Art Taylor's Blog, page 8

The First Two Pages: “Skeeter’s Bar and Grill” by Julie Hastrup

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 and next, I’ll be hosting two good friends from the mystery community: Julie Hastrup and Kevin Tipple—both contributors to the new anthology Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery and Suspense, officially published today! Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, the collection 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. And you’ll find numerous buy links for the new book here!

Julie’s bio says that she “now alternates her time between South Florida and a small fishing village in Denmark”—but to my mind, she lives in “conferenceland,” since I’m regularly seeing her at Bouchercon and Malice Domestic. Julie’s committed to the mystery community—not just in those conventions but also as a professional member of organizations including Sisters in Crime, ITW, Short Mystery Fiction Society, and Mystery Writers of America. (And if you do see her in the hallways at some conference, stop to say hello—great conversations ahead!) Julie’s work has appeared in Shotgun Honey and Mystery Magazine, and you can find out more about her work at her website: www.hastrup.com.

And to get a taste of her fiction right now, check out her essay below!

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 Author Wheel: Crafting the Short Story

I love the tagline that co-hosts Greta Boris and Megan Haskell added to their interview with me at the podcast The Author Wheel: “Walking the knife’s edge between depth and brevity…” And I enjoyed the interview itself, such a fun chat—hope others will as well!

You can find the episode here: https://podcast.authorwheel.com/2040321/15135895-crafting-the-short-story-with-award-winning-author-art-taylor.

EQMM Blog: Modular Structure

At the Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine blog today, I talk about modular structure and the short story—both in my own new story, “Dark Thread, Loose Strands” from the May/June issue of EQMM, and with references to several students from my recent Advanced Fiction Workshop at George Mason University.

Find the full essay here.

The First Two Pages: “Running Interference” by Kathryn Prater Bomey

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 series of First Two Pages posts celebrating the new anthology Three Strikes—You’re Dead! wraps up today with a post by Kathryn Prater Bomey, discussing her new story “Running Interference.” Edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley, the collection features sports-themed short fiction, and as Kathryn explains below, she had to request special permission for the sport at the center of her story: marching band! (Did she get that permission? Well, you’ll have to read the essay to find out.) Other contributors to the anthology include William Ade, Maddi Davidson, Lynne Ewing, Barb Goffman, Sherry Harris, Smita Harish Jain, Adam Meyer, Alan Orloff, Rosalie Spielman, Shannon Taft, F. J. Talley, Robin Templeton, and Joseph S. Walker, and we’ve already hosted two of those contributors here at the First Two Pages already: Joseph Walker on “And Now, An Inspiring Story of Tragedy Overcome,” and Bill Ade on “Punch Drunk.”

In addition to “Running Interference,” Kathryn Prater Bomey’s stories include “The Competition,” flash fiction in Shotgun Honey, and “Beneath the Surface,” a short story in Black Cat Weekly, and she’s currently pursuing publication of her first mystery novel. She has served as president and secretary of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Find our more about her on Facebook at https://facebook.com/KathrynPraterBomey.

Congratulations to all the contributors to the new anthology!

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: “Punch Drunk” by William Ade

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 a celebration of the new anthology Three Strikes—You’re Dead! edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley, and featuring sports-themed short fiction by William Ade, Kathryn Prater Bomey, Maddi Davidson, Lynne Ewing, Barb Goffman, Sherry Harris, Smita Harish Jain, Adam Meyer, Alan Orloff, Rosalie Spielman, Shannon Taft, F. J. Talley, Robin Templeton, and Joseph S. Walker. Last week, on the anthology’s publication day, Joseph Walker shared some thoughts on “And Now, An Inspiring Story of Tragedy Overcome,” and this week, William Ade introduces his story, “Punch Drunk”—and we’ll be hosting Kathryn Prater Bomey next week, so stay tuned!

Ade’s latest book is the collection Big Scream in a Small Town, written under the name Nic Knuckles and published in January 2024 by Level Best Books, which also published Ade’s crime novel Do It for Daisy in 2021. Ade’s other novels include The Man Who Fixed Things (2023), Art of Absolution (2020), and the serialized The Inevitable Failure of Jonathan Golding (2022), as well as the short story collection, No Time for His Nonsense. You can find out more about Ade at billade.com or about his work as Nic Knuckles at https://nicknucklespi.com/.

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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Desert Sleuths Workshop

On Saturday, May 11, I’ll be presenting a talk and workshop for the Desert Sleuths Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Register here for the workshop, which takes place 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Mountain Time (East Coast: add 3 hours; Central, add 2; MT, add 1; Pacific, subtract 0); the cost is $25 Desert Sleuths and TSinC members, $35 all others.

Here’s the description from the Desert Sleuths website:

Four or Five Key Points on the Short Story
A virtual workshop with Art Taylor

Short stories must start quickly—middle of the action. The final lines need to wrap everything up—and offer a surprise plot twist. Between start and finish, every word must count. Oh, and the best word count: 5000. (Don’t go over!)

In this virtual workshop, Edgar Award-winning short story author Art Taylor offers fresh insights and perspectives into some of the “rules” for writing short fiction—and offers tools for writers to use in drafting, revising, and putting the final polish to their own stories.

While this workshop is one of several offerings to help our members get their stories into shape for the upcoming anthology, SOWEST: DANGER AWAITS!, we encourage others to take advantage of this learning opportunity and improve your short story skills.

Malice Domestic: Amelia Award Interview with Kristopher Zgorski

The Malice Domestic mystery conference is one of the highlights of our year, and usually my schedule is jam-packed with events throughout the weekend.

This year is a little different in that I’m taking part in only one event—but what an event! I’m honored to be interviewing Kristopher Zgorski, recipient of this year’s Amelia Award, presented to “individuals the Board determined had contributed to the Malice Domestic community and exemplified what Malice Domestic represents.”

Kris has already won the Raven Award from Mystery Writers of America, also honoring significant professional contributions to the mystery genre, and it’s great to see his work for our community appreciated again.

As the eagle-eyed will notice on the schedule, Catriona McPherson was originally slated to interview Kris, but she’s had to shift plans for personal reasons, and I was glad to step in and help celebrate Kris and his work.

Our interview is Saturday, April 27, at 2 p.m. in Ballroom A. And the even more eagle-eyed will notice that I was originally slated to be on a short story panel at the same time in Ballroom B—sending a shout-out to my good friends on that panel as well.

Another shout-out: Congratulations to my wife, Tara Laskowski, whose novel The Weekend Retreat is a finalist for this year’s Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel. Will I be at her banquet table officially? Whatever capacity I’m there in, excited to be cheering for her ahead.

The First Two Pages: “And Now, An Inspiring Story of Tragedy Overcome” by Joseph S. Walker

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 a fan of long titles for short stories, and today’s post by Joseph S. Walker begins with a great title: “And Now, An Inspiring Story of Tragedy Overcome.” I’m also a fan in general of Joe’s stories, and I’m not alone there; among many other honors, he’s earned an Edgar Award nomination and been featured regularly in both the Best American Mystery and Suspense anthology series and The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year series—in one case with the same story in each anthology! And widening the scope, I’m a long-time fan of the anthology series that Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley have been editing for nearly two decades (!) now—and Joe’s new story here appears in the latest volume of that series: Three Strikes—You’re Dead! out today from Wildside Press.

The new collection features a great variety of writers, including William Ade, Kathryn Prater Bomey, Maddi Davidson, Lynne Ewing, Barb Goffman, Sherry Harris, Smita Harish Jain, Adam Meyer, Alan Orloff, Rosalie Spielman, Shannon Taft, F. J. Talley, Robin Templeton, and Joseph S. Walker, and I’ll be hosting two more of these authors over the next couple of weeks here at the First Two Pages.

In the meantime, enjoy this first glimpse at the new book courtesy of the essay below—and pick up the full collection at your local bookstore. Support your neighborhood bookseller always!

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: “Underpass” by Robert Lopresti

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.

Robert Lopresti was the first guest at the First Two Pages when I took over curating this series in November 2017 after Bonnie Stevens’ death; Rob wrote about his story “The Chair Thief” in the November/December 2017 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and you can read that essay here. At the time, I cited a couple of nice coincidences for hosting Rob first. That same issue of AHMM includes one of Bonnie’s own stories, “Death Under Construction,” so it was good to celebrate that posthumous publication, and Rob was one of three SleuthSayers bloggers with stories in the issue—a blog where Bonnie was also a regular contributor. But even without those connections, Rob would have been the perfect person to kick off the new run of the First Two Pages. Not only is he an amazing short story writer, but his commitment to the genre is admirable. He’s a former president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. In addition to his work at SleuthSayers, he celebrates a short story a week at his own blog, Little Big Crimes. And he wrote a terrific textbook with tips on writing—one I’ve pointed aspiring writers toward a number of times and turned to myself for advice.

It’s a joy to welcome Rob back to the blog today with a story that came out a few weeks ago in Black Cat Weekly—the cover story of that issue.

Congratulations to Rob on another great story, thanks to him for a terrific essay too—and thanks too for all he does for the world of short mystery fiction!

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 Home Front” by Charles Ardai

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.

Stephen King has called Charles Ardai “a true renaissance man”—a quote I’m glad I found, since I started to use the same phrase myself in writing this introduction. Writer, editor, publisher, businessman, marketer… and email correspondent too? That last may seem anticlimactic, but it’s another testament to Charles’s efficiency and effectiveness that nearly every time I’ve emailed him over many years now, he’s responded amazingly quickly and always with generosity, thoughtfulness, and comprehensive depth. I say nearly because when I wrote him several months ago and asked him about sharing a First Two Pages essay to celebrate his new short story collection Death Comes Too Late, he didn’t immediately email—such an uncharacteristic delay that I wondered, did my message not get through? Turns out he didn’t respond to say he’d contribute an essay because he was writing the essay itself—which was pitch perfect and which I’m very pleased to publish today, on the pub day for the new collection.

Death Comes Too Late gathers twenty of Charles Ardai’s short stories, including his Edgar Award-winning “The Home Front” (the subject of his essay here), the Shamus Award-nominated “Nobody Wins,” and others which you’d be hard-pressed to find on your own. One story you won’t find here, however, is his debut story for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, for reasons Charles explains in the essay below.

Beyond his extraordinary short fiction, Charles Ardai is a terrific novelist (his Songs of Innocence is simply brilliant) and the founder of Hard Case Crime, which re-publishes classic fiction (Erle Stanley Gardner, James M. Cain, and Ray Bradbury, among many others) and introduces fresh voices too (see, for example, Scott Von Doviak’s First Two Pages essay on Lowdown Road from last year)—books stepped in the hard-boiled and noir traditions and always featuring covers in best pulp-art style. (The cover of Death Comes Too Late is by Paul Mann.) Charles also created the best-selling crime comics Gun Honey and Heat Seeker and wrote for the TV series Haven, inspired by Stephen King’s Hard Case Crime novel The Colorado Kid.

It’s a privilege and an honor to have Charles Ardai at the First Two Pages today—with a tribute to the woman who helped shape him as a writer and an editor both. I was fortunate to get an advance ebook of Death Comes Too Late, and I’ve got the final bound copy on pre-order—can’t wait to get it in hand, and know you’ll enjoy the collection 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 to read off-line.

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