Art Taylor's Blog, page 54

ALA Book Club Central Highlights Short Stories—including one “Novel in…”!

The American Library Association’s Book Club Central has just announced its May Picks from Sisters in Crime—celebrating May as Short Story Month—and I’m so pleased to have my book On the Road With Del & Louise: A Novel in Stories featured on the list!

The line-up of featured books spans a nice range, from single-author collections by Barb Goffman, Gigi Pandian, and Travis Richardson to three multi-author anthologies: Fishy Business: The Fifth Guppies Anthology, Sisters in Crime Los Angeles Presents Last Resort, and Where Crime Never Sleeps by the New York/Tri-State Chapter of Sisters in Crime. I’m so pleased that they made room as well for my own book, building a novel out of six interconnected short stories.

The ALA Book Club Central is a great site generally—in their own words:

a new online resource for book clubs and readers featuring book reviews, author interviews, discussion questions and more. Award-winning actor, producer, and avid reader Sarah Jessica Parker is the Honorary Chair of Book Club Central and a passionate advocate for libraries and literacy. Ms. Parker will offer her own book selections as part of SJP Picks.

In addition to Sisters in Crime, other partners include Booklist, United for Libraries, Libraries Transform, Penguin Random House, NoveList, and OverDrive.

Congrats to my other friends included here—and happy Short Story Month to all!

A Malice To Remember

This year’s Malice Domestic brought a milestone: My wife Tara Laskowski‘s first (hopefully of many!) Agatha Award—sharing the top spot in the Best Short Story category with Leslie Budewitz in one of two ties in this year’s list of winners.

Tara’s story, “The Case of the Vanishing Professor,” originally appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and I was pleased to catch the picture here of Tara posing with the teapot alongside her AHMM editor Linda Landrigan.

The full weekend was fun start to finish—from the opening day Malice-Go-Round through the closing afternoon’s elegant tea. Other highlights for me included:

Two short story panels, between them featuring a great list of short story writers: E.A. Aymar, Michael Bracken, Kaye George, Teresa Inge, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Kirstin Kisska, Deborah Lacy, M.A. Monnin, Alan Orloff, Josh Pachter, Robin Templeton, and Carol L. Wright.The launch and group signing for the latest Malice anthology Mystery Most Edible—too many folks to name there, but such an exciting collection!The Sisters in Crime Breakfast, an afternoon happy hour/tea with the editors and writers for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and at least parts of Sunday’s New Authors Breakfast. (Had to step out for a bit with Dash, who lost a loose tooth at the beginning of it!)And then so many informal talks and drinks and meals in-between times with fellow authors and readers—really the best part of the weekend in so many ways.

I also fit in a bit of business too—more on that in updates ahead.

In the meantime, a quick shout-out to all of the folks who help to make Malice such a smooth-running machine year after year. Hoping I don’t miss anyone, but wanting to make shout-outs to Janet Blizard, Jack and Judy Cater, Anne Murphy, Rita Owen, Janet Powell, Verena Rose, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Angel Trapp, Tonya Spratt-Williams (who may have stepped away a bit, but is still part of the heart of the organization), Kristopher Zgorski, and all of Malice’s many, many volunteers.

Needless to say, I’ve already signed up for next year too. See you then!

An Unplanned Malice Domestic Blog Hop?

The first three days of this week, I’ve found myself in four different places on the Internet—all related in one way or another with Malice Domestic. What a fun way to ease into one of my favorite weekends of the year!

Several months back, Ellen Byron asked me to contribute a guest post to Chicks on the Case, and she suggested I might write something about Dash—which I was glad to do, especially given his own burgeoning career as a writer! That post published Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, CrimeReads hosted a roundtable discussion on the state of the traditional mystery—a chat featuring this year’s finalists for the Agatha Awards, and I’m glad to find myself among that number too.

Earlier in the week, our good friend Paula Benson welcomed the Agatha finalists for Best Short Story for a short interview at Writers Who Kill—a fun series of questions!—and then offered a quiz at The Stiletto Gang on this year’s finalists in both Best Short Story and Best First Novel. So much appreciate her hosting us in two places!

The excitement is building already—looking forward to seeing everyone in Bethesda beginning Thursday night!

The First Two Pages: “A Death in Yelapa” by Leslie Budewitz

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.

Today’s post rounds out a short series featuring contributors to the Malice Domestic anthology Mystery Most Edible—and just in time for Malice itself! Later this week on the opening night of the conference, Friday, May 3, Malice will host an anthology launch and group book signing at 9 p.m. You can see the full list of contributors at the anthology’s website here.

Leslie Budewitz’s story, “A Death in Yelapa,” features characters from her Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries—the first book of which, Death al Dente, won the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First Novel. She also writes the Spice Shop Mysteries. Her short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Thuglit, and other publications, and one of her stories for AHMM, “All God’s Sparrows,” is a finalist for this year’s Agatha Award, along with stories by Susanna Calkins, Barb Goffman, Tara Laskowski, and yours truly (!).

Links to all of this year’s finalists for the Agatha Award for short story can be found at the Malice site here. And for more information on Leslie’s work, visit her website, www.LeslieBudewitz.com.

In the meantime, I’m thrilled to welcome Leslie here for a preview of her story in Mystery Most Edible, and be sure and check out the previous two essays in this series, by M.K. Graff and Gabriel Valjan.

Looking forward to seeing these authors and so many other writers and readers in Bethesda soon!

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.

Budewitz-A-Death-in-Yelapa

Malice Domestic: May 3-5

This week brings one of my favorite events of the year: the annual Malice Domestic conference, May 3-5 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, Bethesda, MD.

I’m excited this year that my story, “English 398: Fiction Workshop,” is a finalist for the Agatha Award for Best Short Story—and particularly thrilled to be on the same slate as my wife, Tara Laskowski, nominated for her story “The Case of the Visiting Professor,” and our three other fellow finalists: Leslie Budewitz, Susanna Calkins, and Barb Goffman.

My official schedule for Malice is below, but as always, the biggest highlight of Malice is the community coming together—so looking for between times to seeing so many old friends and making some new ones too.

Panel: “Make It Snappy: Our Agatha Best Short Story Nominees,” with
Leslie Budewitz, Susanna Calkins, Barb Goffman, and Tara Laskowski,
moderated by Michael Bracken • Friday, May 3, 2 p.m.Opening Ceremonies • Friday, May 3, 2 p.m.Sisters in Crime Breakfast • Saturday, May 4, 7:30 a.m.Author Signing • Saturday, May 4, 10-10:30 a.m.Agatha Awards Banquet • Saturday, May 4, 7 p.m.

Edgar Award: “English 398: Fiction Workshop”

I’ll admit to a bit of superstitiousness at times. For the couple of weeks leading up to the Edgar Awards Banquet, I’ve been having an evening cocktail from an Edgar Allan Poe glass that was sent to me by my friend Joseph D’Agnese soon after this year’s Edgar finalists were announced—and that cocktail has sometimes been a couple of ounces of Fortunato’s Fate, a rye whiskey (from Philadelphia’s New Liberty Distilling) that takes its name from Poe’s story “The Cask of the Amontillado.”

I don’t actually believe that there’s a connection between my evening cocktail and my news here—call it a theme instead of pure superstition—but for the picture here at least, it’s a pleasure to bring together my last glass of Fortunato’s Fate and this year’s Edgar Award for Best Short Story.

I was stunned and thrilled and honored—in equal measure—that my story “English 398: Fiction Workshop” won this year’s Edgar Award in the short story category. The story was in fine company, with short fiction by Paul Doiron, John Lutz, Val McDermid, and Lisa Unger—such a distinguished group of writers and stories with such a wide range of styles and structures that I felt fortunate simply to be listed alongside them. And I was so pleased to be celebrating the evening at the Dell Magazines’ tables—my wife Tara Laskowski and me invited there by Janet Hutchings, our editor at Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, who accepted and published my story in the magazine’s July/August 2018 issue. Joining us at the tables were Linda Landrigan, editor of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and the winner of this year’s Ellery Queen Award; Jackie Sherbow, associate editor for both AHMMandEQMM; and a distinguished group of short story writers, ranging from veteran masters Doug Allyn, David Dean, and Josh Pachter, to some of my favorite peers, Deborah Lacy and Terrie Farley Moran, to a pair of stellar first-time writers, Stacy Bella Woodson (winner of this year’s EQMM Readers Poll for her story “Duty, Honor, Hammett”) and Nancy Novick (recipient of the Robert L. Fish Award for her story “How Does He Die This Time?”).

Finding myself on a fine slate of nominees, finding myself seated amidst a tremendous amount of talent, and then being named a winner alongside Martin Cruz Smith, Walter Mosley, Sara Paretsky, Alison Gaylin, Leslie Klinger, Sujata Massey, and so many others—well, all of it was occasion for one final toast once we got home. And thus the picture here.

Thanks to everyone who reached out before and after the awards ceremony with encouragement, support, and congratulations. Thanks too to Mystery Writers of America, and especially to Margery Flax, for what was ultimately a magical evening. And congratulations in turn to my fellow winners and to all of this year’s finalists.

Finally, for those who weren’t there or missed the livestream online, here is the acceptance speech I wrote—just in case I got the chance to give it:

When I was in—I think it was the fifth grade, my elementary school in Richlands, North Carolina, tasked us kids with selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door as a fundraiser for the school. I don’t remember selling any magazines, though my parents must have signed up for something. But I very clearly remember checking the square for a subscription of my own—to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
 
Reading the stories in those issues—my introduction to short mystery fiction—I don’t think I ever dreamed of being in those same pages myself one day.
 
And the idea of having my work listed alongside the distinguished writers and the fine range of stories on the Edgar slate this evening—of standing up here right now…. I wouldn’t have believed it.
 
My parents and my brother—Gene, Jenny, and Jason Taylor—couldn’t be here tonight, but I’m grateful to them in so many ways—not just for that subscription to Ellery Queen but also for all the encouragement they’ve shown both my reading and my writing throughout my life.
 
Short stories don’t come with acknowledgements pages, so I actually have a long list of folks to thank, beginning with the Edgar judges. I’ve been a judge myself three times—once, years ago, in this very category—and I know firsthand the weight of the work they take on and the decisions they face and all the many, many stories that could also, so easily have made this final list.
 
I want to thank everyone who read my own story in its early stages, including my writing group—Donna Andrews, Ellen Crosby, John Gilstrap, and Alan Orloff—as well as Brandon Wicks and Laura Ellen Scott.
 
Laura is one of my colleagues at George Mason University, and I want to thank the folks in the English Department at Mason generally—too many to name here—for their support of my writing and of my teaching.
 
As I’ve said many times before—can’t say enough—I appreciate Janet Hutchings, my editor at Ellery Queen, for giving me a home in the mystery community. Without her encouragement of my work—and now our long friendship—I would not be standing up here right now.
 
And the same could be said for my wife, Tara Laskowski, herself as fine a writer as I know, and both my best reader and my best friend.
 
Finally, I want to give a shout-out to those folks who have built much of their own career in short fiction. At the Dell Magazine tables this evening, I’ve been sitting with David Dean and Doug Allyn and Josh Pachter. And I’m also thinking of writers like Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman and John Floyd and Brendan DuBois and the late B.K. Stevens. You and many others have been a model and an inspiration to me.
 
In so many ways, this award is for you.
 

CrimeReads: “The State of the Mystery”

In advance of the Edgar Awards, CrimeReads asked this year’s finalists and special award winners to answer a few questions about “The State of the Mystery” today. I was pleased to contribute answers to a few questions myself, but I’m even more pleased to read what everyone else had to say! It’s a fascinating discussion.

Part 1 of the roundtable is here. Part 2 will be up on the day of the awards themselves.

Kind Words for “Care & Feeding”

Last week brought a nice surprise—nice boost to the ego. On Friday, Kristopher Zgorski of BOLO Books gave a shout-out to one of my short stories from a few years back and put that story in some very fine company.

Here’s the post:

The story he’s talking about (Kris is very good at suspense himself!) is Peter Lovesey’s “The Man Who Ate People”—from Lovesey’s second collection, The Crime of Miss Oyster Brown and Other Stories, just released for the first time in the U.S. by Crippen & Landru. Kris reviews the collection today at BOLO Books, and I’ve now read the story myself—a terrific one, ahead of its time.

To be listed in the same company as Peter Lovesey and Sophie Hannah!? and with one of my stories counted among a critic’s all-time favorites?! Well, that’s already enough praise to carry a writer through the year, but on the heels of that post—and clearly related to it—I got an email from Gabriel Valjan asking where he could read “The Care & Feeding of Houseplants,” since links to the story online all seemed to be broken, and could I possibly help?

A fellow writer wanting to read more of my work? Indeed, I can.

“The Care & Feeding of Houseplants” was published in the March/April 2013 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and the story went on to win both the Agatha Award and the Macavity Award for Best Short Story the next year in addition to being named a finalist for the Anthony too. During awards season, the story was temporary available to read for free both at my website and at the EQMM site, but was pulled from the web soon after.

I’m grateful to Janet Hutchings at Ellery Queen for giving me permission to post the story once more here for a brief time—just as it appeared in the pages of the magazine six years ago. (Again, only up for a limited time.)

Thanks again to Kris Zgorski for his support and enthusiasm about my work—and hope folks here enjoy the story as well. (Hovering over the page below will reveal controls for turning the page. You can also download here to read outside of this post.)

Care-Feeding-EQMM

The First Two Pages: “The First Day of the Year” by Gabriel Valjan

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.

Gabriel Valjan joins the First Two Pages today, talking about his story “The First Day of the Year” for the Malice Domestic anthology Mystery Most Edible. This is the second post in a series featuring contributors to the new collection, edited by Verena Rose, Rita Owen, and Shawn Reilly Simmons and presented in conjunction with the annual conference—starting next week, yikes! You can see the full list of contributors at the anthology’s website here, and check out the first post in this series too, by M.K. Graff talking about her story “Quiche Alain.”

Even before I’d met Gabriel Valjan in person, I knew him as a steadfast supporter of mystery writers and the crime fiction community on social media, especially Twitter. And this avid reader and regular advocate is also a distinguished writer too, of course. In addition to his short fiction, he’s the author of two series of novels, The Roma Series and The Company Files, and he’s been a finalist for several awards, including most recently an honorable mention for the Nero Wolfe Black Orchid Novella Contest.

Gabriel’s essay here, with excerpts from his story, will give you a taste of his work. He’ll be at Malice as well—his first time at the conference!—so be sure and say hello if you see him. And meet all the contributors to the anthology at the opening reception and anthology signing on Friday, May 3, at 9 p.m. See you there!

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.

Valjan-First-Day

Thursday, April 25: Edgar Awards—Yikes!

One of Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous opening lines has been running through my head lately—increasingly even, as we get closer and closer to this year’s Edgar Awards Banquet: “True! —nervous —very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am…”

(We’ll skip the rest of the line, since I think (I hope!) it doesn’t apply: “…but why will you say that I am mad?”)

This year is the first time time one of my short stories has been named a finalist for the Edgar: “English 398: Fiction Workshop” appeared in the July/August 2018 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and has also been named a finalist for this year’s Agatha Award.

The banquet will be held Thursday, April 25, at the Grand Hyatt in New York, and while I’ve been to the Edgars a couple of times before, I’ve never attended as a finalist, of course, so it’s a much crazier mix of emotions I’m experiencing here within a week of the big day: that nervousness I mentioned but also joy and excitement and anticipation and…. And you think for someone who writes suspense, feeling suspense wouldn’t be so much an issue, right?

In addition to the banquet Thursday night, my wife Tara and I will also be at an earlier cocktail party hosted by our editors at Dell Magazines—both Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Both at the party and at the dinner, we’re looking forward to celebrating the big day with friends from the short mystery fiction world—so many fine writers coming together for one of the biggest events in the mystery writing world.

If you’ll be at the Edgars, I hope to see you there—and to see others at Malice Domestic the following week! But if you won’t make it to either, thanks so much to everyone reading this for all the friendship and support you’ve shown to me and my work. It’s been great to get emails and messages and comments on Facebook and Twitter from readers and fellow writers in recent months. I just can’t tell you how much it all means and how much I appreciate the honor of being a finalist this year for both the Edgar and the Agatha—a dream come true.