Art Taylor's Blog, page 44

Friday, April 10: DC VIRTUAL Noir at the Bar

I’m pleased to be part of Washington, DC’s first virtual Noir at the Bar, following up on a similar event in New York, which seemed a rousing success.

The DC event takes place Friday, April 10, at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Hosted by Ed Aymar, the event also includes readings by Kathleen Barber, James Grady, Alma Katsu, Angie Kim, Colleen Shogan, Amber Sparks, and Erica Wright, with performances by jazz singer Sara Jones. You can join at Crowdcast here.

Still not sure what I’m going to read, though checking through stories now. Look forward to “seeing” everyone on Friday!

The Boy Detective & The Songs of ’74

In the comment thread on my recent essay for Jungle Red Writers, people shared their own memories of the Summer of ’74—and many of them mentioned the music of that year… which prompted me to share a Spotify playlist of the songs I listened to while writing this story.

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, “The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74” was written over many years—first as a short story, then as one strand of a novel, then as a standalone novella, then as a shorter novella. As part of my research into that year (I was six at the time), I looked through news stories, reviewed the fashions of the times, and revisited a lot of the culture too: books, movies, and music especially.

My original playlist was on iTunes, but I’ve recreated it on Spotify here. Not all of these songs were out in the summer of 1974, and in fact, “Time in a Bottle,” one of the big songs here, came out late in ’73 but was still top 25 for the year at the end of 1974. Hopefully, these songs give a portrait of the year as a whole—and a glimpse behind the scenes of the story and story-making as well!

WIROB: “Scenes from #QuarantineLife”

My latest column for the Washington Independent Review of Books wanders in various directions: Tolstoy, reading aloud, sheltering in place, the differences in what life looks like on social media and what’s really happening behind the scenes—all against the backdrop of our rapidly-unfolding pandemic.

Read the full column here.

The First Two Pages: “Let The Sunshine In” by Lynne Murphy

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 continues a series of essays written by contributors to In the Key of 13, the latest anthology by the Canadian crime writers collective The Mesdames of Mayhem. The previous three anthologies included Thirteen, 13 O’Clock , and 13 Claws, and that latter produced several stories which earned attention from the Arthur Ellis Awards—a great showing and a testament to this talented group!

Today I’m welcoming Lynne Murphy to talk about her story “Let the Sunshine In.” In her essay, Lynne draws a bit on her former work as a journalist and on some of the differences between journalism and fiction writing in terms of opening a story. (And in answer to her question: I think she made the right choice.)

In addition to her journalism career and her fiction writing, Lynne also co-founded the Toronto Chapter of Sisters in Crime. You can find out more about her and her work here.

And do check out last week’s essay by Rosemary McCracken and stay tuned for next week’s essay from Sylvia Maultash Warsh.

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.

Murphy-Sunshine

Jungle Red Writers: “Finding Felicia”

Thanks to Hank Phillippi Ryan for hosting me at Jungle Reds this weekend—reflecting on my apparent fondness for naming some characters Felicia. Who knew? And why that name?

Well, I have a couple of answers, as you’ll see here.

Crippen & Landru Flash Sale

Crippen & Landru, publisher of my collection The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 and Other Tales of Suspense, is hosting a flash sale through April 3—with 15% off all items in one purchase, so stock your cart and enter the code: “Discount15”!

I’m hoping, of course, that you’ll add my book to that cart….

The First Two Pages: “Farewell to the King” by Rosemary McCracken

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 Mesdames of Mayhem are a collective of Canadian crime writers who have now produced four anthologies: Thirteen in 2013, 13 O’Clock in 2015, 13 Claws in 2017, and just last fall In the Key of 13, stories with a musical theme. The previous anthology from this group, 13 Claws, produced four finalists for the Arthur Ellis Awards from Crime Writers of Canada: “Snake Oil” by M.H. Callway in the Best Novella category and “The Outlier” by Catherine Astolfo, “There be Dragons ” by Jane Petersen Burfield, and “The Ranchero’s Daughter” by Sylvia Maultash Warsh in the Best Short Story category, with “The Outlier” bringing home that latter prize.

With that history behind them, I’m pleased to welcome three of the Mesdames over the next three weeks to discuss their stories from the new anthology In the Key of 13—beginning with Rosemary McCracken on her story “Farewell to the King.”

As you’ll see in the essay itself, Rosemary enjoyed a long career in the newspaper business—as reporter, editor, and reviewer at papers across Canada—before turning to fiction. Her first mystery novel, Safe Harbor, was a finalist for Britain’s Debut Dagger Award, and she’s written two addition novels: Black Water and Raven Lake. Rosemary has also found success with short fiction, and her story “The Sweetheart Scamster” from the first Mesdames of Mayhem anthology, Thirteen, was a Derringer Award finalist. Find out more about Rosemary’s work at her website.

In the meantime, do enjoy her essay below—and look forward to essays over the next two weeks from authors Lynne Murphy and Sylvia Maultash Warsh.

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.

McCracken-Farewell

Short Story Column at WIROB

Thanks so much for E.A. Aymar for including me in his latest column at the Washington Independent Review of Books. Ed’s column “Cut to the Chase” mentioned my recent book launch at One More Page Books—a Short Story Extravaganza that also included Amber Sparks and Tara Laskowski—and the column also featured short story recommendations from Tara and me as well as from Sarah M. Chen, Ed’s co-editor on the new novel in stories The Swamp Killers.

Read the full column here—and congratulations to Barbara Ross who won the short story bundle!

March Newsletter

I just published my March newsletter—and what a lot has changed since the last one in December. Who could’ve anticipated?

The good news includes the release of my story collection The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 and Other Tales of Suspense from Crippen & Landru, an Agatha Award nomination for my story “Better Days” from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and my contributions to two more book projects: The Swamp Killers and The Beat of Black Wings.

The full newsletter also includes some recent reads and an update on the quickly changing events calendar ahead.

The First Two Pages: Blame the Dead by Ed Ruggero

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.

Visit Ed Ruggero’s website and you’ll begin to get a glimpse of his distinguished history and the many facets of his work today. West Point graduate, former Army officer, and former West Point teacher. A leadership consultant, teacher, and speaker whose clients have included the FBI, the CIA, the New York City Police Department, and Forbes, and who has appeared on CNN, The History Channel, the Discovery Channel, and CNBC to talk about “leadership, leader development, and ethics.” His nonfiction books include a title building on that expertise—The Leader’s Compass— as well as several histories: The First Men In: US Paratroopers and the Fight to Save D-Day; Combat Jump: The Young Men Who Led the Assault Into Fortress Europe, July 1943; and Duty First: West Point and the Making of American Leaders.

You’ll also find information about his latest book: Blame the Dead, the start of a new series of historical thrillers set in World War II and featuring Eddie Harkins, a Philadelphia beat cop turned Military Police lieutenant—and investigating a murder at a field hospital in Sicily.

Blame the Dead, published in early March, has already received rave reviews. Booklist called the book “A solid choice for WWII-thriller fans.” Library Journal praised the novel’s “vivid and unconventional setting for a murder mystery.” And in a starred review, Publishers Weekly celebrated “this exceptional WWII mystery and series launch.”

I’m pleased to welcome Ed Ruggero here today for a look at the opening of Blame the Dead—and (bonus!) at a short excerpt from the next book in the series, Comes the War. I hope you 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.

Ruggero-Blame