Art Taylor's Blog, page 30

More Than Malice • July 14-17

In better circumstances, Malice Domestic would’ve happened a couple of months back and in person—and in that other world, as I wrote this, we’d all be thinking of what to pack and what to wear and how excited we’d all be to see one another again.

But even with in new circumstances and conditions, I’m still finding myself excited about More Than Malice coming up this week—such an impressive array of authors and subjects as I’m browsing through the panels and plotting my schedule! And that is similar to a regular year: Where am I gonna be? Who am I gonna see?

I’m pleased to be part of the schedule myself—beginning with programming that’s already been released online to the general public: the Agatha Award panels, available here. My story “The Boy Detective and the Summer of ’74” is a finalist for this year’s Agatha Award for Best Short Story, and I was thrilled to talk short fiction with my fellow panelists via Zoom, the next best thing to being there!

Additionally, I moderated a panel on short story collections with a group of terrific writers, legendary ones even: Lawrence Block, Dana Cameron, Nikki Dolson, Gale Massey, and Sara Paretsky. That panel will be aired on Saturday, July 17, at 2:30 p.m. and is only available to registered attendees.

Finally, I’ll be signed on (and on the edge of my seat!) for the Agatha Awards presentation itself later on Saturday afternoon at 5:30 p.m.

In between times, I’ll be a spectator at various events—from the opening ceremonies and chat with Louise Penny, through the Thursday evening events, and the other panels on Friday and Saturday.

Much ahead—and hope to “see” you there!

The First Two Pages: “Book Drop” by Sarah Bresniker

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.

One of the great pleasures of anthologies is the chance to read work by new authors—authors new to you or, in some cases, new to the world entirely. In my own editing of two Bouchercon anthologies—Murder Under the Oaks and this past year’s California Schemin’—I’ve been thrilled to work with veteran and distinguished writers, but I have a softer spot for the stories by debut writers. Similarly, in the First Two Pages series, we’re often hosting writers with great experience, sharing hard-earned perspectives on craft, but it’s also exciting to host a writer with fresh views and a different kind of excitement. And so it is with Sarah Bresniker today, writing about “Book Drop,” her fiction debut in The Fish That Got Away, the latest anthology from the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime. As Sarah explains in her essay, this is the first published of her Arlie Wynne stories, and there’s more material for stories and novels still ahead!

Edited by Linda M. Rodriguez, The Fish That Got Away features twenty stories in all, from a nice range of contributors, both first-time short story writers and veteran talents too: Marcia Adair, Mary Adler, Susan Alice Bickford, Sarah A. Bresniker, MB Dabney, E.B. Davis, P. A. De Voe, Mary Dutta, Gene Garrison, Lori Roberts Herbst, Victoria Kazarian, Melinda Loomis, Cheryl Marceau, Michele Bazan Reed, Cynthia Sabelhaus, C. M. Surrisi, Mark Thielman, Kari Wainwright, Joseph S. Walker, and C. M. West.

Check out last week’s essay by Victoria Kazarian, and stay tuned for one more ahead by Lori Roberts Herbst!

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.

FirstTwoPagesSarahBresniker

Agatha Award Short Story Panel

Malice Domestic has posted the Agatha Award Short Story Panel for this year’s More Than Malice virtual gathering. I so much appreciate Kristopher Zgorski hosting us all: me, Barb Goffman, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Gabriel Valjan, and James W. Ziskin.

All of the Agatha Award panels will be available to the general public prior to the conference, July 14-17, but only registered attendees will be able to vote on the awards. Two panels are currently up: Best Contemporary Novel and Best Short Story, with more to come!

The First Two Pages: “Good Neighbors” by Victoria Kazarian

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 year’s anthology from the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime was released in early June, and I’m glad to catch up with the some of the contributors now with three First Two Pages essays, a series beginning today! The Fish That Got Away features twenty stories in all, from a nice range of contributors, both first-time short story writers and veteran talents too: Marcia Adair, Mary Adler, Susan Alice Bickford, Sarah A. Bresniker, MB Dabney, E.B. Davis, P. A. De Voe, Mary Dutta, Gene Garrison, Lori Roberts Herbst, Victoria Kazarian, Melinda Loomis, Cheryl Marceau, Michele Bazan Reed, Cynthia Sabelhaus, C. M. Surrisi, Mark Thielman, Kari Wainwright, Joseph S. Walker, and C. M. West.

Victoria Kazarian kicks of this essay series with a post on her story “Good Neighbors.” As you’ll see from her essay below, she draws on both her background in Silicon Valley and her work as a high school English and creative writing teacher to reflect on the story’s genesis and its structure. You can read more about Victoria at her website, plus sample her other short stories and learn about her first novel, Swift Horses Racing, released in April of this year.

And stay tuned for upcoming essays from Sarah A. Bresniker and Lori Roberts Herbst!

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.

Kazarian-First-Two-Pages

AHMM Podcast: “The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74”

Thanks to Linda Landrigan and Jackie Sherbow for inviting me to read “The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74” for the Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine podcast series. It’s a long story, I know—more than an hour reading aloud!—but I hope folks might enjoy.

You can find the story here, and if you want to read along while you listen, the print version is available for free as a PDF for a limited time too!

The First Two Pages: “A Currency of Wishes” by Kate Fellowes

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 last two weeks, The First Two Pages has hosted contributors to the new anthology Moonlight & Misadventure, including M.H. Callway on “The Moon of Broadmoor” and Robert Weibezahl on “Just Like Peg Entwhistle.” This week wraps up the series with Kate Fellowes below on “A Currency of Wishes”—and on the importance of titles in addition to the strategies of opening scenes. (And I really love her approach to generating titles—I’m the worst at that, so looking forward to a new approach myself!) Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, Moonlight & Misadventure also features short fiction by K.L. Abrahamson, Sharon Hart Addy, C.W. Blackwell, Clark Boyd, Michael A. Clark, Susan Daly, Buzz Dixon, Jeanne DuBois, Elizabeth Elwood, Tracy Falenwolfe, John M. Floyd, Billy Houston, Bethany Maines, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Joseph S. Walker, and Susan Jane Wright.

Kate Fellowes is the author of six mysteries, most recently A Menacing Brew. Her short stories and essays have appeared in several anthologies, as well as Victoria, Woman’s World, Brides, Romantic Homes, and other periodicals. She’s also a founding member of the Wisconsin Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Catch up with her at her blog: http://katefellowes.wordpress.com.

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.

Fellowes-Currency

More Than Malice & OLLI

This week includes two virtual events—one recorded on Zoom for Malice Domestic and the other live on Zoom for students at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

On Tuesday evening, I’ll be chatting short stories as part of a recorded panel for More Than Malice—and I’ve so enjoyed reading recent collections by each of the panelists: Lawrence Block, Dana Cameron, Nikki Dolson, Gale Massey, and Sara Paretsky. Needless to say that subject matter is of interest, both because of my own recent story collection but also because I taught a course on collections this past spring at George Mason University. Lots of discussions on this topic over the past few months, and now drawing on some of that as I prep questions for Tuesday!

Then on Thursday, I’m giving a lunchtime talk on one of my favorite crime novels—Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest—for the “Literary Potpourri” series at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Mason. Here’s the write-up for that event.

Red Harvest and the Hard-Boiled Hero.

Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon has long been considered his best—as well as one of the greatest detective novels of all time—but Hammett’s first novel, Red Harvest, may well have broken ground the year before in more profound ways. This presentation will consider Red Harvest’s iconic detective, the unnamed Continental Op; discuss the book’s milestone importance in the development of the hard-boiled detective novel; and explore how Hammett drew on his own life for his fiction—or was the life he drew on some brand of fiction as well?

Registration is ultimately required for both events—either as an attendee at More Than Malice (register here!) or as a member of OLLI. But glad to share what I’m up to!

June Newsletter—and A Giveaway!

Just published my quarterly newsletter, including an awards and event update, some recent reads and recommendations, and a giveaway of the forthcoming story collection Pandora’s Orphans by Dana Cameron Author.

Click through to read more and find out how to enter!

The First Two Pages: “Just Like Peg Entwistle” by Robert Weibezahl

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.

As I was editing and formatting Robert Weibezahl‘s essay below, I experienced a brief bit of deja vu. I distinctly remembered reading the story being discussed—and yet, I hadn’t read it in the anthology where it’s going to be published… later this week. How was that possible? I’ll admit, I felt briefly unmoored.

It took me only a few moments to realize where I’d read the story. “Just Like Peg Entwistle” was among the final round of stories I was considering when I edited last year’s Bouchercon anthology California Schemin’ —the final, final round, I should stress, and one of several stories I was sorry not to be able to include in the book itself. One of the downfalls of being an editor or judging a contest—too many stories that deserve attention.

After reading Robert’s fine essay on this fine story, I reached out to him to ask if I could share this anecdote. Certainly no writer wants to have reminders of a rejection, but the truth is rejection happens to all of us, no matter where we are in our careers, and I think it’s good to remind folks of that. It’s also good to remember that a rejection isn’t a dismissal of a work, since there can be many factors at play behind those decisions. And finally, it’s good to know that persistence pays off and that good stories will indeed find a home. Robert told me he’d made some more revisions and edits to “Just Like Peg Entwistle” between the Bouchercon submission and its appearance in Moonlight & Misadventure, changes under the guidance of that anthology’s editor Judy Penz Sheluk, and as strong as the story was when I read that earlier draft, I know it’s a knock-out in its final form.

That anthology, Moonlight & Misadventure, will be released later this week on June 18, and in addition to Robert’s story, the collection also features short fiction by K.L. Abrahamson, Sharon Hart Addy, C.W. Blackwell, Clark Boyd, M.H. Callway, Michael A. Clark, Susan Daly, Buzz Dixon, Jeanne DuBois, Elizabeth Elwood, Tracy Falenwolfe, Kate Fellowes, John M. Floyd, Billy Houston, Bethany Maines, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Joseph S. Walker, and Susan Jane Wright. And I was pleased to host M.H Callway at the First Two Pages last week, writing on her story “The Moon God of Broadmoor.”

Robert’s essay on “Just Like Peg Entwistle” is below, and be sure to check out his other work, which has a wide range, from short fiction to novels, plays, poetry, reviews, and book-length nonfiction too. Several highlights: two novels, The Wicked and the Dead and The Dead Don’t Forget; two non-fiction books, A Taste of Murder and A Second Helping of Murder, each of which earned both Agatha and Macavity nominations; a Derringer Award nomination for “Identity Theft”; and a regular book column, “Well Read,” for BookPage since 2002, in addition to reviews and criticism in other venues. For more information on Robert and his work, visit his webpage here. And enjoy the 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.

Weibezahl-Peg

MWA Florida Chapter & More

I’m looking forward to talking short stories with the Florida Chapter of Mystery Writers of America—building in part on my essay for the new MWA Handbook How to Write a Mystery! The event is Saturday, June 19, at noon EDT (beginning with a half-hour of socializing first before the presentation).

While this is the big live event coming up this week, I’ll actually be recording two other events over the next 10 days—programs for the upcoming More Than Malice conference. First, Kristopher Zgorski of BOLO Books is hosting this year’s finalists for the Agatha Award for Best Short Story: Barb Goffman, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Gabriel Valjan, James W. Ziskin, and me. And then early next week, I’ll be moderating a panel on short story collections with Lawrence Block, Dana Cameron, Nikki Dolson, Gale Massey, and Sara Parestsky—such a fine line-up there!

Those recordings will be available closer to Malice, which takes place July 14-17. Stay tuned for announcements about those—but do go ahead and sign up for Malice now!