Art Taylor's Blog, page 66
May 22, 2018
The First Two Pages: Called to Justice by Edith Maxwell
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.
Edith Maxwell has become a regular finalist for the Agatha Awards for her fine mysteries featuring Quaker midwife Rose Carroll—both in the historical mystery category and for her short stories featuring the amateur sleuth. The next book in the series is already out—Turning the Tide, released in April—but here Maxwell looks at the opening to her previous book in the series, Called to Justice, a finalist for this year’s Agathas as well.
Beyond the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, Edith writes several other series and serves as president of Sisters in Crime New England. She also blogs extensively—at Wicked Cozy Authors, at Killer Characters, and at Under Cover of Midnight. Find out more at her 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 here to read off-line.
Maxwell Called to Justice
May 20, 2018
St. John’s Writing Intensive June 9 & More Events
On Saturday, June 9, I’ll be one of the presenters at the 4th Annual Spring Writing Intensive at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. The full day’s program runs 9:45 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Mellon Hall on the St. John’s College campus at 60 College Avenue. Registration is still available here.
My program, “Something Is Going to Happen,” focuses on writing suspense—even (perhaps especially) for those not writing genre fiction. Here’s the write-up:
Hooking your readers with a killer opening—that’s a must. But how do you get them to turn not just the first page but the next too? and then the next? …and the next? Crafting suspense may seem like the special province of crime fiction writers, but literary writers and genre writers both can profit from heightening tension, escalating conflict, tossing in the unexpected left turn, and generally keeping readers focused on the idea that “something is going to happen,” (to borrow the title of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’s weekly blog). This session draws on work by writers including Patricia Highsmith, Alice Munro, Joyce Carol Oates, and Scott Turow to illustrate various techniques for incorporating suspense into your own work.
My wife, Tara Laskowski, is also presenting that day; her panel is “Tiny but Mighty: How to Write Amazing Flash Fiction,” and here’s that write-up:
Imagine it: An evocative, complete short story in 1000 words or less. This session will focus on flash fiction, the form taking online publishing by storm. Tara Laskowski, longtime editor of the flash fiction journal SmokeLong Quarterly, will define this type of writing and its many forms—from microfiction to novellas-in-flash—and walk participants through some of the rules for crafting your own tiny stories.
Other presenters include Susan Coll, Caroline Kitchener, Jeff Kleinman, and David Leite. Registration includes lunch, a coffee break, and a wine reception too—with many chances for q & a and informal chat with participating authors.
Beyond the Spring Writing Intensive, summer brings several other events, and Bouchercon is already on the visible horizon—so pleased again to have my story “A Necessary Ingredient” named a finalist for this year’s Anthony Award!
Here’s a list of events ahead, with more details still in the works:
Saturday, June 23, 2018
Author Table with Alan Orloff, 10th Anniversary Celebration, Burke Centre Library, 5939 Freds Oak Road, Burke, VA • 10 a.m.-noon
Saturday, August 4, 2018
Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival, Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, 110 West Finney Avenue, Suffolk, VA • 1-6 p.m.
Friday-Sunday, August 10-12, 2018
Deadly Ink Mystery Conference, Renaissance Woodbridge Hotel, 515 US Highway 1 South, Iselin, NJ
Deadly Ink Academy Workshop: “Brick by Brick: Strategies for Producing a Well-Paced Plot” • Friday, August 10, 1-4 p.m.
Panel information to come.
Thursday-Sunday, September 6-9, 2018
Bouchercon, Vinoy Renaissance St. Petersburg Resort, 501 5th Avenue NE, St. Petersburg, FL
See you soon!
May 15, 2018
First Two Pages: “Cleansing Soil” by Charlie Hughes
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.
Late last year, the First Two Pages blog hosted a series of contributors to the debut issue of Black Cat Mystery Magazine: Michael Bracken, Barb Goffman, and Alan Orloff. I’m pleased to welcome today a contributor to Black Cat‘s second issue, Charlie Hughes, talking about his story “Cleansing Soil.”
Charlie’s work has also appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, and numerous anthologies, and his horror short story “The Box” won the 2016 Ruth Rendell Short Story Competition. You can find our more at his website here.
One additional note: Black Cat issue 2 also features a story by B.K. Stevens who started the First Two Pages blog, and the editor of Black Cat gave a nice shout-out to the First Two Pages as well and its continuation at my own website. Always nice to have such tie-ins with contributors to the series.
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.
Hughes Cleansing Soil
May 13, 2018
Mystery Readers Journal: Gardening Mysteries
I’m pleased to have an essay in the new issue of Mystery Readers Journal. The theme is “Gardening Mysteries,” and while I’m no gardener myself, I’ve realized that many of my characters are—including a landscaper, a botanist, and more.
Here are the opening paragraphs of my essay, “The Wrong Thumbs: (But At Least They Can Google)”:
I’m not sure what to call the opposite of a green thumb. A yellowing thumb? A browning thumb? A withered, deformed, charcoal-ashy thumb?
Those adjectives at least seem to describe the swift stages of demise for too many of the plants placed under my care. I’ve even killed cacti. Too much water? Too little? What’s the right balance? That’s the real mystery—at least to me.
But as for the mysteries I write… well, whatever my own deficiencies, my characters know and care about tending their own plants.
Scanning the contents page, I see a slew of friends who’ve contribute essays as well, including Amanda Flower, Rosemary Harris, Linda Lovely, Susan C. Shea, Wendy Tyson, Gay Toltl Kinman, Marvin Lachman, and Cathy Pickens. Thanks to editor Janet Rudolph for including me and for pulling together what seems to be another great issue!
For info on subscribing, visit the Mystery Readers website here.
May 9, 2018
Anthony Award Finalist: “A Necessary Ingredient”
I’m thrilled with the news today that my story “A Necessary Ingredient” has been named a finalist for this year’s Anthony Award for Best Short Story!
“A Necessary Ingredient” was published in Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea and was a finalist for this year’s Agatha Award as well; you can read the story for free here. I’m in great company for the Anthony Awards in this category alongside Susanna Calkins, Jen Conley, Hilary Davidson, Barb Goffman, and Debra Goldstein. And I’m thrilled to pleased to see the anthology Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea up for Best Anthology/Collection as well. Look forward to a group toast in St. Petersburg!
The full list of finalists is here:
BEST NOVEL
The Late Show by Michael Connelly
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
Glass Houses by Louise Penny
The Force by Don Winslow
BEST FIRST NOVEL
Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett
She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper
The Dry by Jane Harper
Ragged; or, The Loveliest Lies of All by Christopher Irvin
The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Uncorking a Lie by Nadine Nettmann
Bad Boy Boogie by Thomas Pluck
What We Reckon by Eryk Pruitt
The Day I Died by Lori Rader-Day
Cast the First Stone by James W. Ziskin
BILL CRIDER AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL IN A SERIES
Give Up the Dead (Jay Porter #3) by Joe Clifford
Two Kinds of Truth (Harry Bosch #20) by Michael Connelly
Y is for Yesterday (Kinsey Millhone #25) by Sue Grafton
Glass Houses (Armand Gamache #13) by Louise Penny
Dangerous Ends (Pete Fernandez #3) by Alex Segura
BEST SHORT STORY
The Trial of Madame Pelletier by Susanna Calkins from Malice Domestic 12: Mystery Most Historical
God’s Gonna Cut You Down by Jen Conley from Just to Watch Them Die: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Johnny Cash
My Side of the Matter by Hilary Davidson from Killing Malmon
Whose Wine Is It Anyway by Barb Goffman from 50 Shades of Cabernet
The Night They Burned Miss Dixie’s Place by Debra Goldstein from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, May/June 2017
A Necessary Ingredient by Art Taylor from Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea
BEST ANTHOLOGY
Just to Watch Them Die: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Johnny Cash, Joe Clifford, editor
Killing Malmon, Dan & Kate Malmon, editors
Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea, Andrew McAleer & Paul D. Marks, editors
Passport to Murder, Bouchercon Anthology 2017, John McFetridge, editor
The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir, Gary Phillips, editor
BEST CRITICAL/NON-FICTION BOOK
From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon by Mattias Boström
The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books by Martin Edwards
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Chester B. Himes: A Biography by Lawrence P. Jackson
Rewrite Your Life: Discover Your Truth Through the Healing Power of Fiction by Jessica Lourey
BEST ONLINE CONTENT
Writer Types Podcast
Do Some Damage: An Inside Look at Crime Fiction
Jungle Red Writers
Dru’s Book Musings
BOLO Books
Congratulations to all—so thrilled to be part of this group!
May 8, 2018
The First Two Pages: “The Case of the Vanishing Professor” by Tara Laskowski
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.
Our good friend Josh Pachter gave a shout-out to my wife, Tara Laskowski, when he posted the May/June issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine on Facebook: Her story “The Case of the Vanishing Professor” was on the cover! Tara was out for a couple of hours and likely not checking Facebook, so I sent it her way in a direct message. Her first reaction? She thought someone had made it up. How could she be on the cover so prominently???
Well, the short answer is that it’s a great story—and beyond the cover mention, the issue was also distributed to all the attendees at Malice Domestic a couple of weekends back, and several folks read it right then and there, passing along approval to Tara in the hallways throughout the conference.
Tara has published extensively in literary journals, particularly in the world of flash fiction, but she’s recently been seeing her work published in mystery venues too. Already stories have appeared in both Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen, and her previous story for EQMM, “States of Matter,” was also selected for the anthology Best Small Fictions 2017, edited by Amy Hempel. Tara is the author of two short story collections, Modern Manners For Your Inner Demons and Bystanders, which won the Balcones Fiction Award and was named by Jennifer Egan as one of the top books of 2017 in The Guardian. She has been the editor of the flash fiction journal SmokeLong Quarterly since 2010. Find out more about her work at her website.
Just a quick note: B.K. Stevens, who began the First Two Pages blog here, also has a story, “One-Day Pass,” in this latest issue of AHMM. Tara and I were good friends with Bonnie and her husband Dennis, and I appreciate Tara’s shout-out to Bonnie’s fine blog post on “Camouflaging Clues” at SleuthSayers. You can find that post 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.
First Two Pages Tara_final
May 4, 2018
SleuthSayers: “Bittersweet Goodbyes”
It’s end of the semester at George Mason University, and in my SleuthSayers column, I talk about the highs and lows of the last days of classes—and more than that, my own coming to terms with the last days of some students’ college careers.
Here’s an excerpt:
I’ve often used the word bittersweet to talk about this time of year. The sweet part is easy: No doubt it’s a thrill and a relief to have gotten through all the classes and lesson prep and grading and everything; as I’m writing this, one fellow professor passed by my office, and when I asked how things were going, she said, “Well, we’re almost there, so… great!” But all endings arrive with a persistent sense of something lost—and mixed in with the “Whew, glad that’s over!” the end of the semester has often left me with anxious little questions and small bits of… pensiveness? melancholy?
May 1, 2018
The First Two Pages: “Taking Care” by Deborah Lacy
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 May/June issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine was distributed to all the attendees at this past weekend’s Malice Domestic conference—with several contributors to the issue in attendance, including Leslie Budewitz, Shelly Dickson Carr, Deborah Lacy, Tara Laskowski, and Marianne Wilski Strong, and one contributor sadly not in attendance: Bonnie Stevens herself, whose story “One-Day Pass” appears posthumously here.
A couple of these writers will be offering First Two Pages essays on their stories, beginning with Deb Lacy, whose story “Taking Care” marks her AHMM debut—hopefully with many more stories in future issues ahead!
Deborah has written stories for other magazines and anthologies, including Mystery Weekly, the Anthony-award winning Bouchercon anthology Blood on the Bayou, Dark Corners, and Shh…Murder, the latter co-written with Pat Hernas. Deb also runs one of the best blogs in the business— Mystery Playground—and she contributes as well to Macmillan publishing’s Criminal Element blog.
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.
Deborah Lacy
April 29, 2018
Washington Writers Conference: Saturday, May 5
This weekend’s Malice Domestic was tremendous fun start to finish—and I got my walking in at the new venue: the Marriott North Bethesda with its spacious halls and sprawling breadth and very cool outdoor patio (good place to rest along the way back and forth). Highlights of the weekend included a great panel discussion with the Agatha Best Short Story panelists, led by the incomparable Michael Bracken, and then cheering on Gigi Pandian from our group who took home the award at the banquet for “The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn”—a great story!—plus interviews with guests of honor Louise Penny and Nancy Pickard, each chat revealing so fully the wonderful people behind the work they produce. Equally fun: breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and drinks with so many writer friends I don’t get to see as often as I’d like.
After a “break” this week for the final classes of the semester, I’ll be at another conference this coming weekend: the Washington Writers Conference (formerly Books Alive), hosted by the Washington Independent Review of Books. The program runs two days—Friday and Saturday, May 4-5—and I’ll be joining E.A. Aymar & Delancey Stewart on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. for the discussion “Writing a Page-Turner,” moderated by Salley Shannon. The conference takes place at the College Park Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, 3501 University Boulevard East, Hyattsville, MD. Check out the full schedule of events here—and still time to register for the fun!
April 25, 2018
CrimeReads: Traditional Mystery Roundtable
The good folks at CrimeReads invited the finalists for this year’s Agatha Awards to answer some questions about Malice Domestic, the traditional mystery, and more. Reading the whole roundtable chat this morning, I was surprised to see my own name as the first response here!
The first question was about favorite festival memories—mine is about my wife Tara!—and other questions cover a wide range of territory, including defining the traditional mystery, the issues facing the genre right now, authors who’ve paved the way for what we write now, and which animals would make the best detectives. (I love Margaret Maron’s answer closing things out.)
Here’s the full roundtable. See you all at Malice!
