Art Taylor's Blog, page 7

K.E. Semmel Launch Event • Sunday, October 20

K.E. Semmel is celebrating the launch of his debut novel, The Book of Losman, and I’m thrilled he invited me to be a part of the program this Sunday, October 20, at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda. The event begins at 2 p.m. at 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, and you can find full info here.

Kyle and I first met in grad school at George Mason University, and we became fast friends as well as regular workshop partners, both in our courses at Mason and outside of class as part of a small writing group. I was always impressed by Kyle’s work—both his dedication to his craft and the fiction itself—and I’ve marveled at his successes ever since, as a writer, as a translator, and as a terrific literary citizen too, working at various literary organizations over the years, including The Writer’s Center itself!

Come join us on Sunday, October 20, for a reading and conversation. Looking forward to it!

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The First Two Pages: “Althea” by Faye Snowden

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.

Rounding out our series celebrating contributors to Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead, the First Two Pages welcomes Faye Snowden, who has not only established herself as a fine novelist but also as a distinguished writer of short fiction—already racking up honors, despite writing in the essay below that she’s “trying to build my short story chops.” Faye’s novel A Killing Rain won Gold in the thriller and suspense category at the 2022 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards; was long-listed for the 2022 Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award; and was named one of the best novels in southern gothic crime fiction of 2022 by CrimeReads, too. And two of her short stories have been selected for the Best American Mystery & Suspense anthology series: “One Bullet. One Vote” and “The Obsession of Abel Tangier,” both originally published in the Low Down Dirty Vote anthologies. You can find out more about Faye and her work at her website.

Friend of the Devil is the​ latest music-themed anthology from editor Josh Pachter, and the First Two Pages has already hosted three other contributors here: Avram Lavinsky with an essay on “Lady with a Fan”; Linda Landrigan on “Born Cross-Eyed”; and David Avallone on “The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion).” The collection also features Bruce Robert Coffin, James D.F. Hannah, Vinnie Hansen, James L’Etoile, G.M. Malliet, Twist Phelan, Joseph S. Walker, and more.

You can find more information on the full anthology here, available from Down & Out Books.

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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Mystery in the Midlands • Saturday, October 19

I’m so pleased to be taking part in Mystery in the Midland’s free short story

Here’s the information from the Palmetto Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and thanks to Paula Gail Benson for inviting me to be part of the program!

MYSTERY IN THE MIDLANDS: WRITING THE SHORT STORY

VIRTUAL CONFERENCE—SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2024

11:15 AM TO 2:45 PM EASTERN TIME

10:15 AM TO 1:45 PM CENTRAL TIME

9:15 AM TO 12:45 PM MOUNTAIN TIME

8:15 AM TO 11:45 AM PACIFIC TIME

Do you write mystery short stories? Would you like to learn how?

The Palmetto Chapter of Sisters in Crime and the Southeastern Chapter of Mystery Writers of America are proud to present this FREE conference featuring some of today’s most expert mystery authors to unlock the craft and business of writing the short story.

Register in advance for this meeting here!

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

PROGRAM

11:15 AM/10:15 AM/9:15 AM/8:15 AM — WELCOME

11:30 AM/10:30 AM/9:30 AM/8:30 AM—Crafting the Short Story—Art Taylor

12:30 PM/11:30 PM/10:30 AM/9:30 AM—New Voices in Short Mystery Fiction—Ashley-Ruth M.              Bernier, James A. Hearn, and Stacy Woodson (moderated by Paula Gail Benson

1:30 PM/12:30 PM/11:30 AM/10:30 AM—The Business of Short Story Writing—Michael Bracken

2:30 PM/1:30 PM/12:30 PM/11:30 PM— CONCLUSION

FACULTY

Art Taylor (www.arttaylorwriter.com) is the Edgar Award-winning author of two short story collections—The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions and The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 and Other Tales of Suspense—and of the novel in stories On the Road with Del & Louise, winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. He won the 2019 Edgar Award for Best Short Story for “English 398: Fiction Workshop,” originally published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and he has won three additional Agatha Awards, an Anthony Award, four Macavity Awards, and four Derringer Awards for his short fiction. He edited Murder Under the Oaks: Bouchercon Anthology 2015, winner of the Anthony Award for Best Anthology or Collection, and California Schemin’: Bouchercon Anthology 2020. He is an associate professor of English at George Mason University, and he has contributed frequently to the Washington Post, the Washington Independent Review of Books, and Mystery Scene Magazine.

Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier (www.ashleyruthbernier.com)’s work has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, Stone’s Throw, Smoking Pen Press, Malice Domestic’s Mystery Most Devious, The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023, and other anthologies. Originally from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Ashley-Ruth writes mysteries highlighting the vibrant culture of her home. She currently lives with her family and teaches first grade in North Carolina. 

James A. Hearn (www.jamesahearn.com), an Edgar Award nominee for Best Short Story, writes in a variety of genres, including mystery, crime, science fiction, fantasy, and horror.  His work has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, numerous anthologies, and has been selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery and Suspense.

Stacy Woodson (www.stacywoodson.com) made her crime fiction debut in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’s Department of First Stories and won the 2018 Readers Award. Since her debut, she’s had almost forty stories accepted for publication, one adapted for animation. She’s a two-time Derringer award winner, a Macavity Award and Thriller Award nominee, and has a story included in Best Mysteries of the Year 2024. When she’s not writing, she co-edits anthologies with Michael Bracken.

Paula Gail Benson (www.paulagailbenson.com), a legislative attorney, has thirty plus stories that have appeared online and in anthologies including Mystery Times Ten 2013; A Tall Ship, a Star, and Plunder; A Shaker of Margaritas: That Mysterious Woman; Fish or Cut Bait: a Guppy Anthology; Killer Nashville Noir: Cold Blooded; Love in the Lowcountry; Heartbreaks and Half-truths; Malice Domestic’s Mystery Most Diabolical; Dark of the Day; and Smoking Guns.

Michael Bracken (www.CrimeFictionWriter.com) is an Edgar Award and Shamus Award nominee whose crime fiction has appeared in The Best American Mystery Stories, The Best Mystery Stories of the Year, and many other publications. Additionally, Bracken is the editor of Black Cat Mystery Magazine and several anthologies, including the Anthony Award-nominated The Eyes of Texas. In 2024, he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for his contributions to Texas literature.

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Fall for the Book: “Twisted Tales,” Saturday, October 12

I’m looking forward to hosting the panel “Twisted Tales” this Saturday afternoon at the Fall for the Book Festival in Fairfax, VA. The session features Alisa Alering, author of Smothermoss, and Keith Donohue, author of The Girl in the Bog, and it takes place Saturday, October 12, at 2 p.m. at Old Town Hall, 3999 University Drive, Fairfax, VA.

Below is the write-up from the festival website—and the full day’s schedule can be found here.

Alisa Alering and Keith Donohue astound readers with mysteries, thrills, and otherworldly secrets. Alering’s Smothermoss tells the story of two troubled sisters pulled into a hunt for a killer. Barnes & Noble says, “For those obsessed with Appalachian lore comes a hauntingly atmospheric tale toeing the line of a twisted fairy tale.” In Donohue’s The Girl in the Bog, a farmer digs up a two thousand year old body of a young woman, which has been preserved in a bog in Ireland. When the woman awakens in modern times, she must go on the run from the natural and supernatural forces that are out to get her.  

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The First Two Pages: “The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)” by David Avallone

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, David Avallone offers the third essays in a series of First Two Pages posts from contributors to Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead, the latest music-themed anthology from editor Josh Pachter. Two weeks back, we hosted Avram Lavinsky with an essay on “Lady with a Fan,” and last week, Linda Landrigan wrote about “Born Cross-Eyed.” David brings a wide set of backgrounds to the table, including work in film and in comic books in addition to prose fiction—and he has pedigree too, as the son of prolific author Michael Avallone. In the essay below, David focuses on other inspirations and influences for his story, specifically how autobiographical elements feed creativity.

Friend of the Devil features many other great writers, including Bruce Robert Coffin, James D.F. Hannah, Vinnie Hansen, James L’Etoile, G.M. Malliet, Twist Phelan, Faye Snowden, Joseph S. Walker, and more—and we’ll be hosting another of these authors next week. Stay tuned to find out who! (…or find out whom? I really need a copy-editor for this site…)

In the meantime, check out the full anthology here, available from Down & Out Books—or ask for it at your local bookseller too, of course!

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.

Avallone-The-Golden-Road_2PagesAvallone

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The First Two Pages: “The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion” by David Avallone

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, David Avallone offers the third essays in a series of First Two Pages posts from contributors to Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead, the latest music-themed anthology from editor Josh Pachter. Two weeks back, we hosted Avram Lavinsky with an essay on “Lady with a Fan,” and last week, Linda Landrigan wrote about “Born Cross-Eyed.” David brings a wide set of backgrounds to the table, including work in film and in comic books in addition to prose fiction—and he has pedigree too, as the son of prolific author Michael Avallone. In the essay below, David focuses on other inspirations and influences for his story, specifically how autobiographical elements feed creativity.

Friend of the Devil features many other great writers, including Bruce Robert Coffin, James D.F. Hannah, Vinnie Hansen, James L’Etoile, G.M. Malliet, Twist Phelan, Faye Snowden, Joseph S. Walker, and more—and we’ll be hosting another of these authors next week. Stay tuned to find out who! (…or find out whom? I really need a copy-editor for this site…)

In the meantime, check out the full anthology here, available from Down & Out Books—or ask for it at your local bookseller too, of course!

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.

Avallone-The-Golden-Road_2PagesAvallone

The post The First Two Pages: “The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion” by David Avallone appeared first on Art Taylor.

The First Two Pages: “Born Cross-Eyed” by Linda Landrigan

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.

We’re continuing our series of essays by contributors to Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead with a very special guest celebrating her first-ever short story publication—though not the first short story she’s ever brought to publication. If that seems a contradiction of some kind, consider that the writer we’re talking about is Linda Landrigan, long-time editor of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Needless to say, Linda knows a thing or two (or three or four or more!) about short mystery fiction these days, but as she explains in her essay below, knowing some of the pitfalls for writers in this form and genre is different from avoiding those pitfalls yourself. But important to stress: Sounds like she’s worked through any issues nicely—and congratulations to her on the new story!

Last week, we hosted Avram Lavinsky with an essay on his own story for the collection, “Lady with a Fan,” and Friend of the Devil, edited by Josh Pachter, features lots of other great writers, including Bruce Robert Coffin, James D.F. Hannah, Vinnie Hansen, James L’Etoile, G.M. Malliet, Twist Phelan, Faye Snowden, Joseph S. Walker, and many more.

Do check out the full anthology, available from Down & Out Books—or ask for it at your local bookseller too, of course!

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.

Landrigan-Two-Pages

The First Two Pages: “Lady with a Fan” by Avram Lavinsky

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.

This week, we’re welcoming Avram Lavinsky for the first post in a series celebrating the latest music-themed anthology from editor Josh Pachter: Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead, coming out next week from Down and Out Books. Lavinsky’s story, “Lady with a Fan,” appears alongside short fiction by contributors including (from the promotional copy) “award winners Bruce Robert Coffin, James D.F. Hannah, Vinnie Hansen, James L’Etoile, G.M. Malliet, Twist Phelan, Faye Snowden, and Joseph S. Walker. Also on board are Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine editor Linda Landrigan (with her first published story!), married couple Kathryn O’Sullivan and Paul Awad, Flemish writer Dominique Biebau, David Avallone (son of the legendary crime writer Michael Avallone), and more.”

I’m particularly pleased to be starting the series with Avram’s essay for two reasons.

First, he’s a terrific short story writer. Not only has he earned high acclaim for his published work, including having stories selected for both Best New England Crime Stories 2022 and The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023, but behind the scenes he’s a consummate craftsman; I was fortunate recently to read a couple of drafts-in-progress of a story he’s recently finished, and I marveled at his willingness to make big changes draft to draft while also maintaining intense attention to detail on finer points too.

Second, and not unrelated, Avram’s essay below offers a glimpse at the editing process—specifically the relationship between a writer and an editor, including an email exchange between Avram and Josh Pachter.

I hope you’ll enjoy Avram’s essay below—and check out the full anthology. All the buy links are available at the Down & Out site or check in with your local bookseller too, of course!

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.

Lavinsky-Lady-With-A-Fan

The First Two Pages: “A Bitter Wind” 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.

Leslie Budewitz won an Agatha Award for Best Short Story in 2018 for “All God’s Sparrows”—a historical mystery focused on “Stagecoach Mary” Fields, a real-life figure who has the distinction of being “the first Black woman to be employed as a star route postwoman in the United States” (quoting a bit of Wikipedia there; see the full entry here). Budewitz followed up that successful story with two more tales featuring Fields, both published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine: “Miss Starr’s Goodbye,” which was a finalist for the Derringer Award, and “Coming Clean,” a finalist for the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award. And now, anchored by a never-before-published novella, comes the collection All God’s Sparrows, out this week in both paperback and ebook.

It’s a pleasure to welcome Leslie today to talk about that new novella, “A Bitter Wind,” and about the larger project too, inspired by so many aspects of the real-life Mary Fields: her actual history, the myths surrounding her, and the larger context of woman and particularly Black women in the American West.

You can order your copy of All God’s Sparrows at many major retailers—full information is on Leslie’s website here. In the meantime, enjoy this preview below of the new novella and the full collection.

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 Hospital Boomerang” by Kevin Tipple

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.

Kevin Tipple is the current president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, but even outside of his official position, he’s been a long-term champion of both short stories and the SMFS and the genre more widely. While many people may know Kevin best for his work with the organization and for his reviewing and blogging, he’s also an accomplished fiction writer as well, with stories in publications including Lynx Eye, Starblade, Show and Tell, The Writer’s Post Journal, Mystery Magazine, and others, and in anthologies too, most recently Notorious in North Texas: Metroplex Mysteries Volume III. His latest story, “The Hospital Boomerang,” was published in the new collection Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery and Suspense, and it’s already earned a fine honor, being selected by fellow short story writer Robert Lopresti as the story of the week at Little Big Crimes!

Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, Larceny & Last Chances features stories by Christina Boufis, John Bukowski, Brenda Chapman, Susan Daly, Wil A. Emerson, Tracy Falenwolfe, Kate Fellowes, Molly Wills Fraser, Gina X. Grant, Karen Grose, Wendy Harrison, Julie Hastrup, Larry M. Keeton, Charlie Kondek, Edward Lodi, Bethany Maines, Gregory Meece, Cate Moyle, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Kevin R. Tipple, and Robert Weibezahl. You can find several buy links for the book here.

As Kevin explains in the essay below, his approach to writing short stories may be a little different from other writers’ process, but the essay offers a great look at how writers might draw inspiration from various sources—and in the process, gives us a nice preview of the story itself.

Thanks to Kevin for his work here and for his commitment to short mystery fiction generally. And do check out last week’s essay by another of the anthology’s authors, Julie Hastrup, writing on her story “Skeeter’s Bar and Grill.”

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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