in and around
Minneapolis. I’ve only had the pleasure of visiting that city once, but I felt
compelled to set the story there because the story is part of the KILLING
MALMON anthology — and Dan and Kate Malmon live in that area.


Barb Goffman: “Whose Wine Is It Anyway?” takes place in the
litigation department of a large Washington, DC, law firm. I don’t specify when
the story takes place. I expect the reader will assume it is a contemporary
story.




Debra H. Goldstein
Debra H. Goldstein: “The Night They
Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place” is set in Birmingham, Alabama in the 1960’s, in a
house where they change the sheets more than once a night. The story reflects
Birmingham’s racial, civil, and political strife and their impact on a
particular night on a boy coming of age.

 

Art Taylor: “A Necessary Ingredient” was published in Coast
to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea, which covers (as that
subtitle suggests) a pretty wide geographical area. I was assigned my home
state of North Carolina, and instead of choosing an actual town, I created a
fictional one, a mid-sized Southern town drawing on several places I’ve lived
or known in Eastern North Carolina—Goldsboro, Kinston, and Richlands, among
them. The story takes place loosely in the present, but the main character,
Ambrose Thornton, has immersed himself in some ways, in a mythical past—the
world of the hard-boiled detective stories he lives to read—and the present of
this small town is also steeped at bit in some of that atmosphere, if only
because of Ambrose’s own perspectives driving the story. 

 

(2) What was the biggest challenge you
encountered in writing your nominated story?


Susanna Calkins: I adapted this
story from a real poisoning case that I had read about when I was working on my
doctorate in history. At the time I had focused on the media accounts of the case,
which were all in French, because I loved the notion of the woman being on
trial in the court of public opinion as well as in the courtroom.
Unfortunately, I had not kept my notes, so I had to go back to the original
source materials, only to realize that my reading knowledge of French has
considerably diminished over the last twenty years. Fortunately, I found a very
detailed contemporary description of the trial in a British medical journal, in
which the authors—both physicians—focused on the details of the poisoning and
the forensics they were able to use. Except for a few interesting details, I
completely changed the story, the characters, and of course provided a twist…

 

Jen Conley
Jen Conley: The biggest
challenge for me was writing a first-person male character. This choice can be
difficult to establish when you’re the opposite gender. Readers see the name “Jen
Conley” and assume the first-person narrator is female. It’s just natural for
any reader to do–assume the first-person narrator is the gender of the writer.
I must’ve re-written the first few lines of the story about twenty times. I
also found it challenging to create empathy for a murderer, especially a
murderer who killed my main character’s sister in a horrific and vile way.

 

Hilary Davidson: The premise of
KILLING MALMON was that Dan Malmon had to die in every story. (Before you
decide that we’re terrible people to do that to such a nice guy, you should
know that Dan was co-editor of the project, and it raises money to benefit the
National Multiple Sclerosis Society.) After I got over the idea of “killing” my
friend in print, I realized that the biggest challenge was building suspense
when the reader already knew that Dan was going to die. How do you keep the
reader intrigued when they know what’s going to happen? I solved that by
turning the story on its head, so that the man who killed Dan — and got away
with it — suddenly starts writing a confession. The suspense builds around what
led him to commit the crime, and the mysterious reason he needs to reveal the
truth.

 

Barb Goffman
Barb Goffman: Plotting. Plotting
is often a big challenge for me. I’d been asked to submit a story to 50 Shades of Cabernet, so I knew my plot
had to involve mystery and wine. Consequently I did a lot of wine research,
hoping to come across an idea that awakened my muse. I can hear the “research”
jokes now, but my muse isn’t a drinker. I learned there’s a spa in Japan that
uses red wine in its hot tubs. I thought for sure I’d get a plot out of that,
but no. I also learned about festivals celebrating wine and chocolate. Surely,
you’d think I’d devise a plot from that. But no again. It wasn’t until I
learned that people can be allergic to the sulfites in wine that things really
started clicking. Thank goodness!

 

Debra H. Goldstein: The biggest
challenge in writing “The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place,” was getting the
voices right. Being a white Jewish Yankee middle-aged female, I knew I couldn’t
call on my own experiences and dialect to bring to life a nine-year-old black
male protagonist, his mother, and a southern madame. Each of these characters
had to have a distinct personality and manner of speaking. They also had to
reflect southern society in the 1960’s and, in the case of the child, both
innocence and the way the world was changing. Consequently, it was important
that none of these characters be written stereotypically.  Rather, each needed to be treated in a
respectful manner which demonstrated their diversity to the reader. Although the
crime is an important element of “The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place,”
nailing the characters’ voices is what ultimately engages readers.

 

Art Taylor

Art Taylor: Balancing that
mix of small town and hard-boiled actually posed part of the challenge—but far
from a surprise, it was a challenge that I took as central to what I was doing
here. When my friend Paul D. Marks, the anthology’s co-editor, asked me to
contribute, I almost didn’t do it. I haven’t really written many private eye
stories—and none of the ones I’ve written have been “straight,” so to speak.
But then I liked the idea of crossing the private eye story—traditionally
hard-boiled—with the kinds of regional fiction that have inspired me in other
cases. How can you draw on both effectively? What happens when those “mean
streets” of Chandler’s famous quote are actually dirt roads dotted with
roadside produce stands? And can the class struggles that so often drive
hard-boiled fiction be found in equal measure in the hierarchies of proper
Southern society? Well, that was a challenge I enjoyed stepping up to, and hope
readers have enjoyed as well.


Here’s where you can learn more about
these wonderful authors and their work. Best wishes to them all!

 

Susanna Calkins was born and raised in
Philadelphia, and lives outside Chicago with her husband and two sons. Holding
a PhD in history, Susanna writes the award-winning Lucy Campion historical
mysteries as well as the forthcoming Speakeasy Murders, both from St. Martin’s
Minotaur. MURDER KNOCKS TWICE, set in Prohibition-Era Chicago, will be out
Spring 2019. “The Trial of Madame Pelletier,” her first published short story,
appeared in Malice Domestic: Mystery Most
Historical (Wayside Press, 2017). Read more about her work at http://www.susannacalkins.com/

 

Jen
Conley’s short stories have appeared in Beat to a Pulp, Just To Watch Them
Die: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Johnny Cash, Trouble in the
Heartland: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Bruce Springsteen and
many others. She has contributed to the Los Angeles Review of Books, has
been shortlisted for Best American Mystery Stories and is one of the
former editors at Shotgun Honey. Her Anthony Award nominated story
collection, Cannibals: Stories from the Edge of the Pine Barrens, is
available now. She lives in Brick, New Jersey. Check out her website at https://www.jenconley.net/

 

Hilary
Davidson is the author of the Lily Moore series—which includes The
Damage Done, The Next One to Fall, and Evil in All Its
Disguises. She also the author of the standalone thriller Blood
Always Tells and a short-story collection called The
Black Widow Club. Her next novel, One Small Sacrifice, will
be published by Thomas & Mercer in May 2019. Visit her online at http://www.hilarydavidson.com


Barb Goffman loves writing, reading, air conditioning, and her
dog, not necessarily in that order. She’s won the Agatha, Macavity, and Silver
Falchion awards for her short stories, and she’s been a finalist for national
mystery short-story awards twenty-two times, including eleven times for the
Agatha (a category record). Her book Don’t Get Mad, Get Even won the
Silver Falchion for the best collection of 2013. Barb is thrilled to be a
current Anthony and Macavity award finalist for her story “Whose Wine is it
Anyway?” from the anthology 50 Shades of Cabernet.  She works as a
freelance editor and proofreader and lives with her dog in Winchester,
Virginia. Learn more at www.barbgoffman.com.


Agatha and Anthony nominated Judge Debra
H. Goldstein’s is the author One Taste
Too Many, the first of Kensington’s new Sarah Blair cozy mystery series.
Her prior books include Should Have
Played Poker and 2012 IPPY Award winning Maze in Blue. Debra’s short stories have appeared in numerous
periodicals and anthologies including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine,
Black Cat Mystery Magazine, and Mystery Weekly. She is president of Sisters
in Crime’s Guppies, serves on SinC’s national board, and is vice-president of
SEMWA. Find out more about her writings at www.DebraHGoldstein.com


Art Taylor is the author
of On the Road with Del & Louise: A Novel in Stories, winner of
the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. He has won three additional Agatha
Awards, an Anthony Award, two Macavity Awards, and three consecutive Derringer
Awards for his short fiction, and his work has appeared in Best American
Mystery Stories. He also edited Murder Under the Oaks: Bouchercon
Anthology 2015, winner of the Anthony Award for Best Anthology or
Collection. He is an associate professor of English at George Mason University.
Check out his website at http://www.arttaylorwriter.com/

Selected Readings

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by Bethany Maines

This week I’m going to take part in a live reading event
called Noir at the Bar.  It’s a fun event
that focuses on crime tales and the forties pulp-fiction style.  I’m excited to participate, but as usual it
throws me into a tizzy of what to read. 
Short stories come in all shapes and sizes but reading for an audience
is quite different.  Not every story
translates well to an audience that’s slurping their way through cocktails and
appetizers. I would, of course, love an audience to hang breathless on my every
word, but even when an audience comes specifically to see an author it’s very
hard to get that level of studiously quiet audience participation. 
Through the variety of readings that I have experienced I’ve
developed the theory of “joke” short stories for readings.  Not that a reading has to be funny, but that
it should be constructed like a joke.
There is the set-up. 
A man walks into a bar
at the top of a rise building.  It’s a
swanky place, but there’s a guy in a suit and glasses slumped at the bar.

The tale. 
“I can’t believe this
view,” says the man, looking out the window.
“Yeah, but you’ve got
to look out for the cross-winds.  They’re
killer,” says the drunk guy, brushing a curl of dark hair off his forehead.
“What are you talking
about?” asks the man.
The drunk guy stumbles
off his bar stool.  “Here I’ll show
you.”  He opens the window and steps out,
but the winds sweep in and he simply hovers in air and then steps back into the
bar.
“Holy cow,” says the
man.  “I can’t believe that.”
“Give it a try,” says
the guy in glasses.

The pay-off.
The man steps off the
building and plummets to the ground.  The
bartender looks up from polishing the glasses as the drunk guy sits back
down.  “Jeez, Superman, you are mean when
you drink.”



The story has to have a pay-off or the audience sort of
stares at you like cows in a field.  It
doesn’t have to be a funny pay off, but there has to be some sort of solid finish
that gives an audience a feeling of conclusion.  Usually, it’s some sort of twist that reveals the truth or that gives the audience the
key to understanding the story. I’ll be reading a condensed version of a short story from my Shark Santoyo story.  Hopefully, Noir at the Bar enjoys what I’ve selected for
them.  Wish me luck!

Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie Mae Mystery Series, Tales
From the City of Destiny, San Juan
Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo
Crime Series, and numerous short stories. When she’s not traveling to
exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her fourth degree black belt in
karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working
on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on YouTube,
Twitter and Facebook.

My First Time by Debra H. Goldstein

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First times can be sweet,
scary, not quite perfect, or like a moon rocket perfectly shooting into orbit.
There are lots of ways to define first times. A mother recollects the first
smile, the step, the first words. A young woman remembers her first heels,
first make-up, and a few other firsts I can’t mention in the context of this
blog (but feel free to go back in your own mind for a moment). For a writer,
there are many firsts that create memories and sensations that can never be
duplicated.
I have been fortunate that
in my short writing career, there have been many instances of happy dancing.
When my essay, Maybe I Should Hug You, won an Alabama Writer’s Conclave
Nonfiction Award, I was thrilled. Of course, when MORE Magazine published it
online as More Hugs, Less Fear, my feet came off the ground even further.

When I received an email
offer of publication for my first book, Maze in Blue, my initial reaction was
“Oh, Shit” followed by “No, Shit.” Holding that first book in my hand was
almost as much of a high as the moment I held my first child. When six months
later, Maze won a 2012 IPPY Award, I was jazzed.
Other writing awards,
publication of twenty-four short stories, and the acceptance and publication of
Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery
have made me extremely happy, but they haven’t been “firsts.
This week, I experienced
another first that brought me out of the low profile I normally keep. Not only
was my first story published in the May/June edition of Alfred Hitchcock
Mystery Magazine, one of the most prestigious magazines that mystery writers
die to be accepted by, but my name was included on the cover.  Happy dancing.  Credibility. Excitement. Gratefulness.
I haven’t come down to
earth yet, and I hope I don’t for quite some time; however, this first is
tinged with a different aspect. It highlights the reality of the choice I made
to follow a passion.

One story will not bring
me to the same level as the other writers I deeply admire and share the pages
with, but it sure is nice rubbing elbows and breathing the same air as them,
even for a few minutes. A first that will stay with me no matter how my career
continues.

Bethlehem Writers Roundtable

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by Paula Gail Benson

A
writer never forgets the first place her work is published. The Bethlehem
Writers Group, in existence since 2006, gave me that opportunity through its
online publication the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable (BWR).

At the
end of 2012, I had recently joined the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime and
decided to commit to serious writing by submitting my work. I read the BWR was
seeking 2000 or less word stories on the theme “Dead Valentine” for its
February issue. I sent in “Nectar of the Gods,” and, miraculously, it was
selected as February’s feature story, which meant I also had to come up with a “top
ten” list. (My topic: the top ten romantic Broadway musicals.)

Subsequently,
I entered the BWR annual short story contest. That year, it was being judged by
Hank Phillippi Ryan, who I unabashedly adore as a fabulous writer and
incredible human being. I wrote a story based on personal experience, drawn
from an incident that happened to my mother during her final days in the
hospital. I will never forget the joy I felt in placing third, behind K.B.
Inglee, another author I very much admire.


For
me, the BWR is the gift that keeps giving. My three stories published there
remain accessible through the online archives. My prize winner also was included in
a print anthology available in paperback or Kindle formats on Amazon.

When
I first submitted to the BWR, it was issued monthly and offered no payment. In 2017, it became a
quarterly publication that pays for accepted stories ($20 for featured authors
and $10 for &More selections). Submissions should be no more than 2000
words.

This
year, the short story contest is being judged by Carrie Vaughn, the New York
Times bestselling novelist of the Kitty series, featuring a werewolf who hosts
a radio talk show. Paranormal stories are being solicited and must be received
by March 31, 2017. There is an entry fee of $10 per story for the contest. (Regular
submissions require no fee.) In addition to publication, the top three prize
winners receive cash awards. Personally, I think the contest fee is very
reasonable and consider it a means of supporting an excellent organization.

If you’re a short
story writer, please consider submitting to the BWR. I have found its editors
to be wonderful, caring individuals, and I am very proud to be among their authors
(including my Stiletto Gang partner, Debra Goldstein). Check it out at: http://bwgwritersroundtable.com

Summertime and the reading is . . . WONDERFUL!

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by Paula Gail Benson

A significant part
of my vacations as I grew up was participating in the library summer reading
program. Now, that I work for a state legislature with a session ending in
early June, the summer months still mean a time of less activity so I can catch
up on all those lovely books on my TBR pile. If you’re looking for some
terrific summer reads, here are my recommendations, in two categories. First,
short story collections, which are great travel companions, and, second, academic
mysteries, in case you crave a vicarious trip back to school.
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS:
K.
B. Inglee’s The Case Book of Emily
Lawrence (Wildside Books 2016)
K.B.
writes historical mysteries and learns about the time periods in her stories by being a
reenactor and living interpreter. Her Case
Book features intrepid Emily Lothrop Lawrence, whose professor father
characterized as “intelligent” while calling her older sisters “beautiful” and “talented.”
Emily, with her husband Charles, operate a Pinkerton style detective agency in
post-Civil War Washington, DC. Reading about their investigations and
techniques is both a journey back in time and an appreciation for how
technology has influenced detection.
B.K.
Stevens’ Her Infinite Variety (Wildside
Books 2016).
 
B.K.’s
(or Bonnie’s) stories have frequently found a home in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. In this fascinating volume,
they’ve been collected, so you can enjoy four that feature her series
detectives, Iphigenia Wodehouse and Leah Abrams, and seven of her “stand-alones,”
including one of my favorites “Thea’s First Husband.” For excellent writing, intriguing
situations, and clever deductions, this collection is a true reader’s delight.
Art
Taylor’s On the Road with Del and Louise:
a Novel in Stories (Henery Press 2015).
Winner
of two Agatha Awards, the Anthony Award, the Macavity Award, and three
consecutive Derringer Awards for his short fiction, Art uses a series of
stories to tell the adventures of two intricate and compelling characters.
Louise, a Southern girl working in a New Mexico 7-Eleven, is held up by the
ski-masked Del, a frugal man seeking enough to meet his “academic” expenses,
and gives him her telephone number because she thinks he has nice eyes. She
finds it exciting when he calls, then sets out with him on what becomes a cross
country journey with stops at such diverse locations as Southern California,
Napa Valley, Las Vegas, North Dakota, and Louise’s North Carolina hometown. At
first, I wasn’t sure I could like either of these complex characters, but after
following them through traditional crime stories and hilarious capers, I had to
wait as long as I could to finish the last installment so I didn’t have to say
goodbye. Winner of the Agatha Award for
Best First Novel and finalist for the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, this
novel in stories is an engaging read.
ACADEMIC MYSTERIES:
Cynthia
Kuhn’s The Semester of Our Discontent
(Henery Press 2016).

The first book in a new series,
Cynthia’s novel features English professor Lila Maclean, who in her first year
at a prestigious university finds herself as involved in solving murders as
she is in steering clear of academic intrigue. Unfortunately, she keeps turning up on the
scene where her colleagues are being murdered. When her cousin becomes the
chief suspect, Lila has to find a way to clear her name. A fast-paced whodunit
with lots of quirky, yet familiar characters from higher education, which
received the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant.

Lori
Rader-Day’s The Black Hour (Seventh
Street Books 2014).
Lori’s
suspenseful novel alternates between two narrators: (1) sociology professor
Amelia Emmet, who is returning to the campus where a student with whom she had
no apparent connection shot her, then killed himself, and (2) Amelia’s new
graduate assistant, Nathaniel Barber, who came to the college not just to earn
a degree, but to study her attack. As they each investigate separately, then in
tandem, the reader is plunged through every emotion watching the fascinating plot
unfold. Winner of the Anthony Award, Lovey
Award, and Silver Falchion for Best First Novel, this is truly superb reading!
I
want to assure you that you can’t go wrong with any of these books. So stay out
of the pool, pour yourself a tall glass of lemonade, and settle down for some
fabulous summer reading!

An Interview with Shawn Reilly Simmons by Paula Gail Benson

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Shawn Reilly Simmons has an impressive resume. Born in Indiana, she grew up in Florida and graduated from the University of Maryland with a BA in English. She’s worked as a sales executive, bookstore manager, fiction editor, convention organizer, wine consultant, and caterer. Since 2003, she’s served on the Malice Domestic Board of Directors. Those who have attended the annual meeting near Washington, DC, have seen Shawn calmly overseeing the registration desk or confidently moderating terrific panels. In addition, she’s a founding member of the Dames of Detection and an editor at Level Best Books, which publishes the Best New England Crime Stories Anthologies.

Oh, and did I forget to say that she’s the author of the Red Carpet Catering Mysteries (published by Henery Press) that features Penelope Sutherland, a movie set caterer, and has contributed the short story “A Gathering of Great Detectives” to the Malice Domestic 11: Murder Most Conventional Anthology? Not to mention that she’s Mom to an adorable fellow named Russell.

Obviously, Shawn knows how to prioritize so she gets lots of things done and done well. Many thanks to her for taking time to visit with us and tell us how she manages everything so beautifully.  
Have you always loved writing?
 
Yes! I’ve wanted to be a writer, in some capacity, since I was in
elementary school. I won Best Creative Writer when I graduated from high
school, and I was encouraged by my professors in college to pursue writing as a
career, so it was always an aspiration of mine. The trick was making that
aspiration a reality.
Many of us know you as one of the smiling faces of the Malice Domestic convention.
How did you become involved with Malice?
 
I got involved with Malice when I met Anne Murphy, our Volunteer Chair,
at a panel during Malice 14. She was a Reilly before she was a Murphy, and she
was curious if we were somehow related. Next thing I knew, I was invited to
meet with the Board, and I accepted the vacant PR Chair position the following
year. Fifteen years later, I’m still there, which is crazy–not that I’m still
there, but that so much time has passed. It feels like yesterday! 
How has Malice influenced your writing?
I got involved with Malice because traditional mysteries are my favorite
stories to read, and to write, it turns out. I’ve learned more than I can begin
to say from the authors I’ve met, the friendships I’ve made, and the advice
I’ve been given by so many writers and fans I admire. I think I would still be
writing stories if it weren’t for Malice, but I’d probably be flailing around
trying to find my way.
 
You’ve had many diverse work experiences. How did you start catering for
filmmakers? 
My sister is a chef, and started cooking on movie sets right after
graduating from culinary school. Over the years, I would go and help her in the
kitchen when she needed an extra set of hands. She had transitioned into being
a personal chef and was in between clients when the on-set catering company
she’d previously worked for began filming a movie in the DC area. I was
freelance editing at the time, so we were both available, and were hired to be
part of the crew. Like so many things for me, it was a matter of luck and being
available when different opportunities presented themselves.
Tell us about your protagonist, Penelope. How much of you is in her
character?
 
Penelope Sutherland is chef-owner of Red Carpet Catering, an on-set
movie catering business. She shares a house with her best friend, up-and-coming
actress Arlena Madison, who is one of the many children of acting icon Randall
Madison. Penelope is like me in some ways: she’s loyal, hardworking, and loves
to cook. She’s younger than me, and has a bit more confidence than I did at her
age, which is working out for her so far.
What do you plan for Penelope’s future? 

Penelope is building up her catering business, and she’s going to get
bigger and better opportunities based on her skill and business sense, not just
because she’s along for the ride with the Madison family. She’s going to have
some setbacks too, both personally and professionally, like we all do. Penelope
is also embarking on a romantic relationship with her friend from grade school,
Joseph Baglioni, who also happens to be a Homicide Detective for New Jersey PD.
They both work crazy hours–Penelope is on set sixteen hours a day sometimes,
and is often away on location for months at a time. Penelope and Joey have to
make the time they do have together special, which doesn’t always work out
perfectly, but they’re sticking with it. 
Your novels have been published by two sources. Tell us about your
publication journey. 

I
wrote my first book after I had my son and decided to stay home with him. I
wasn’t sure if I could even write a mystery, or if it would be any good, but I
had my characters set in my mind, and I had never read anything about on-set
catering before, so I felt I had a fresh take on the movie industry. What I
didn’t have was an idea about how to proceed to publication when my manuscript
was finished. I decided to publish through an offshoot of my mother’s
publishing company, mostly for friends and family, and didn’t do much else with
the book after that. To my surprise, people (other than my family) read it and
liked it, and I was approached by an agent (at Malice, of course). She said she
could definitely sell my book to one of the big five publishers, but I had to
write the second one quickly, so they could see I could carry a series. I did
what she asked, and then heard back from the agent that the publisher loved the
idea of working with me, and that I was a strong writer, but that books about
movies hadn’t worked well for them in the past. They wanted me to think of
another series idea and get writing it quickly. 

 

I had just finished my
second book, and was on the fence about what to do. I went the same route as
the first one with it, and began toying with the idea of conceiving a new
series. I basically had to decide whether to abandon Penelope and the gang, who
I had grown to love, or move on to something the editors at the large
publishing house considered more marketable. A few weeks later, I approached
Henery Press (at Malice, of course), and was thrilled that they were interested
in the Red Carpet Catering books. They signed me and I re-wrote the first two
books under the guidance of my editorial team, and wrote the third book (from
scratch). That book is Murder on a Designer Diet, which was just released on
June 7th. I’m so glad I was able to find a welcoming home for Penelope &
Company.

In addition to your delightful series, your short story appears on the
recent Malice anthology. How is writing a short story different from writing a
novel? 

You know, I hadn’t written a short story since college, and hadn’t
thought about writing them seriously. A year or so ago some local friends
hosted a short story pot luck dinner where everyone brought a dish and read an
original story they’d written. I had so much fun coming up with something for
my friends, it got the juices flowing again, and I decided to give the blind submission
for the Malice anthology a try. I was happily surprised that my story was
selected, to say the least. Now I’m working on a few different short stories,
for different projects.
Also, you have a new venture with the Dames of Detection and Level Best
Books. Tell us about this experience, particularly what it’s like to be an
editor. 

Yes! We’re very excited to be the new editors of Level Best Books, which
publishes the annual Best New England Crime Stories anthology. I’d seen a note
on Facebook that the previous editors were planning to release their final
anthology, and that they weren’t continuing the series. The Dames felt the
anthologies are such a great tradition, and so many authors have gotten their
start there, that we decided to approach the previous editors about keeping
them going. Luckily all eight of us agreed to everything, so we transitioned
over this year. Our first anthology, Windward, received 225 submissions, and
we’re just about through our blind evaluation process. We’ll have our final
decisions made by mid-July. Being an editor is very fun, while also a lot of
work. We plan to do at least two anthologies next year, and are all in
agreement to do even more going forward.
How do you balance your many responsibilities and still find time for
writing? 

Some
days are more successful than others! But I do tend to be a scheduler and a
list maker. I work hard to keep everything organized and on track. I get up
early to write, usually at 5. I’m most productive and creative during that
quiet time. Later in the day I’m either working on Malice, editing for the
anthologies I’m involved with, or performing other tasks related to the books.
Then there’s the regular life stuff: being a good wife & mom, managing the
household, getting dinner on the table. And I always make time for myself: I
read every day and get in a workout of some kind. It’s safe to say I’m never
bored!

Does Russell enjoy having a writer for a Mom?
He
does! He says every morning: “Daddy went to work, I’m going to school, and
Mommy works on the computer.” He’s actually started writing stories of his
own–one of his teachers has really been encouraging him at school. We started
reading together every night when he was six weeks old, and by the time he was
3 1/2 he had learned to read, which was so exciting. We still read every
night–it’s such an ingrained habit now, the main part of our bedtime ritual.
We’ve been sick, we’ve gone to bed really late, but no matter what, we always
end the day with a book. 

Shawn, thank you for taking the time to be with us. Check out Shawn’s website at:
http://www.shawnreillysimmons.com/books.html

The Year of the Short Story

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by Paula Gail Benson

From right, Art Taylor, Debra Goldstein, Cathy Pickens and husband Bob, and me.

Like
Debra Goldstein, I’m a writing conference junkie. I completely understand the
attraction that compels so many sci fi and graphic novel enthusiasts to flock
to cons. First, you’re surrounded by people who have as great a love of the
subject as you do, and second, you draw inspiration from proximity to the
practitioners.

I’ll
never forget my first visit to Malice Domestic about fifteen years ago. Everything about it seemed to
spell impossible expectation. The time of year. The distance to travel. Getting
leave from work. Arranging for my mother to travel with me. Yet, Mary Higgins
Clark would be there, and I was obsessed with her books. When I imagined my
future, it was writing novels like Mary Higgins Clark’s.

Somehow,
all the pieces came together. Impossibility became reality. I went. Standing in
line to get my picture with Mary Higgins Clark, I met Dana Cameron, who has
become a wonderful, supportive friend. The photo with Mary Higgins Clark and
her daughter Carol Higgins Clark has become a talisman for me, a symbol of what
I can achieve. When one of my relatives asked who those people were (not
recognizing me), I convinced myself I looked enough like an author to be
mistaken for one. I’ve continued that happy delusion ever since.

I
dub this year’s Malice “a celebration of the short story.” Malice revived its
tradition of publishing anthologies with Malice Domestic’s Murder Most
Conventional, with twenty two original stories and one reprint all set at
conventions. (Another anthology is planned for next year featuring historicals.)
While I missed lunch with the Guppies, I had a wonderful time with Debra Goldstein, Barb
Goffman, and others. Barb won her first Agatha this year for “A Year Without
Santa Claus,” her first publication in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
At
the SinC Breakfast, the announcement of a new initiative, “We Love Short
Stories,” organized by Debra Goldstein, was met with applause and great expectations.
I thoroughly enjoyed being on a short story panel with James Lincoln Warren (a first class moderator who brought his panelists California wine), Teresa Inge, K.B. Inglee, and Jayne Ormerod. We missed being with Eleanor Cawood Jones, a contributor to the new Malice anthology, who had became ill. During our discussion time, we explored the diverse themes, characters, and settings for mystery short stories. Jim kindly read selections from each panelist’s stories to the audience.  
At the banquet, so many attending had backgrounds as both short story writers and novelists. Terrie Farley Moran, who won an Agatha for best first novel last year, was nominated in the short story category this year. B.K. Stevens, who broke her arm and sadly could not be there, had a table full of supporters, cheering her nominations for short story and young adult novel. (Notice in the photo below that B.K.’s daughter Rachel and publisher Carla Coupe are holding up Her Infinite Variety, a new collection of B.K.’s short stories.) I had the pleasure of celebrating with Art Taylor when his novel in short stories, On the Road with Del and Louise, received the teapot as best first novel.
Hurray for another wonderful Malice and double hurray for the recognition of the importance of the mystery short story. It’s going to be a wonderful year for reading! 

Honing My Craft While Having One Hell of a Time

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by Marjorie Brody


I don’t know about you, but I’m always on the alert for opportunities to sharpen my skills. I enjoy attending organized workshops and seminars, and although I share my new knowledge with colleagues when I return home,  it’s not the same as if we all attend a workshop together—which can be pricey when you consider transportation, hotels and meals, as well as workshop fees. So, this year I hosted three private workshops at my home. I arranged for well established authors and writing instructors to fly into town and do a two-and-a-half day seminar for twenty of my colleagues. We had a blast. We learned, ate, laughed, ate, worked hard, and ate. We talk about our learnings and remind each other to implement our new-found insights long after the seminar ends. We even created a spin-off from the seminar Eric M. Witchey conducted which allowed us to extend our workshop experience.

If you ever get a chance to attend a workshop with Eric, I encourage you to do so. Eric has sold well over 100 short stories, a slew of non-fiction articles, and four novels. He consults with authors often and is a popular workshop presenter at the Willamette Writers Conference, Wordcrafters Conference, and the Short Story America Festival and Conference. Eric has a unique way of understanding story development and boosting productivity. You might want to read his article in Writers Digest, July 2005 on EDACE.

After several days with Eric, a group of us decided we wanted to use his strategies for developing stories. So, we started a group called the Story Starters. We’d pick a genre, a writing technique (e.g., amplifying setting through pov, person vs environment, indirect dialogue) and two emotions from bowls containing dozens. Occasionally, we pick the name of an item from another bowl (e.g., a  crushed soda can, a smelly pillowcase, a squeezed lemon slice). Then in a twenty minute period, we’d write a story using Eric’s EDACE and all the elements we’ve randomly picked from the bowls. When the timer rings, we’d each read our story aloud. The only rule: It doesn’t matter if our work is less than stellar. We are practicing. Merely practicing—although what great practice it is. The more we utilize the process and implement our skills the more integrated they become.

The system the Story Starters use allows us to experiment with genres outside our comfort zones, move characters from one emotional state to another, and have one hell of a time. Amazing ourselves with our creativity—and our consumption of popcorn, sweets and coffee—we laugh and inspire and impact each other other with our stories. We’ve built a strong sense of collegiality and a built-in cheering section for our published endeavors. The Story Starters meet every other week and embark on this process twice in an evening.

At the rate of two story-starts (although many times we finish a completed story in 20 minutes), that’s 52 short story ideas a year. Some will be tossed away, some will be refined and submitted to journals, and others become the ideas for longer works.

We’re having an awesome time practicing our craft. 


What about you? What practice techniques do you use?

P.S. When I told Eric I was going to mention him in this blog, he offered to send my readers a longer .pdf version of his Writers Digest article on EDACE. (He’s written several articles for Writers Digest and The Writer magazines). He also said if you had a specific question about some aspect of your writing, he could send you an article that may be helpful. He’s willing to do this if you contact him before November 13 and mention the Stiletto Gang.  His email address is: eric@ericwitchey.com.


Marjorie Brody is an award-winning author and Pushcart Prize Nominee. Her short stories appear in literary magazines and the Short Stories by Texas Authors Anthology and four volumes of the Short Story America Anthology. Her debut psychological suspense novel, TWISTED, was awarded an Honorable Mention at the Great Midwest Book Festival and won the Texas Association of Authors Best Young Adult Fiction Book Award. TWISTED is available in digital and print at http://tinyurl.com/cv15why or http://tinyurl.com/bqcgywl. Marjorie invites you to visit her at www.marjoriespages.com.