Art Taylor's Blog, page 6

The First Two Pages: “The Lucky One” by Susan Alice Bickford

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.

In her email back in October proposing the First Two Pages essay below, Susan Alice Bickford caught my attention about three times over. First, her story was published in the digital edition of The Saturday Evening Post, not only a distinguished publication but also a chance for readers of the blog to go straight from essay to the full story, available for free at the website here. Second, Bickford has earned great success outside of short-form fiction, including being named a finalist for the Lefty Award for Debut Novel for A Short Time to Die and then being an Edgar finalist for her second novel, Dread of Winter—not hardly a bad track record! And then, at the intersection of long-form fiction and short fiction… Well, I don’t want to spoil her essay too much, but her email explained how her short story for the Saturday Evening Post originally began its life as “a 90K+ novel”—at which point I was trebly intrigued to see what the behind-the-scenes of that process might have been like.

Do enjoy the essay below, then check out “The Lucky One” in full at The Saturday Evening Post website. And be sure to check out more of Bickford’s work at her own 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.

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In Short: The Center for Fiction • Wednesday, January 29

I’ll be leading a Zoom discussion on two stories by Daphne du Maurier on Wednesday, January 29, for the Center for Fiction, based in Brooklyn. Registration is required—and here’s the full write-up!

Daphne du Maurier’s short stories “The Birds” and “Don’t Look Now” are better known through their successful film adaptations, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and Nicholas Roeg, respectively. But the original texts are among the author’s most inventive and thrilling, and are evidence of how du Maurier’s short stories challenged her reputation as a writer of romantic and historical novels and moved into the worlds of horror, speculative fiction, and psychological suspense. Uncanny and perhaps unknowable threats, the menacing aspects of place and space, and ominous endings—these elements are hallmarks of both stories, though each twists them in unique ways.

More information and registration can be found here.

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Sisters in Crime Author Extravaganza

The Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime is hosting its annual Mystery Author Extravaganza at the Reston Regional Library on Saturday, December 14. The event begins at 1 p.m., and the library is located at 11925 Bowman Towne Drive in Reston, Virginia. Scrawl Books will be hosting book sales.

Twenty-two chapter authors will be sharing news about their crime/mystery books and short stories published this year! Participants include Donna Andrews, Paul Awad, Kathleen Bailey, Kathryn Prater Bomey, Maya Corrigan, John DeDakis, Ginny Fite, Barb Goffman, Jeffrey James Higgins, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Libby Klein, Tara Laskowski, Con Lehane, Adam Meyer, Tom Milani, Kathryn O’Sullivan, Josh Pachter, Frances Schoonmaker, Shannon Taft, Art Taylor, Heather Weidner, and Stacy Woodson.

Come early to mingle and buy these authors’ books from our sponsoring bookstore, Scrawl Books. The speakers will start at 1 p.m. and should be done around 2:15. They’ll then be available to sign your books. This will be a great opportunity for holiday book shopping. Books make great gifts!  

The meeting is free and open to the public, but you have to attend to see the speakers. No registration is required.

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The First Two Pages: “Tone Deaf” by HC Chan

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.

Over the past few years, the First Two Pages has frequently celebrated each new Bouchercon by hosting contributors to the new Bouchercon anthology—but despite attending this year’s event in Nashville, I failed to follow through on tradition and invite essays from a few writers who appeared in Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem: Bouchercon Anthology 2024. (Is it OK to blame the sprawl and splendor of the Gaylord? I feel like I’m still dizzied by it all! Actually, the truth is, my website was being renovated…) All that in mind, I appreciate Vera Chan reaching out to ask about writing an essay on her story for the collection, “Tone Deaf”—and what a fun essay and insightful essay it is!

Vera has only published a handful of short stories, but that track record has been pretty extraordinary. Her debut story, “Murderers’ Row,” appeared in a landmark anthology, Midnight Hour, and her next story, “Those Poor Mothers,” won the 2023 Los Angeles Times Short Fiction Award. Outside of short fiction, Vera also won the Eleanor Taylor Bland Award from Sisters in Crime for her novel-in-progress, Following, and outside of the mystery field, she’s a distinguished journalist as well. Stay on the lookout for Vera’s next success—soon, for sure! (And if you want to find out more in the meantime, visit her website at https://verahcchan.com.)

Vera is in good company in the Bouchercon anthology too, alongside contributors including Eric Beckstrom, Eric Beetner, Valerie (V.M.) Burns, Emily Carpenter, Michael Amos Cody, Tina deBellegarde, Mary Dutta, Michael Ferreter, Barry Fulton, Heather Graham, Rachel Howzell Hall and M.G. Hall, Sarah Zachrich Jeng, D.P. Lyle, Jenny Ramaley, Merrilee Robson, Peggy Rothschild, H.K. Slade, Clay Stafford, Kelli Stanley, JD Trafford, Mark Troy, Gabriel Valjan, and Erica Wright.

And as she points out in the essay below, the proceeds from Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem benefit a good cause: the Nashville Public Library.

Find out more about the collection at the Down & Out Books 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.

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BOLO Books Review: Midsummer Mysteries

Thanks to Kristopher Zgorski for the generous review of Midsummer Mysteries, the new Crime Writers’ Association anthology edited by Martin Edwards—and very much appreciating the shout-out that Kris gave to my own story, “The Gained Ground.”

You can read the full review here.

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The First Two Pages: “Drop Dead Gorgeous” by M.E. Proctor

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.

Aerosmith’s song “Janie’s Got a Gun” seems to have been begging to be the title of an anthology of crime stories sparked by the band’s songs—and editor Michael Bracken has now brought the idea into reality. Last week, Bracken and White City Press published Janie’s Got a Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Aerosmith, featuring a terrific roster of writers giving new life to the band’s greatest hits, including Bill Baber, John C. Bruening, Leone Ciporin, Mary Dutta, Eve Fisher, John M. Floyd, Avram Lavinsky, Steve Liskow, Jeffrey Marks, Tom Mead, Adam Meyer, Tom Milani, M.E. Proctor, Ed Ridgley, Joseph S. Walker, and Jim Winter.

One of these contributors, M.E. Proctor, reached out about contributing a First Two Pages essay on her story, “Drop Dead Gorgeous,” and I’m pleased to host her here today—and in the process to help celebrate the entire collection.

M.E. Proctor is the author of the Declan Shaw PI series—with the first book, Love You Till Tuesday, out now from Shotgun Honey with a second one scheduled for 2025. She’s also the author of a short story collection, Family and Other Ailments, and her work has appeared in anthologies and magazines including Vautrin, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Shotgun Honey, Reckon Review, and Black Cat Weekly. You can find more about her work at www.shawmystery.com or follow her on Substack at https://meproctor.substack.com.

In the meantime, enjoy this preview of her story below—with glimpses into the full project too. Congratulations to all!

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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New Fiction—Three Months’ Worth!

My website was in a state of renovation and renewal over a period of several months, and while I’ve been back in business for a while (check it out!), I’m only slowly catching up on updating information about recent publications. Here’s three new stories, published over the last three months—excited about them all! Click the covers to find on Amazon.

Co-written with Tara Laskowski (my wife!), “After Their Convictions, Six Murderers Reflect on How Killing Mr. Boddy Changed Their Lives” is our first-ever foray into fan fiction—offering six linked flash fiction stories inspired by one of our favorite board games. Any clue which game that might be?

Issue 15 of Black Cat Mystery Magazine, released in September, 
also features stories by John Floyd, R.T. Lawton, Stacy Woodson, and more—including a classic tale by Jack Ritchie.

On his annual summer solstice hike, an aging man is haunted by memories of his best friend’s death on the same summit decades before…

My story “The Gained Ground” is one of 19 in a new anthology from the Crime Writers Association and Flame Tree Press. Edited by Martin Edwards, the collection also features stories by the following authors: SJ Bennett, J.C. Bernthal, Chris Curran, Judith Cutler, Luke Deckard, Victoria Dowd, Martin Edwards, Kate Ellis, Helen Fields, Paula Lennon, G.M. Malliet, William Burton McCormick, Tom Mead, Christine Poulson, Jacquie Rogers, Meeti Shroff-Shah, Chris Simms, and L.C. Tyler.

Late night at a a neighborhood bookstore, an advice columnist tasks her friends and the bookstore’s owner with solving what may be a murder—reading between the lines of a letter she received.

My story “Tuesday Night Teas” joins a dozen other “creative and cunning cozy stories” in Agatha and Derringer Get Cozy: Thirteen Tales of Murder, Mystery, and Master Detection, featuring new fiction by winners of the Agatha and Derringer Awards.

Other contributors include John Floyd, Barb Goffman, Tara Laskowski, BV Lawson, Robert Lopresti, Kris Neri, Alan Orloff, Josh Pachter, Stephen D. Rogers, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Marcia Talley, and Stacy Woodson.

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The First Two Pages: “Bad Influence” by Mark Stevens

n 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.

Rounding out a trio of essays by contributors to the new anthology Crimes Against Nature: New Stories of Environmental Villainy, Mark Stevens joins us to discuss his story, “Bad Influence”—with paragraph-by-paragraph commentary, even of paragraphs just a single-sentence long! Do check out the previous posts by Robert Lopresti on “The Trouble with Saving the World” and Janice Law on “The Smart One”—and the full anthology, with additional stories by Michael Bracken, Susan Breen, Sarah M. Chen, Barb Goffman, Karen Harrington, R.T. Lawton, Jon McGoran, Josh Pachter, Gary Phillips, S.J. Rozan, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden.

Mark Stevens is a terrific writer in several directions: a novelist, a short story writer, and a blogger and reviewer too. His latest novel is The Fireballer, which the Denver Post praised as “a lively baseball novel… with details that make the book feel genuine,” and Trapline, from Mark’s Allison Coil Mystery Series, won the Colorado Book Award for Best Mystery. Next year, Thomas & Mercer will publish No Lie Lasts Forever, the first in a series of new thrillers. Mark’s short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and in the anthology Denver Noir, and you can find his book reviews on his blog. Stevens is previous past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, and he contributes to the podcast for the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers.

You can find more about Mark at his website here. And here’s more about Crimes Against Nature at the Down & Out website as well.

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: “The Smart One” by Janice Law

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, Robert Lopretsi introduced his new anthology Crimes Against Nature: New Stories of Environmental Villainy with an essay on his own story for the collection: “The Trouble with Saving the World.” This week we’re welcoming another contributor, Janice Law, who starts off her own essay with some context on the challenges posed by an ecologically themed prompt. In her essays for the blog SleuthSayers, Janice often writes about history and social issues, and those perspectives inform her comments here—alongside a terrific look at craft choices for short story writers too.

Janice has been nominated for the Edgar Award and won the Lambda Literary Award for her work as a novelist, and as a short story writer, she’s a frequent contributor to both Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in addition to contributions to various anthologies. You can find out more about her work at her website: www.janicelaw.com.

Additional contributors to the anthology include Michael Bracken, Susan Breen, Sarah M. Chen, Barb Goffman, Karen Harrington, R.T. Lawton, Jon McGoran, Josh Pachter, Gary Phillips, S.J. Rozan, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mark Stevens, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden.

You can find more about the book at the Down & Out 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.

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The First Two Pages: “The Trouble With Saving The World” by Robert Lopresti

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.

Robert Lopresti was the first author I hosted at the First Two Pages when I began curating the blog series; he wrote about his story “The Chair Thief” in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. And I’ve hosted Rob another time since then, reflecting on “Underpass” from Black Cat Mystery Magazine. But while I generally aim for variety in the authors who appear here, I couldn’t resist when Rob told me about his new anthology Crimes Against Nature: New Stories of Environmental Villainy, a collection spurred on by his continuing interest in ecological issues, as he explains in the essay below. And if you haven’t checked out Rob’s novel Greenfellas, you should!

Here’s more information on the anthology from Down & Out Books:

The way we treat the world is a crime—fifteen of them, in fact. Some of the best and most honored mystery writers today have written new stories for this book dealing with environmental issues including pollution, wildfire, invasive species, climate change, recycling, and many more.

Authors include Michael Bracken, Susan Breen, Sarah M. Chen, Barb Goffman, Karen Harrington, Janice Law, R.T. Lawton, Robert Lopresti, Jon McGoran, Josh Pachter, Gary Phillips, S.J. Rozan, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mark Stevens, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden.

The stories cover a wide variety of styles including noir, comic, caper, psychological, police procedural, and even a tale inspired by comic books.

Putting their money where their mouths are, the authors have chosen ecologically-themed non-profits who will receive half the royalties.

And stay tuned for essays by more contributors over the next two weeks!

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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