Art Taylor's Blog, page 74

MissDemeanors Interview

Thanks so much to Tracee De Hahn for interviewing me about short fiction at her group blog MissDemeanors. I met Tracee back at Malice earlier this year and very much admire her and her work—both her fiction and her blogging too. Such fun to chat with her a bit here in Bouchercon week!

Here’s a quick exchange from the interview.

TdeH: Do you find that short fiction exercises a different part of the creative process than longer works?

AT: I do—and in fact, while I’ve heard short story writers saying they struggle to write novels, I’ve heard the same thing in the opposite direction: novelists who struggle to write a short story. While some aspiring writers might think of the short story as a stepping stone toward writing novels, they do require different approaches. Short stories involve concision and subtraction and efficiency—cutting down a paragraph to the key detail or gesture or image that suggests larger things—rather than addition, with novels obviously involving more characters, more subplots, more… everything usually, a broader scope generally of character, plot, setting, and time.

This is not to say that writers can’t do both, of course. But I do think that the best short stories can represent worlds as large as novels; they just do it in different ways.

Read the full conversation here. And look forward to seeing Tracee and all the MissDemeanors crew in Toronto soon!

 

Bouchercon Week!

I can hardly believe Bouchercon is so close on the horizon! I’ll be arriving on Wednesday late afternoon and looking forward already to seeing so many friends, attending so many events, diving into all the fun—and my first visit to Toronto too!

I’m particularly excited about this year’s gathering for two reasons. First, I get the opportunity to help host/emcee an hour honoring Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine for its distinguished contributions to the genre. Second, my story “Parallel Play” from Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning is in the running for both the Macavity and the Anthony Award this year—yowsa!

Here’s my schedule of events—and much more in-between times too, including drinks with the Guppies, lunch with the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and breakfast with Sisters in Crime. See you all soon!

Author Speed Dating • Thursday, October 12, 8-10 a.m.
Program celebrating Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine‘s distinguished contributions to the genre, as host/emcee, interviewing EQMM editor Janet Hutchings and introducing short vignettes from writers with ties to the magazine, including Josh Pachter, Brendan DuBois, Laura Benedict, Naben Ruthnum, Jill D. Block, Jennifer Soosar, Steve Steinbock, Bill Crider, Michael Bracken, Dana Cameron, Lee Goldberg, Marilyn Todd, Richard Helms, Twist Phelan, and Marvin Lachman

• Thursday, October 12, 5:30 p.m.
Opening Ceremonies, including presentation of Macavity Awards • Thursday, October 12, 7:30 p.m.
Panel: “Meet Your Short Story Anthony Nominees” (as panelist), Grand Centre Room • Friday, October 13, 2 p.m.
Anthony Awards Brunch • Sunday, October 15, 11 a.m.

Noir at the Bar: Saturday, October 7

I’ve been working over the past couple of weeks for a new short story to debut at this coming weekend’s Noir at the Bar—Saturday, October 7, at The Wonderland Ballroom, 1101 Kenyon Street NW, in Washington, DC.

It’s a very short story (where I usually can’t help but write longer)—less than 900 words, in fact, and likely even less once I’m done revising. It’s called “Sunday Morning, Saturday Night,” and I’ve been thinking of Jim Thompson all the while I’ve been working on it, if that gives any small hint about which direction it might be going.

This edition of Noir at the Bar is subtitled “Six Minutes in Hell” and features a stellar line-up of writers, including Austin Camacho, Nik Korpon, Tara Laskowski, Josh Pachter, Thomas Pluck, Eryk Pruitt, Laura Ellen Scott, and Amber Sparks—plus a reading by our host for the evening, E.A. Aymar.

And Wonderland, as always, is a joy to visit. They treat us nice.

Hope folks will come out to hear my story and hear from all these fine writers!

 

Noir at the Bar: Sunday, October 7

I’ve been working over the past couple of weeks for a new short story to debut at this coming weekend’s Noir at the Bar—Saturday, October 7, at The Wonderland Ballroom, 1101 Kenyon Street NW, in Washington, DC.

It’s a very short story (where I usually can’t help but write longer)—less than 900 words, in fact, and likely even less once I’m done revising. It’s called “Sunday Morning, Saturday Night,” and I’ve been thinking of Jim Thompson all the while I’ve been working on it, if that gives any small hint about which direction it might be going.

This edition of Noir at the Bar is subtitled “Six Minutes in Hell” and features a stellar line-up of writers, including Austin Camacho, Nik Korpon, Tara Laskowski, Josh Pachter, Thomas Pluck, Eryk Pruitt, Laura Ellen Scott, and Amber Sparks—plus a reading by our host for the evening, E.A. Aymar.

And Wonderland, as always, is a joy to visit. They treat us nice.

Hope folks will come out to hear my story and hear from all these fine writers!

 

September Newsletter: Bouchercon Bound!

Just sent out my September newsletter. Check out the full issue here for my Fall events calendar, including my Bouchercon schedule, plus new short fiction, recommended reading and my regular trivia contest.

Hope you enjoy!

Triangle Sisters in Crime Workshop: September 30

I’m so pleased to be one of the featured presenters at an all-day workshop hosted by the Triangle Chapter of Sisters in Crime on Saturday, September 30. I’ll be kicking things off with a morning session on bringing characters to life on the page, and additional sessions are led by great writers and great friends Ruth Moose and J.D. Allen, with a closing panel at end of day bringing us all on the stage with moderator Karen Pullen.

The workshop takes place at Western Wake Technical Community College, 3434 Kildaire FArm Road, in Cary N.C. The day’s programs run 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and registration is required.

Here’s a quick flyer on the program, or you can visit the website for more information and to register.

triSinC workshop Sept 30 2017 flyer

 

And beyond that all-day workshop, I’m be taking part in several other great events in the immediate future, including a Noir at the Bar in DC and then Bouchercon in Toronto just beyond! Here’s a quick preview of those two events, and check out the full schedule here.

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Noir at the Bar, with E.A. Aymar, Austin Camacho, Nik Korpon, Tara Laskowski, Thomas Pluck, Eryk Pruitt, Laura Ellen Scott, and Amber Sparks, Wonderland Ballroom, 1101 Kenyon St NW, Washington, DC • time tbd

Thursday-Sunday, October 12-15, 2017: Bouchercon 2017, Toronto, Canada

Author Speed Dating • Thursday, October 12, 8-10 a.m.
Program celebrating Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine‘s distinguished contributions to the genre, as host/emcee, interviewing EQMM editor Janet Hutchings and introducing short vignettes from writers with ties to the magazine, including Josh Pachter, Brendan DuBois, Laura Benedict, Naben Ruthnum, Jill D. Block, Jennifer Soosar, Steve Steinbock, Bill Crider, Michael Bracken, Dana Cameron, Lee Goldberg, Marilyn Todd, Richard Helms, Twist Phelan, and Marvin Lachman

• Thursday, October 12, 5:30 p.m.
Opening Ceremonies, including presentation of Macavity Awards • Thursday, October 12, 7:30 p.m.
Panel: “Meet Your Short Story Anthony Nominees” (as panelist), Grand Centre Room • Friday, October 13, 2 p.m.
Sisters in Crime Breakfast • Saturday, October 14, 7:30 a.m.
Anthony Awards Brunch • Sunday, October 15, 11 a.m.

 

SleuthSayers: Office Space

My column at SleuthSayers this week offers a few glimpses at our new house and specifically at my home office and my wife Tara’s office and even at a little space our son Dashiell has claimed to indulge his own creativity. Here’s a key paragraph from my post:

So…what’s behind the desire to have an office of one’s own? Part of it is, again, the space to work—to spread out a printed manuscript on the desk and look at it or to stare out the window (and I keep the desk facing that way, clearly) or to close the door and just think. Part of it depends on the things in the space: the books that have inspired me and that I keep at eye level on the nearby shelves, for example, and my own works in progress always within arms’ reach too. In the picture of my office above, you might note a brown three-ring binder on the right corner; it holds printed drafts of various stories in one stage or another of needing attention. And the file cabinet on the left, the one with the old typewriter sitting on it? That’s got notes on other stories and the draft of a (failed) novel—or, honestly, two. And the typewriter itself? It’s an old one, of course, and I like to think that some other writer pounded out a story or two of his or her own on it. It’s inspiring somehow, and so too is the artwork on either side of the desk and—not seen here—the framed poster on the wall behind my chair, from an exhibition at Trinity College in Dublin about the great detectives, a reminder of the tradition that informs so much of what I write, so much of how I think about what I write.

Read the full post here.

Interview at Tea Cottage Mysteries

Thanks to Samantha McGraw at Tea Cottage Mysteries for interviewing me today—a fun chat about writing, about mysteries, and (of course!) about tea. Samantha and I first met at last month’s Suffolk, VA Mystery Authors Festival, and we hit it off immediately, both on a shared love of mysteries and on a shared love of tea. Here’s our exchange on that question:

What is your favorite tea blend?

These days I’ve been enjoying Chesapeake Sunrise each more, a blend from Capital Teas (black and green with orange peel and almonds)—one of my all time favorites. In the afternoons, I go with a denser black tea—these days Bewley’s Irish Afternoon Tea. Come later fall and winter, it’ll be Lapsang Souchong in the afternoons—and I specifically like the version from Taylors of Harrogate.

Check out the full interview here—and more of her great website generally.

Black Cat Mystery Magazine Debuts!

It’s a real thrill to be part of the debut issue of Black Cat Mystery Magazine, releasing this week from Wildside Press!

My story “Fairy Tales” (more info here) appears alongside short fiction by a distinguished roster of writers, including Dan Andriacco, Michael Bracken, John Floyd, Kaye George, Barb Goffman, Meg Opperman, Alan S. Orloff, and Josh Pachter, along with reprints of tales by Fletcher Flora and James Holding.

You can order the new issue directly from Wildside—or even subscribe!—and it will also be available soon through Amazon.

And in the meantime, do check out fellow contributor Barb Goffman’s interview with the magazine’s editor, Carla Coupe, at SleuthSayers—for behind-the-scenes info on the magazine’s mission, submissions, and more.

SleuthSayers: Macavity Award Finalists for Best Short Story

At SleuthSayers, Paul D. Marks hosted his fellow finalists for the Macavity Award for Best Short Story to talk about the inspirations behind their nominated tales. The finalists here include Lawrence Block, Craig Faustus Buck, Greg Herren, Joyce Carol Oates, Paul himself, and me!

This is a terrific bunch of stories, and I’m honored to have my own “Parallel Play” listed among them. Here’s my contribution to the post:

My story “Parallel Play” centers on new parenthood, both the stress and anxieties surrounding it and then the idea of parental protectiveness—the thought that most parents will do whatever it takes to protect their children. The opening to the story is set at a kids play space which I call Teeter Toddlers, and the idea of the story actually first came to me when I was taking my own son, Dashiell, to his weekly Gymboree classes. I was the only father who regularly attended, and while the moms there were certainly welcoming to me, they did seem to form quicker friendships, share more quickly, with one another than with me—some small gender divide, I guess, and probably not surprising, but I did start wondering about various dynamics and situations, letting my mind wander (as we crime writers do) into darker twists and turns. Another inspiration was the prompt from the anthology Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning, which required weather to play an important role. The Gymboree had big plate glass windows surrounding the play space, and I remember one day watching a thunderstorm roll into view. That image plus one more element—a forgotten umbrella—and the rest of the story was suddenly in motion. I hope that readers will appreciate where it all goes.

Check out the full post here for the rest of the contributor’s notes—behind-the-scenes on some fine short fiction. (And the picture above is an older Macavity Award, obviously—love the cats, always!)