Art Taylor's Blog, page 17

The First Two Pages: “The Dead Snitch” by Doug Allyn

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

What an honor to host Doug Allyn, a two-time Edgar Award winner for Best Short Story, for the first First Two Pages essay of 2023. And what a thrill to celebrate the anthology where Doug’s story appears: Edgar and Shamus Go Golden: Twelve Tales of Murder, Mystery, and Master Detection From the Golden Age of Mystery and Beyond, co-edited by Gay Toltl Kinman and Andrew McAleer and released last month by Down & Out Books. Doug’s story is one of twelve Golden Age detective stories featured in the collection—all of them penned by winners of either the Edgar or the Shamus Award and…

Wait. That’s not quite right. Doug’s story is one of eleven inspired by and emulating the Golden Age detective story, but only one of the dozen tales is actually from the Golden Age, and that fact is indeed part of the thrill here.

Here’s the backstory:

John McAleer—Andrew’s father, a distinguished professor at Boston College for more than fifty years—was himself an Edgar Award winner. He earned the 1978 award in the Best Critical/Biographical category for his book Rex Stout: A Biography. Fifty years earlier, back in 1937, John tried his hand at writing a mystery story and the handwritten manuscript of “The Case of the Illustrious Banker” was only recently discovered—a story that’s now the centerpiece of the new collection and the occasion which brought together those other eleven award-winning writers: Doug Allyn, Lori Armstrong, O’Neil De Noux, Brendan DuBois, Martin Edwards, John Floyd, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Kristen Lepionka, Lia Matera, and P.J. Parrish—and I’m pleased to have my own story, “The Invisible Band,” alongside those as well.

An excerpt of Doug Allyn’s story, “The Dead Snitch,” is included in his First Two Pages essay below, but the essay itself ranges more widely, sampling three additional stories as Doug explores the need to capture the reader’s attention quickly—and argues that two pages is far too long to make a reader wait to be hooked.

We’ll be hosting other contributors to Edgar and Shamus Go Golden throughout January, including Brendan DuBois next week—stay tuned! And thanks again to Doug—praised by Ellery Queen as “one of the best short story writers of his generation—and probably of all time”—for sharing his insights as we start the new year.

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.

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Cover Reveal: The Adventure of the Castle Thief

Thanks to Kristopher Zgorski at BOLO Books for hosting the cover reveal this week for The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions, my second collection of suspense fiction for Crippen & Landru, coming out February 14.

Here’s the official description of the book:

The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions, Art Taylor’s second short story collection, is a panoply of crime fiction—from the title story, a more light-hearted traditional mystery set during a study abroad trip to Ireland, to the noir-tinged, with glimpses into the darkest recesses of the human heart, and even venturing into the realm of speculative fiction. This collection shows Taylor’s versatility in the genre with something for all readers. The book contains two previously unpublished stories from this Edgar-award-winning author. (Official Pub Date: 2/14/23)

Introduction by Martin Edwards

“Only the very best succeed in making a career from short stories. Art Taylor stands out for his wit, fine writing and beautifully observed snapshots of modern life.” — Peter Lovesey

I’m grateful to so many folks for helping to bring this collection together, including Jeffery Marks at Crippen & Landru; my agent, Ellen Geiger of Frances Goldin Literary Agency; Luke Buchanan for the cover painting; Christina Luboski for the jacket design; and Meredith Phillips for the keen-eyed copyediting.

You can pre-order The Adventure of the Castle Thief at the C&L site here—and stay tuned for more event information ahead!

The First Two Pages: “What’s a Little Murder Between Mammals?” by Rosalie Spielman

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

This is the final First Two Pages essay of 2022 and also the final essay in a series celebrating contributors to Magic Is Murder, the tenth volume in the Chesapeake Crimes anthology series. Magic Is Murder features a great array of contributors, each with ties to the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime: Donna Andrews, Pam Clark, Greg Herren, Smita Harish Jain, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Tara Laskowski, Jaquelyn Lyman-Thomas, Adam Meyer, Alan Orloff, Shari Randall, KM Rockwood, Rosalie Spielman, Marcia Talley, Robin Templeton, Cathy Wiley, and Stacy Woodson. Over the past two weeks, I’ve featured essays here by two contributors—Marcia Tally on her story “Behind the Magic 8-Ball” and KM Rockwood on “Pyewackett”—and this week I’m pleased to welcome Rosalie Spielman with “What’s a Little Murder Between Mammals?”

Rosalie is the author of the Hometown Mysteries series. The first book in the series, Welcome Home to Murder, was published in June 2022, and the next book comes out in February of next year: Home is Where the Murder Is. She also wrote Death Under the Sea and Death on a Cliff as part of the multi-author Aloha Lagoon series. You can find more about Rosalie and her work—novels and short fiction both— at her website, and be sure to join her Facebook readers’ group, You Know The Spiel.

Rosalie and I have been crossing paths a bit lately online, part of a Zoom lunchtime powerwrite hosted by the Chessie Chapter, and while I’ve been intermittent in my own attendance, the group has helped me to stay on track with a couple of projects—writing, revising, editing, always pushing ahead.

Rosalie has been pushing toward the deadline of her next book in those gatherings, and I’m grateful to her for taking time to write the essay below in the midst of everything.

Enjoy! And happy holidays to all ahead—best wishes for a terrific start to 2023.

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.

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The First Two Pages: “Pyewackett” by KM Rockwood

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

This past weekend, the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime had its annual Author Extravaganza at the Reston Regional Library in Reston, Virginia—the first time since the start of the pandemic that this event was held in person. It was much fun seeing so many author and reader friends at the program, where chapter members share their publications over the last year. Many of the participants talked about their stories for the new Chesapeake Crimes anthology, Magic Is Murder, which isn’t technically a chapter anthology but highlights the fine work by our members. Not everyone could make the event, of course, and while I was sorry to miss chatting with KM Rockwood in person, I’m pleased to be hosting her today at the First Two Pages—part of a series that’s rounding out the year (and looking ahead toward holiday shopping too—hint hint).

The first time I read KM Rockwood’s stories was in an earlier Chesapeake Crimes anthology: Storm Warning, which featured her terrific story “Frozen Assets,” set amongst the homeless. In her bio there, Kathleen discussed writing about characters who live on the fringes, and her fiction often draws on her many experiences working in correctional institutions and in inner-city schools and more—stories that need to be told. Kathleen also writes the Jesse Damon Crime Novel series, and she’s written stories for other anthologies and publications as well—and, as she shows in today’s essay, she can write some lighter tales too. Find out more about her writings at her website: kmrockwood.com.

Last week I hosted an essay by Marcia Talley, discussing her story “Behind the Magic 8-Ball.” Magic is Murder also features stories by Donna Andrews, Pam Clark, Greg Herren, Smita Harish Jain, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Tara Laskowski, Jaquelyn Lyman-Thomas, Adam Meyer, Alan Orloff, Shari Randall, Rosalie Spielman, Robin Templeton, Cathy Wiley, and Stacy Woodson. It’s a terrific anthology—be sure and check it out here, and enjoy another preview courtesy Kathleen’s essay below.

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.

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Pub Day! Edgar and Shamus Go Golden

I was equal parts thrilled and intimidated when Andrew McAleer invited me to contribute a story to an anthology he was co-editing with Gay Toltl Kinman—a collection being officially released today, Monday, December 5, by Down & Out Books.

The thrilled part first. Edgar and Shamus Go Golden: Twelve Tales of Murder, Mystery, and Master Detection From the Golden Age of Mystery and Beyond is a milestone book—a milestone tied to its genesis: the discovery of an unpublished manuscript with a personal connection to one of the co-editors. John McAleer, Andrew’s father, was a distinguished professor at Boston College for more than 50 years and an award-winning writer too, winner of the 1978 Edgar Award in the Best Critical/Biographical category for his book Rex Stout: A Biography. Andrew’s brother, Paul, recently discovered the handwritten manuscript of a story his father had written in 1937: the Golden Age-era mystery “The Case of the Illustrious Banker.” More than eight decades later, that story is finally being published as the centerpiece of the new anthology, and Andy and Gay invited eleven other authors—all fellow Edgar Award winners or winners of the Shamus Award—to contribute their own Golden Age detective stories to help celebrate the occasion.

Thrilled and honored to be part of that cadre? Of course!

And intimidated? Well… I’ve never written a Golden Age-styled mystery before.

My story “The Invisible Band” is more Golden Age-inspired, as it turns out. Set in the modern day, the story takes place at a hotel’s murder mystery weekend, with participants stepping into the characters of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, Father Brown, Philo Vance, Charlie Chan, and more. But when a real-life theft threatens to derail the weekend’s main game, which of the detectives will step to the fore to solve the crime? And which of them might be unmasked as the thief themself?

Edgar and Shamus Go Golden features ten other stories by Doug Allyn, Lori Armstrong, O’Neil De Noux, Brendan DuBois, Martin Edwards, John Floyd, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Kristen Lepionka, Lia Matera, and P.J. Parrish—great company to be alongside!

You can find links to all the major booksellers from the anthology’s page at publisher Down & Out Books. Enjoy!

The First Two Pages: “Behind the Magic 8-Ball” by Marcia Talley

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

The latest Chesapeake Crimes anthology, Magic Is Murder, is the tenth in a series which has established itself as one of the best in the world of mystery fiction—though I’ll admit I’m biased a bit, since the contributors have generally been drawn from my local area here in Virginia, Maryland, and DC (and I’m fortunate that my own stories have appeared in several previous volumes as well). But beyond personal connections, the series has also established its bona fides in more objective ways: Stories from various volumes have regularly been nominated for or won the Agatha Award and other honors. And here’s hoping that similar attention and acclaim awaits this new book—featuring stories by Donna Andrews, Pam Clark, Greg Herren, Smita Harish Jain, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Tara Laskowski, Jaquelyn Lyman-Thomas, Adam Meyer, Alan Orloff, Shari Randall, KM Rockwood, Rosalie Spielman, Marcia Talley, Robin Templeton, Cathy Wiley, and Stacy Woodson.

Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley are the long-time co-editors of the series. (I should stress that everyone—editors included—submits their story anonymously to an independent editorial panel, and the editors have sometimes had their own stories declined for inclusion.) Marcia’s story—”Behind the Magic 8-Ball”—did make the cut this year, and did make the , and it’s a real thrill to have her chat about it and in the process give us an introduction to the series, its history, and the behind-the-scenes of some of the decision-making involved.

While her short stories are terrific (including “Driven to Distraction” from Chesapeake Crimes 2, which won the Agatha Award), Marcia is best-known as a novelist—author of the Hannah Ives mystery series, most recently the novel Disco Dead, released earlier this month! You can find out more about Marcia and her work at her website here.

Enjoy Marcia’s introduction to the Chesapeake Crimes series and her reflections on her own story in the essay below. And stay tuned for more Magic Is Murder contributors in this space ahead!

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.

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Sisters in Crime Mystery Author Extravaganza

Post-Thanksgiving, and looking toward December—and what’s that just on the horizon? It’s the annual Mystery Author Extravaganza hosted by the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime at the Reston Regional Library—and we’re back IN-PERSON this year!

The event is this Saturday, December 3, at 1 p.m., at the library: 11925 Bowman Towne Drive, Reston, Virginia. Twenty chapter authors will be sharing news about their recent work, including Donna Andrews, Kathryn Prater Bomey, Maya Corrigan, Ellen Crosby, Barb Goffman, Sherry Harris, Smita Harish Jain, Maureen Klovers, Tara Laskowski, Con Lehane, Eileen McIntire, Kathryn O’Sullivan, Susan Reiss, Frances Schoonmaker, Mary Stojak, Lane Stone/Cordy Abbott, Shannon Taft, Art Taylor (hey! that’s me!), Robin Templeton, and Cathy Wiley.

Scrawl Books will be selling books at the event—holiday shopping!—and everything is free to the public, no registration required. More information can be found at the Chessie Chapter website.

Look forward to seeing folks there!

The First Two Pages: “Patterns” by Edwin Hill

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

This week concludes a series of essays featuring contributors to Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon, edited by Josh Pachter, published by Down & Out Books, and feautring short stories by a wide range of writers, including E.A. Aymar, Martin Edwards, Edwin Hill, Racquel V. Reyes, and Gabriel Valjan. Over the past few weeks, we’ve hosted Frank Zafiro with an essay on his story “A Hazy Shade of Winter”; Tom Mead on “The Only Living Boy in New York”; and Cheryl A. Head on “Loves Me Like a Rock.” And this week, I’m honored to welcome Edwin Hill on his story “Patterns”—which, as you’ll learn below, wasn’t the song his story was initially inspired by! But that’s ultimately part of the behind-the-scenes on this story—the process by which an idea goes from first draft to published story and the many changes along the way.

Edwin Hill is both a fine friend and a great writer, one who’s earned some much-deserved attention for his work, including nominations for both the Edgar and the Agatha Awards, starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal, and a cool spotlight as one of “Six Crime Writers to Watch” in Mystery Scene magazine. Edwin is the author of three novels in the Hester Thursby series—Little Comfort, The Missing Ones, and Watch Her—and the standalone thriller The Secrets We Share.

Find out more about Edwin and his writing at his website—and enjoy the glimpse below at his new short story too!

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.

The First Two Pages: “Loves Me Like a Rock” by Cheryl A. Head

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

Many contributors to the First Two Pages series focus primarily on craft issues when discussing the opening paragraphs of their stories—how a character is introduced, a conflict sketched out, the foundation laid for the story ahead. Others trace the genesis of their stories—perhaps the inspiration that first sparked an idea or the prompt which first set the author’s mental wheels in motion. As often as writers might dig deep into an analysis of specific lines or phrases they’ve written, others broaden their scope—building out toward some larger perspectives. And it’s that latter path that Cheryl A. Head seems to be on here, beginning with listening to Paul Simon’s “Loves Me Like a Rock” and to the background vocals by the Southern gospel group the Dixie Hummingbirds and ultimately ending up with a discussion of the American dream in today’s USA.

Though Cheryl is a tremendously fine short story writer—I was wowed myself by a story she read at a Noir at the Bar in Washington, DC—she’s certainly better known as a novelist, particularly as author of the award-winning Charlie Mack Motown Mysteries, six books in the series so far from 2016’s Bury Me When I’m Dead through last year’s Warn Me When It’s Time. Over her career, she’s been an Anthony Award Finalist, a two-time Lambda Literary Award Finalist, a three-time Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist, and Winner of the Golden Crown Literary Society’s Ann Bannon Popular Choice award. Her upcoming books, due February of next year, is Time’s Undoing, based on her own family history and looking back at the police shooting of a black man in Birmingham, Alabama in 1929. You can find out more about Cheryl and her work at her website.

Cheryl’s essay here continues a series featuring contributors to the anthology Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon, edited by Josh Pachter and published by Down & Out Books. Frank Zafiro has already offered an essay on his story “A Hazy Shade of Winter,” and last week Tom Mead reflected on his story “The Only Living Boy in New York.” The book also features short stories by E.A. Aymar, Martin Edwards, Edwin Hill, Racquel V. Reyes, and Gabriel Valjan, among many others.

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.

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Forthcoming!

This week brought the official announcements of two forthcoming books—including my second short story collection for Crippen & Landru: The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions, coming out in February 2023! Here’s the official announcement at Publisher’s Marketplace:

Stay tuned for more information ahead on The Castle Thief, including a cover reveal featuring original artwork by Luke Buchanan, who also created the painting for the cover of The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 and Other Tales of Suspense.

Even sooner, though, my story “The Invisible Band” will appear in the anthology Edgar and Shamus Go Golden: Twelve Tales of Murder, Mystery, and Master Detection, edited by Gay Toltl Kinman and Andrew McAleer and published by Down & Out Books. That book will be out early December, and below is the official write-up for the collection, which features a recently discovered story by Edgar Award winner John McAleer—80 years after it was first written!

Edgar & Shamus welcomes mystery connoisseurs to the Golden Age of Mystery and Murder…Have we ever really left? Has the Golden Age ever really slipped over the falls? The puzzle, the who-dun-it, the why-dun-it, the how-dun-it, and the unshakable alibi are as much afoot today as they were when Dr. Watson documented Holmes’s exploits under the glow of gaslight. As if picking up where the early masters of detection left off, Edgar & Shamus features twelve original mystery tales written exclusively by Edgar Allan Poe Award and Shamus Award-winning authors.

Edgar winner Martin Edwards promises a few relaxing days at a quiet and respectable English resort with criminologist Darius Fortune—or does he? Shamus winner John Floyd’s private detective Luke Walker reserves a 1940s seat for you in the New Orleans Quarter—paid for with old money. To save a friend from a murder rap Shamus winner P. J. Parrish’s “Salvage Consultant” Mavis Magritte must untangle an unshakable alibi with a set of risqué bunny ears. Shamus winner Brendan DuBois rebuilds Boston’s historic and famed Scollay Square without pulling a single building permit. It’s anybody’s guess which master detective might solve the big caper in Edgar winner Art Taylor’s “The Invisible Band”—Nero Wolfe, Miss Marple, Charlie Chan, Lord Peter Wimsey, Father Brown, and even Mr. Holmes are among the all-star sleuths assembled to solve the baffling mystery. In post WWII Havana, “vices are annuities” for Shamus winner Carolina Garcia-Aguilera’s veteran P.I. Sophie Stevenson. Thanks to Tennessee Williams, Shamus winner O’Neil De Noux’s private dick Lucien Caye is up to his hip-pocket in extortion. Edgar winner Doug Allyn’s major crimes detective and WWII combat veteran Dolph LaCrosse returns home only to be called the “new guy” by fellow cops. The war to end all wars may be over, but political skullduggery is still afoot in Shamus winner Lia Matera’s “The Party.” When a “riverboat” gambler washes up dead, Shamus winner Kristen Lepionka’s LA homicide dicks Hewitt and Carmichael are up to their necks in suspects all capable of dealing from the bottom of the deck. It’s trouble with a capital “T” when a Tyrone Power look-a-like saunters into Shamus winner Lori Armstrong’s Marlow Detective Agency.

In Edgar winner John McAleer’s “The Case of the Illustrious Banker,” 1920s London-based detective Henry Von Stray and his able collaborator in the detection of crime Professor John W. Dilpate are up against a “nippy bit of work” in one of their most baffling cases yet. Discovered more than eight decades after first penned, “Illustrious Banker” makes its debut in Edgar & Shamus. McAleer—forty years before he would win the Edgar Award unanimously beating out Christie’s autobiography—created Von Stray and Dilpate in 1937 during the Golden Age of Mystery.