Art Taylor's Blog, page 60

The First Two Pages: “50” by Josh Pachter

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.

It’s a great privilege to help Josh Pachter celebrate a full five decades of his fine mystery fiction. Fifty years ago, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine published Josh’s debut story, “E.Q. Griffen Earns His Name,” its December 1968, and now, in the November/December 2018 issue, EQMM publishes Josh’s sequel to the first story: “50.”

In celebration of this milestone, EQMM and has also invited Josh to read it for this month’s episode of their ongoing podcast series (each link embedded here). Check out either as a companion to the new story, but trust also that “50” can stand on its own—and stand tall.

Here at this golden anniversary of his debut, Josh really is at the top of his career—not just productive but freshly prolific and both ambitious and entertaining in equal measure: as a writer with short fiction in EQMM, in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, in Black Cat Mystery Magazine, and in his terrific collection The Tree of Life; as a translator whose works appears regularly in EQMM‘s “Passport to Murder” section; and as an editor, including three volumes of recent note—The Misadventures of Ellery Queen,  Amsterdam Noir, and The Man Who Read Mysteries: The Short Fiction of William Brittain—and more in the pipeline.

Find out more about Josh and his work at his website here, and enjoy the preview below of his milestone short story, available in full in the current issue of EQMM.

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.

Pachter EQ

Dash the Detective… and the Book Critic Too!

You can’t say he didn’t get it honest: Our son Dashiell is both a great reader and a fan of mystery fiction—though the stories at his level are far more gentle than what my wife Tara and I read and write, of course.

On a couple of occasions recently, Dash has played detective himself—setting up an agency on the back porch earlier this year (see photo above) and then pulling down a magnifying glass this week and investigating several mysteries in our own house. His successes so far (as I posted on FB):

The Case of Three Tiny Plastic Pieces on the Carpet (An electrician who changed a light fixture last week and didn’t clean up after himself.)
The Case of the Orange Fuzz (Was it from the cat? No. Was it from the orange pillows? No. Was it from the orange blanket? Ding ding ding! And bonus for forensic analysis.)
The Case of the Blue Stain on the Rocking Chair Cushion (“It looks like it’s where someone sat there for too long,” Dash said. “And it looks like it came from blue jeans.” ….staring suspiciously at what I was wearing…. Another one solved!)

This week, Dash also made his debut as a fiction critic, with the two of us reviewing a picture book for the Crime Friction podcast hosted by Chantelle Aimée Osman and Jay Stringer—thanks to them for including us! Our short segment focuses on The Detective of London, written by Robert Kraus and Bruce Kraus and illustrated by Robert Byrd.

You can hear our segment on Episode 12 of Crime Friction at any of the following links; the episode’s featured guest is Lou Berney, talking about his new book November Road. (He’s pretty good too, of course.)

On iTunes
On Stitcher
On PodOmatic

Dash and I will be reviewing another book for the next episode—already checking out titles now. Stay tuned!

The First Two Pages: Reason to Doubt by Nancy Cole Silverman

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.

I’m so pleased to welcome another of my Henery Press buddies to the blog today: Nancy Cole Silverman talking about the first two pages her of new novel Reason to Doubt—just released today!—the fifth book in her Carol Childs mystery series.

As Nancy explains on her website, “Invariably, the stories I choose to tell are inspired by personal experience… even when the story turns out to be about a modern-day centaur or a horse that breaks loose from its rider and ends up on a Los Angeles freeway.” In the case of Carol Childs, the personal experience Nancy draws on is a little more down-to-earth. Carol is a veteran reporter for a talk radio station in Los Angeles, and Nancy had a long career in the radio industry herself—twenty-five years, in fact, first as on-air talent and then behind-the-scenes, ultimately working her way up to general manager in one of the nation’s largest markets.

To find out more about both the author and her character, check out Nancy’s website here—and I hope that the essay below whets your appetite not just for the new book but for the full series 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.

Silverman Reason to Doubt

The First Two Pages: “Mistress of the Mickey Finn” by Elaine Viets

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.

Elaine Viets and I have been friends from… well, “way back” might seem to cover it, since at this point I don’t remember exactly when we first met. It may have been a Malice Domestic—most likely—and it was certainly at a Malice when Elaine and I found ourselves in an elevator together, and I was stunned when she said something fairly simple like, “Hi, Art. How are you?” and I nearly fell out because…. Elaine Viets knows who I am!?!

I know now that such friendliness and familiarity are both part of the Malice Domestic community generally and, more particularly, part of Elaine’s openness and generosity of character. As accomplished as she’s been as a writer in so many ways—Agatha, Anthony, and Lefty Award winner; toastmaster and guest of honor at Malice; bestselling author of 33 mysteries in four different series—she’s ultimately down to earth and a joy as a person. And while she’s earned much of her success as a novelist, Elaine is also a terrific short story writer, with a new collection of her short fiction, Deal with the Devil, recently published by Crippen & Landru.

All this in mind, I’m honored to count her as a friend and thrilled to be hosting her today at the First Two Pages talking about some of the real-life inspirations for her newest short story, “Mistress of the Mickey Finn,” which appears in the latest issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine,

Check out Elaine’s website here for more about her career, and check out her essay below for a preview of this fun new story.

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.

Viets Mistress

Our Local Little Free Library

Our family loves the Little Free Library just down the street from our house in Fairfax, VA. My wife Tara, our son Dash, and I always check it out for new titles whenever we walk or bike past, and we regularly deposit some books there ourselves for the next folks to enjoy.

This weekend I left a copy of my own novel, On the Road with Del & Louise, in the box with an inscription celebrating Little Free Libraries in general—a tip of the hat both to the woman who set up this specific library and to Todd Bol as well, the man who founded the idea in the first place and who died earlier this month.

Check out this tribute to Bol and his Little Free Libraries in the New York Times—and to the person who picks up my book from this local branch, I hope you enjoy!

AAUW Book & Author Luncheon, Saturday, Nov. 3

The Fairfax City Branch of the Association of American University Women is hosting its annual Book & Author Luncheon on Saturday, November 3, at the Springfield Golf & Country Club, 8301 Old Keene Mill Road, in Springfield, VA. I’m so pleased that my wife, Tara Laskowski, and I are among the four author presenting at the lunch, along with Joseph Espisito and Josh Pachter.

Below is information about the event, pasted from the AAUW website. The reservation deadline has just passed (October 27) but looking forward to seeing lots of folks there!

Book & Author Luncheon
Saturday, November 3, 2018, 11 am to 2 pm
Springfield Golf & Country Club • 8301 Old Keene Mill Road, Springfield

This annual event is sponsored by AAUW Fairfax City Branch to raise funds for scholarships for women in our area and for the AAUW Fund.

We have an exciting program planned for the Book and Author Luncheon – Our featured authors will present to you quirky characters, dark mysteries, an unusual detective, and the pinnacle of 1960s culture.  Mark your calendars and join us to hear:

Joseph Esposito, Dinner in Camelot. Some of our greatest scientists, writers, and

socialites dined at the Kennedy White House in April 1962, reminding us of a past era.
Josh Pachter, The Tree of Life. In these stories, Mahboob Chaudri, a Pakistani

working as a police officer in Bahrain, tackles crimes and solves them with wit and heart.
Art Taylor, On the Road with Del and Louise. From screwball comedy to domestic

drama, these six stories offer suspense with a side of romance—a dash of something for

all tastes.
Tara Laskowski, Bystanders. By turns spooky, terrifying, and banal, the events in these

stories dramatize how people react when they are involved in unsettling events.

To register or for more information, please contact Sonia Esteve at 703.569.1456 or email westeve47@gmail.com.

The cost is $42 per person (includes luncheon and silent auction).  We accept checks (made payable to Fairfax City AAUW Branch) or Visa or Mastercard.

Reservations must be made by October 27 and are payable in advance.

Requests for seating must be made at the time of the reservation.

Guests with special dietary requirements must make their

requests when making reservations.

The First Two Pages: “Leah” by Julie Tollefson

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.

Julie Tollefson has the cover story in the new issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, out today—and it promises to be tense and twisty, as you’ll learn in her essay below about “Leah.”

Julie has published short stories in AHMM before as well as in a couple of anthologies, Flash and Bang: A Short Mystery Fiction Society Anthology and Fish Nets: The Second Guppy Anthology. And she’s written extensively in nonfiction as well, particularly in Kansas Magazine and Lawrence Magazine, both based in her native state. She’s now editor of the Kansas Geological Survey.

You can find out more about Julie at her website and be sure to find her on Twitter and Instagram too.

In the meantime, enjoy her essay here—the first of several that will be featured in the coming weeks focused on stories from the new issues of AHMM and its sister publication, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.

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.

Tollefson Leah

November/December Events

I’ve been looking today at my calendar for the next couple of months, with an eye already toward the holidays. (We’ve been early Christmas shopping online as well.) While my events listing isn’t as busy as it was during the summer, I’ve got two nice events in Northern Virginia ahead in early November and again in early December—the first with the local chapter of the American Association of University of Women and the second with the local chapter of Sisters in Crime.

Information on both is below, with links as well—and I’ll give more updates closer to each. Mark your calendars now!

Saturday, November 3, 2018

Book and Author Luncheon, with Joseph Esposito, Josh Pachter, and Tara Laskowski, American Association of University Women (AAUW), Fairfax City Branch, Springfield Golf and Country Club, 8301 Old Keene Mill Road, Springfield, VA • 11 a.m.

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Author Showcase, Sisters in Crime Chesapeake Chapter, Reston Regional Library, 11925 Bowman Towne Drive, Reston, VA • 1 p.m.

MWA Board Nomination

It’s official! …or at least part way toward being there, I guess. I’ve been nominated to be an at-large board member at the national level for Mystery Writers of America. The ballots are out, and let the voting begin!

Four other writers are in consideration alongside me for at-large members: Leslie Budewitz, Jeffrey Marks, Mark Pryor, and Jean Redmann. And fortunately for all, MWA members can vote for up to five of us, which means that unless the write-in candidates make a really strong showing (yikes!), all of us will be gathering together for the board orientation in mid-January.

I’m proud to be on the ballot with these fine writers, as well as with two other people: Alex Segura, who will be the at-large board member for the New York area (a specific designation), and the next MWA president, Meg Gardiner, whom I first met at Deadly Ink earlier this year and then saw again at Bouchercon. Looking forward to serving with all these folks.

Just to share, here’s my official statement on the ballot:

I’ve been a member of Mystery Writers of America since 1995, and have been very active with MWA’s Mid-Atlantic Chapter since moving to Northern Virginia in 2003. I spent several years coordinating programming for our chapter and helping to organize outreach opportunities; I’ve served as a chapter board member since 2010; and I’m currently chapter treasurer—in all cases trying as best I can to give back to an organization which has given so much encouragement and support to me as a writer. It would be an honor to serve as a board member at the national level and to contribute in a larger way to supporting MWA’s many fine programs and initiatives.

MWA members, please do vote soon!

The First Two Pages: Bar None by Cathi Stoler

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.

I’ve long followed Cathi Stoler‘s work as a short story writer—and was thrilled when she won the Derringer Award a couple of years ago for her great story “The Kaluki Kings of Queens.” She’s a fine storyteller and careful about her craft always.

…which makes me especially pleased as well to host her today at the First Two Pages with her new book Bar None, the first installment in her new Murder on the Rocks mystery series.

In the essay below, you can hear more about the novel’s protagonist, Jude Dillane, and about the Corner Lounge, a place I’d sure like to hang out in myself. And check out Cathi’s website for information on her other novels, novellas, and stories 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.

Stoler Bar None