Art Taylor's Blog, page 33

Read “The Boy Detective” For Free

Thanks to Linda Landrigan and Jackie Sherbow at Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, my story “The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74” is available to read for free for a limited time—linked here.

The story, which originally appeared in AHMM‘s January/February 2020 issue, has recently been named a finalist for the Agatha Award for Best Short Story by the Malice Domestic community and a finalist for the Derringer Award for Best Novelette by the Short Mystery Fiction Society. It’s also the title story of my short fiction collection The Boy Detective & The Summer of ‘74 and Other Tales of Suspense from Crippen & Landru, available in a signed limited edition hardcover, in paperback, and as an ebook.

Hope you enjoy!

The First Two Pages: “Long Time Coming” by Gale Massey

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.

There’s a particular pleasure and excitement that come from reading a new book by a favorite author—whether a brand-new release or a new-to-you title, either might have the same effect. But there’s a special and possibly even sharper thrill that comes from finding an author whose work you haven’t read before and then knowing you’ll follow her wherever she goes next. And so it was with the writer I’m welcoming here today: Gale Massey, whose collection Rising and Other Stories releases next week from Bronzeville Books. I was fortunate to be invited to read an advance copy of the collection, and I was impressed by the book’s range and lyricism and ambition. I even offered a short blurb for the book, and I’m glad to include that here:

Through girlhood, adulthood, and motherhood, and against complex family dynamics, the characters in Gale Massey’s exquisite collection strive to find their places in the world—and find  themselves in the process. Sharply characterized, lyrically written, rich with surprises, rich with life—these are stories to savor.

In addition to that recommendation, I’m also glad to welcome Gale to the blog today with an essay on one of her stories, “Long Time Coming,” which offers a sample of her work and a preview of her artistic choices and sensibilities.

In addition to the new collection, Gale is also the author of the novel The Girl From Blind River, which received a 2018 Florida Book Award. Her work has been appeared in CutBank, SawPalm, Tampa Bay Noir, CrimeReads, Sabal, and the Tampa Bay Times. For more information about her and her writing, visit her website here.

And congratulations in advance to Gale on pub day for Rising and Other Stories—seven days and counting as this essay goes live!

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.

Massey-Long-Time-Coming-

“The Boy Detective” Earns a Derringer Nomination

I’m so thrilled that the Short Mystery Fiction Society has chosen “The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74” as a finalist for this year’s Derringer Award for Best Novelette—and such a great list of writers and friends up and down the slate in all four categories!

FLASH STORY

Outsourcing by James BlakeyOver Before It Started by Robert Mangeot Memories of Fire by Joshua PastorWar Words by Travis RichardsonQuitman County Ambush by Bobby Mathews

SHORT STORY

That Which Is True by Jacqueline FreimorRiver by Stacy WoodsonThe Crossing by Kim KeelineThe Great Bedbug Incident and the Invitation of Doom by Eleanor Cawood JonesThe Homicidal Understudy by Elizabeth Elwood

LONG STORY

Chasing Diamonds by Joseph S. WalkerLord, Spare the Bottom Feeders by Robert MangeotMary Poppins Didn’t Have Tattoos by Stacy WoodsonEtta at the End of the World by Joseph S. WalkerHotelin’ by Sarah M. Chen

NOVELETTE

A Murder at Morehead Mews by GM MallietThe Wretched Strangers by Matthew WilsonThe Question of the Befuddled Judge by Jeff CohenThe Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 by Art TaylorSuicide Blonde by Brian Thornton

The First Two Pages: “The Soul of Peg O’Dwyer” by Michael Nethercott

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.

From reading both Michael Nethercott’s new story from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and now his essay below on that story, I’m convinced he knows his readers well—at least this reader, and I imagine I’m representative. Two things drew me into his story from the start—well, technically three. First up, the title, “The Soul of Peg O’Dwyer”—which Michael talks about at some length in the opening of his essay. Then, second, the choice to open the story with a transcript, one not immediately related to the next section of the story, and within that opening transcript, a key line with an unexpected twist. And, indeed, in his essay, Michael again pays special attention to both the transcript and that specific line—what he calls “a provocative sentence” that he hoped might “grab the reader and make them want to learn more.”

Consider me grabbed.

It’s a real thrill not only to be in the hands of a master storyteller but also to have that storyteller prove such a gifted guide to his own craft—step by careful step, as you’ll see in the essay below.

Michael Nethercott’s short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and The Magzine of Fantasy and Science Fiction as well as in various anthologies, including Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year. Mr. O’Nelligan in “The Soul of Peg O’Dwyer” appears in his O’Nelligan/Plunkett mystery series, which includes two novels—The Séance Society and The Haunting Ballad—in addition to shorter tales, the latter including “O’Nelligan’s Glory,” winner of the Black Orchid Novella Award. You can find out more about Michael and his work at his website here.

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.

Nethercott-First-Two-Pages

March Newsletter: Award & Publication News, A Giveaway, and More!

I just published my March newsletter—celebrating the Agatha nomination for “The Boy Detective” on the heels of yesterday’s official announcement from Malice Domestic. Plus, I’m celebrating an essay in the new MWA Handbook, giving away an advance copy of that handbook, and giving shout-outs to recent reading by some great authors!

Check out the full newsletter here—and be sure to enter the giveaway! And if you haven’t subscribed already…. what are you waiting for?

“Boy Detective” Named Agatha Finalist!

The Agatha Award finalists have been announced—and it made my whole year to see “The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74” from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (and then published by Crippen & Landru as the title story of my collection) on the slate for Best Short Story. I honestly poured my heart and soul and many (many) years into this story, so it’s an especially big honor to have it nominated by the Malice Domestic community. And in such good company too, alongside short fiction by Barb Goffman, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Gabriel Valjan, and James Ziskin!

Congratulations as well to all the finalists, so many friends up and down this list, pasted below. I wish we were all getting together in person this year to celebrate, but a virtual meeting will be great: More Than Malice July 14-17. Mark your calendars—and be sure to register now!

​The 2020 Agatha Award Nominees

Best Contemporary Novel

Gift of the Magpie by Donna Andrews (Minotaur)
Murder in the Bayou Boneyard by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane Books)
From Beer to Eternity by Sherry Harris (Kensington)
All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
The Lucky One by Lori Rader-Day (William Morris)

Best Historical Novel

The Last Mrs. Summers by Rhys Bowen (Berkeley)
The Fate of a Flapper by Susanna Calkins (Griffin)
A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington)
Taken Too Soon by Edith Maxwell (Beyond the Page Publishing)
The Turning Tide by Catriona McPherson (Quercus)

Best First Novel

A Spell for Trouble by Esme Addison (Crooked Lane Books)
Winter Witness by Tina deBellegarde (Level Best Books)
Derailed by Mary Keliikoa (Epicenter Press, Inc.)
Murder at the Mena House by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington)
Murder Most Sweet by Laura Jensen Walker (Crooked Lane Books)

Best Short Story

“Dear Emily Etiquette” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Sep/Oct)
“The Red Herrings at Killington Inn” by Shawn Reilly Simmons Masthead: Best New England Crime Stories (Level Best Books)
“The Boy Detective & The Summer of ‘74” by Art Taylor (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine Jan/Feb)
“Elysian Fields” by Gabriel Valjan California Schemin’: The 2020 Bouchercon Anthology (Wildside Press)
“The 25 Year Engagement” by James Ziskin In League with Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon (Pegasus Crime)

Best Non-Fiction

Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy by Leslie Brody (Seal Press)
American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson (G. P. Putnam)
Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)
Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock by Christina Lane (Chicago Review Press)
H. R. F. Keating: A Life of Crime by Sheila Mitchell (Level Best Books)

Best Children’s/YA Mystery

Midnight at the Barclay Hotel by Fleur Bradley (Viking Books for Young Readers)
Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers)
Saltwater Secrets by Cindy Callaghan (Aladdin)
From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks (Katherine Teagen Books)
Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco by Richard Narvaez (Piñata Books)

The First Two Pages: “Volcano” By Alison McMahan

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.

For the past few weeks, The First Two Pages has been hosting contributors to the new anthology The Great Filling Station Holdup: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Jimmy Buffett: Bruce Robert Coffin on his story “Incommunicado,” Laura Oles on her story “Everybody’s on the Run,” and Neil S. Plakcy on “Public Relations.” Concluding the series today is author and filmmaker Alison McMahan, reflecting on the origins of her story “Volcano”—some personal experience which, in fact, far predated the call for submissions for the new anthology. McMahan’s essay shows how numerous influences can join together to help inspire a writer’s creativity and contribute toward the final product.

Alison McMahan’s historical crime novel The Saffron Circus won the Rosemary Award and the Florida Writers Association’s Royal Palm Literary Award, and her short fiction has appeared in Scream and Scream Again, edited by R.L. Stine, and in anthologies published by Level Best Books, Wildside Press, and Down-and-Out Books. She’s also a screenwriter and filmmaker, whose most recent film was Bare Hands and Wooden Limbs. Find out more about her work at her website.

In addition to these four contributors to The First Two Pages, the full anthology, edited by Josh Pachter, also features stories by Leigh Lundin, Pachter himself, Rick Ollerman, Michael Bracken, Don Bruns, Lissa Marie Redmond, Elaine Viets, Robert J. Randisi, Isabella Maldonado, Jeffery Hess, John M. Floyd, and M.E. Browning.

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.

McMahan-Volcano

The First Two Pages: “Public Relations” by Neil S. Plakcy

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 brings the third essay in a series by contributors to the new anthology The Great Filling Station Holdup: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Jimmy Buffett, and as with Bruce Robert Coffin and Laura Oles, Neil S. Plakcy is another writer who became a friend through out get-togethers at Malice Domestic and Bouchercon—so these recent First Two Pages essays keep driving home all that I’ve been missing this year in terms of conferences and festivals cancelled or moved online!

Neil is a both a prolific and a terrific writer, with more than fifty mystery and romance novels to his credit—including two long-running series: the golden retriever mysteries and the Mahu series, the latter a three-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards. Neil is also a great short story writer—and speaking of the conferences above, he’s had short fiction in both the Bouchercon anthology Florida Happens and the Malice Domestic anthology Murder Most Conventional, among other places. You can find out more about all his work at his website.

Below, Neil gives us a glimpse at his latest short story, “Public Relations,” and do check out the previous two essays by Bruce Robert Coffin on his story “Incommunicado” and Laura Oles on her story “Everybody’s on the Run.” The Great Filling Station Holdup, edited by Josh Pachter, also features stories by Leigh Lundin, Pachter himself, Rick Ollerman, Michael Bracken, Don Bruns, Alison McMahan, Lissa Marie Redmond, Elaine Viets, Robert J. Randisi, Isabella Maldonado, Jeffery Hess, John M. Floyd, and M.E. Browning.

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.

Plakcy-Public-Relations

The First Two Pages: “Everybody’s on the Run” by Laura Oles

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.

Last week, The First Two Pages hosted Bruce Robert Coffin talking about his story “Incommunicado” from the new anthology The Great Filling Station Holdup: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Jimmy Buffett, and this week, I’m pleased to welcome a second contributor, Laura Oles, on her story “Everybody’s on the Run”—and special kudos to Laura for having completed this essay during the midst of the terrible Texas snowstorm that left her without power for the better part of a week! As you’ll see, she references that weather in the essay below—an emphasis on place that’s important to the first two pages of her story.

I first met Laura at Malice Domestic, where if memory serves, we first talked about her story for the anthology Murder on Wheels, a collection which later went on to win the Silver Falchion Award. It’s been much fun to continue that friendship since then and to watch Laura’s career continue to grow, especially with her debut mystery, Daughters of Bad Men, earning nominations for the Agatha Award, the Claymore Award, and Killer Nashville’s Readers’ Choice Award. Find out more about Laura’s work at her website.

And do check out The Great Filling Station Holdup too. Edited by Josh Pachter, the anthology’s complete line-up includes stories by Leigh Lundin, Pachter himself, Rick Ollerman, Michael Bracken, Don Bruns, Alison McMahan, Bruce Robert Coffin, Lissa Marie Redmond, Elaine Viets, Robert J. Randisi, Laura Oles, Isabella Maldonado, Jeffery Hess, Neil Plakcy, John M. Floyd, and M.E. Browning (in order of their stories’ appearance in the Buffett discography).

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.

Oles-First-Two-Pages

With Gratitude: Margaret Maron & Paul D. Marks

As 2020 tipped into 2021, I found myself feeling particularly full of gratitude. In part, this feeling came simply from having made it through a tough year—New Year’s a milestone in some way, even if nothing really changes on January 1—but my gratefulness took many forms: for family and friends, for health, for security and stability in many areas of our life, and for having flexible schedules, even if demands from various directions seemed to be pushing and warping the ForceFlex of those schedules. And even though 2020 had been a particularly unproductive writing year, I felt grateful for the good success I have enjoyed and for the great great fortune of my writing community, their friendship and support, people I’d missed greatly as festivals and conferences had been cancelled or pushed online.

This in mind, that first week of January I considered starting a series of posts expressing my thankfulness each week for some specific person in my own writing community—and my mind immediately began conjuring up so many people I could spotlight that I expected to be able take such a series through the whole year.

Then—to be perfectly frank—I decided against it, purely because of how much the schedule was already feeling under pressure (ForceFlex tearing at the seams). In the midst of juggling commitments already in place in various direction, I was already struggling to find even a small bit of time to write anything for myself. Did I really need to add another essay, even a short one, to the to-do list each week? Time seemed, ultimately, too short, and I put the idea aside.

Over the last couple of weeks, however, the deaths of first Margaret Maron and then Paul D. Marks drove home in a more heartbreaking way the idea of time being too short.

Even briefly brainstorming my gratitude series, there was no question about the first person I planned to spotlight. Margaret Maron was my very first friend in the mystery community, and my longest as well, with a friendship that stretches back before I ever had a mystery published myself, and I still treasure the memory of her handwritten letter to me, congratulating me on the first story for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Margaret’s work set a standard—and a high bar—for all of us in the mystery community and for North Carolina literature as well. (Margaret and I were both native North Carolinians, which was another bond between us; and honestly, I think I’ve learned as much about my own state—its history, its politics, its changes—from her books as from having grown up there.) And while I value so much the support she showed my work, Margaret was generous to many, many aspiring and emerging writers, for example moderating for many years the Best First Novel panel at each year’s Malice Domestic—celebrating each new year’s debut authors at the start of their careers.

My first encounters with Margaret were the result of two articles I did on her work in the early 1990s: an article for The Armchair Detective focused primarily on Bloody Kin and her Deborah Knott novels and an interview for the North Carolina Literary Review. For the latter, Margaret invited me to come to her home—gracious always—and we talked about both Deborah Knott and the earlier Sigrid Harald novels, her beginnings as a writer, her thoughts about the mystery genre and about the importance of place, both to novels and to people. These were just the first of many articles I wrote about Margaret and her work over many years—including a big feature in Mystery Scene on the publication of her final Deborah Knott novel, Long Upon the Land. And when Margaret was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, I felt honored that she recommended me to write the commemorative essay. (You can read an abridged version of that essay here.)

At Malice Domestic each year and often at Bouchercon too, Margaret frequently included me in small get-togethers with her and her husband Joe, with Dorothy Cannell and her husband Julian, with Parnell Hall and Dan Stashower and others. Each time, I felt like a child being invited to the adults’ table, and in many ways still feel unworthy of having been included. But Margaret was a gracious host, and generous in other ways too, eager to tell a writer when they’d written something special—and eager to tell others too.

These are only a few small reflections, I recognize. Many specific anecdotes to share, many small details I’m not included. But that generosity and support—I’ll always remember and appreciate.

My friendship with Paul D. Marks began in a different way—each of us contributors to the group blog Criminal Minds, me stepping in to take up an every-other-Friday post and Paul simply the fellow that handled the Fridays I didn’t. But from those alternating Fridays, a friendship was born. I read and respected Paul’s thoughtful and extensive posts, whether he was writing about film noir or the Beatles or the books he loved or the history of his much-loved Los Angeles (a world away from my own upbringing). And I appreciated in turn his attention to my own posts—with each of us emailing the other week to week to chat about something he’d just written or something I’d posted. That correspondence grew beyond “Fun post today!” to sharing reflections on our writing—what we were writing or not writing, wanted to write or had just finished writing, and acceptances or publications too, always a cause for celebration. And reflections on more personal things too—our pasts, our families. Long emails frequently, and with each one, a friendship was strengthened. There were so many times when a word of encouragement from him helped lift me up, and I hope that I sometimes gave the same in return his way.

By the time I finally got together with Paul and his wife Amy in person, it felt less like a first meeting than old friends getting together, and I cherished those all-too-brief get-togethers at Bouchercon. I also cherished the news of Paul’s many successes, both his novels and his short stories—maybe especially those: when his story “Ghosts of Bunker Hill” placed first in EQMM‘s annual readers poll, when his story “Windward” was included in the Best American Mystery Stories anthology, and when that same story won the Macavity Award for Best Short Story. I was there when the Macavity was announced and presented, and I can picture Paul even now walking across the room toward the stage, picture myself clapping wildly for him.

In my mind, I’m still clapping now.

My last email exchange with Paul was in mid-February, with Amy typing his reply. Writing to him then, I’ll admit I’d assumed he was doing better, and I was sorry to hear about more set-backs and concerns. Sorrier later to hear the sad news that he’d passed.

It’s a cliché, of course: tell the people you love that you love them before it’s too late.

A small post here, too little, too late, for a couple of writers I dearly loved.

(I think I’ll be doing this gratitude posts more regularly now.)