Art Taylor's Blog, page 64
July 17, 2018
The First Two Pages: Disorderly Conduct by Mary Feliz
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.
Mary Feliz joins us today to talk about the opening pages of her latest novel, Disorderly Conduct, released last week. This is the fourth in her Maggie McDonald Mystery series, which also includes Address to Die For, Scheduled to Death, and Dead Storage.
You can find more about Mary and the series at her website, and in addition to checking our her books, be sure and seek her out in person at readings and conferences if you can. She’s great fun to talk with, and as my son learned quickly at Malice, she has the best swag too!
Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay here to read off-line.
Feliz Disorderly Conduct
July 13, 2018
Drinks With Reads at Mystery Playground
Thanks to Deborah Lacy at Mystery Playground for hosting me today in their Drinks With Reads series. I worked with my good friend Brandon Wicks to come up with a special cocktail to pair with my latest story for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, “English 398: Fiction Workshop.” It’s a version of a Negroni, as you’ll see—but with a couple of thematic twists. You’ll find the recipe for The Brittany here.
Hope you enjoy!
July 11, 2018
Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival, Saturday, August 4
The schedule has just been released for this year’s Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival—one of my own favorite festivals all year round!
I’m pleased to be interviewing this year’s two featured guests, Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner—great writers and great friends—and will be at both the VIP Meet & Greet and in the author signings area throughout the afternoon. Here’s my schedule:
VIP Meet & Greet, Taylor Ballroom • Noon-1 p.m.
Moderator: Interview with Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner, Birdsong Theater • 1-1:50 p.m.
Author Signings, Art Galleries • 2-6 p.m.
All events are at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, 110 West Finney Avenue, Suffolk, VA. Check out the full schedule and full list of presenters at the festival website. And see you in early August!
July 10, 2018
The First Two Pages: “The Black Drop of Venus” by Mark Thielman
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 pleased today to host Mark Thielman, discussing his second Black Orchid Award-winning novella, “The Black Drop of Venus,” the cover story for the July/August 2018 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Mark previously won the Black Orchid in 2015 for his story “A Meter of Murder,” which was published in AHMM‘s July/August 2016 issue.
The Black Orchid is presented each year by the Wolfe Pack—described on its website as “a forum to discuss, explore and enjoy the 73 Nero Wolfe books and novellas. The organization promotes fellowship and extends friendship to those who enjoy these great literary works of mystery through a series of events, book discussions, and a journal devoted to study of the genius detective, Nero Wolfe, and his intrepid assistant, Archie Goodwin.”
You can find out more about Mark and his work at his website here, and a list of previous Black Orchid Novella Award winners is 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 here to read off-line.
Thielman Black Drop
July 3, 2018
The First Two Pages: “Last Call” by Gemma Clarke
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 Department of First Stories is one of my favorite features in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine—the opportunity for the magazine to showcase new talent and for readers to get their first glimpse at writers who often have long and productive careers ahead of them. I felt fortunate to have made my own debut in this section of the magazine back in 1995, with my story “Murder on the Orient Express,” but I didn’t realize until more recently what an honor it really was. A feature by Marvin Lachman celebrating EQMM‘s 75th anniversary listed many of the most famous alumni of the Department of First Stories, including Charles Ardai, Laura Benedict, David Dean, Brendan DuBois, Martin Edwards, Stanley Ellin, Jack Finney, Harry Kemelman, William Link & Richard Levinson, David Morrell, Nancy Pickard, and James Yaffe, among many others.
Add to that list Gemma Clarke, whose first published story, “Last Call,” appears in EQMM‘s July/August issue—and it’s a doozy. While this is Clarke’s first piece of fiction, she’s had a long career as a journalist, particular in writing about soccer for various publications in England. You can find out more about her work at her website: www.gemmaclarke.net/
Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay here to read off-line.
Clarke Last Call
June 28, 2018
June Newsletter
My June newsletter just went out! This issue includes what I’ve been writing and publishing, what I’ve been reading, and what I’ve been celebrating—plus a list of several events this summer and fall!
June 26, 2018
The First Two Pages: “English 398: Fiction Workshop” by Art Taylor
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.
Generally I aim to highlight other writers’ accomplishments here at the First Two Pages, just as B.K. Stevens did week after week. But I also appreciated the times that Bonnie stepped up to talk about one of her own stories, and it was through reading her essays reflecting on her work that I realized how closely aligned our aesthetic sensibilities were—the thoughts on craft that inspired us and drove us—even though folks reading our stories might not see clear connections.
Like me, Bonnie also taught for many, many years at the college level—starting first as a tenure-track professor and then giving that career track up to take adjunct positions instead, a history she recounts in the afterword to “Adjuncts Anonymous,” a fine story in her collection Her Infinite Variety: Tales of Women and Crime. In that afterword, Bonnie explains, “Of all the stories I’ve ever written, ‘Adjuncts Anonymous’ draws most directly on my own experiences”—and the melding of real-life experiences (those adjunct-level struggles) with imagination (a murder and an investigation) makes the story extra compelling.
My story “English 398: Fiction Workshop,” just published in the July/August issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, marks the first time I’ve written explicitly about the college setting, and while the story isn’t autobiographical (clearly!), I did try, as Bonnie did, to incorporate bits and pieces of creative writing pedagogy in the piece, as you’ll see in the essay here.
Just wishing again that Bonnie were here to read it herself and let me know what she thought.
Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay here to read off-line.
Taylor English 398
June 23, 2018
Chesapeake Crimes: Invitation to Murder—Contributors Announced!
The line-up of stories for the anthology Chesapeake Crimes: Invitation to Murder was announced last week, and I’m so pleased that my story “All Tomorrow’s Parties” will included!
Here’s the full list of stories and contributors for the collection, which will be published in spring 2020 by Wildside Press in coordination with the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime:
“RFP/RIP” by Britt Alan
“The Dame and Thaddeus Birdwhistle” by Karen Cantwell
“The Mysterious Affair at the Escape Room” by Leone Ciporin
“Aumakua” by Maddi Davidson (Diane Davidson and Mary Ann Davidson)
“Good Morning, Green Leaf Class” by Sarah Hogroian
“The Great Bedbug Incident and the Invitation of Doom” by Eleanor Cawood Jones
“Guns and Yoga” by Maureen Klovers
“Make New Friends” by Jane Limprecht
“The Do-Gooder” by Adam Meyer
“Muggins” by Josh Pachter
“Secrets to the Grave” by KM Rockwood
“The Green Dress” by Joanna Campbell Slan
“The Killing Winds” by Mary Stojak
“All Tomorrow’s Parties” by Art Taylor
“True Colors” by Robin Templeton
“The Problem with Open-Ended Invitations” by Cathy Wiley
“Sunnyside” by Stacy Woodson
My story is a fairly dark one—to my own mind, maybe one of the darkest I’ve written: a reverse Cinderella story, with a woman struggling with loss and addiction attending a party that might change her life and looking toward midnight as the magic hour, either for deliverance or as a more literal deadline. As I hinted on Facebook, “All Tomorrow’s Parties” has its own dark history as well in terms of its path to publication. I’m hesitant to share that story now, but likely will as we get closer to publication itself. (2020 should be enough time for that… I think.)
In the meantime, thanks so much to the editorial selection committee this year for their hard work on reading submissions and selecting the final stories: G.M. Malliet, Greg Herren, and James Lincoln Warren. And thanks in advance to the anthology’s editors—Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley—for all their hard work ahead; they’re a great team and always pull together a stellar collection.
June 19, 2018
Inner Loop Radio: Genre Fiction
My wife, Tara Laskowski, and I were invited to take part in a podcast episode on “genre fiction” for Inner Loop Radio—and as soon as I was introduced into the discussion, I muscled Tara out of the way, went into full professorial mode, and held forth on the topic at hand, dropping names and citing sources with high-handed arrogance and reckless abandon.
At least that’s the way I remember it.
I’m hoping I don’t come across quite so badly in the episode itself.
Tara was actually the featured guest here, and the podcast includes a clip of her from the Inner Loop’s reading series in Washington, DC, where she read part of her story “The Monitor” from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. What followed was a discussion about the divisions and differences (perceived? actual?) between literary fiction and genre fiction, and some of the ways that the two mesh and intermingle.
You can hear the episode here.
Thanks to Rachel Coonce and Courtney Sexton for hosting us! They are—always—the best.
The First Two Pages: “The Mercy of Thaddeus Burke” by David Dean
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.
David Dean has long been one of my favorite short story writers—and one of my favorite people in the mystery short story world.
I first met David at one of Dell Magazine’s pre-Edgar cocktail parties, where Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine honors the winners of its annual Readers’ Poll, and on the train home from New York, I read David’s then-new story for EQMM, “Ibrahim’s Eyes”—which frankly blew me away. It remains one of my top-ten “stories that stuck,” memorable and moving and utterly unforgettable. (You can listen to a recording of the story here.)
Since then, David’s stories—and he’s prolific!—are always the first ones I read whenever he appears in the pages of EQMM. His latest story, “The Mercy of Thaddeus Burke,” which he discusses here at the First Two Pages today, is part of a series focused on the world of Irish gangsters; the other stories, which all appeared in EQMM, include “The Assumption of Seamus Tyrrell” (March/April 2014), “The Salvation of Seamus Tyrrell” (January 2016), and “The Long Wake” (September/October 2016).
Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay here to read off-line.
Dean Mercy
