And the Derringer Goes To…

As you may have already learned, Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology (Level Short, 2024), which I co-edited with Barb Goffman, earlier this month received the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s inaugural Derringer Award for Best Anthology.

Unlike some of my colleagues, I don’t view an anthology award as an editor’s award; I think of it as similar to the Academy Award for Best Picture, in that it requires the work of an entire team of people—editors and writers, primarily, but the publisher as well—to succeed.

In the case of Murder, Neat, we had quite a team. SleuthSayers, as a group, selected the theme, and Paul Marks had barely begun work as the original editor before illness sidelined him. Barb and I stepped in, solicited and selected stories, and worked with all the contributors to create the final manuscript.

We were working without a net. There was no publisher attached to the project—the first and only time I’ve edited an anthology on spec!—and we pitched the finished manuscript to a handful of publishers.

Verena Rose and Shawn Reilly Simmons of Level Best Books stepped up, and Murder, Neat launched Level Short, the publisher’s new imprint specifically for anthologies.

The end result, as we recently learned, is an award-winning anthology.

So, thanks to my fellow SleuthSayers for all you did to make our group’s first anthology a success!

SLEUTHFEST AND SHORTCON

A hurricane postponed last year’s SleuthFest in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the conference was rescheduled to May 15-18. At 4:00 p.m. Thursday, I’ll present “Writing Short: How to establish and maintain a long-term career as a writer of short crime fiction.” This is a variation of my presentation at last year’s ShortCon, and I provide invaluable information about the business side of writing and publishing short stories.

Speaking of ShortCon, the one-day conference for writers of short mystery fiction returns Saturday, June 7, for its sophomore outing at Elaine’s in Alexandria, Virginia. In addition to presentations by SJ Rozan (“Short Fiction—What’s the Point?”) and Jeffrey Marks (“Crafting Your First Collection”), I’ll present “Writing for Anthologies: How to Slip Between the Covers” and Stacy Woodson will lead an end-of-day panel discussion with all the presenters. ShortCon is limited to 50 attendees and was approaching sellout the last time I saw the registration numbers, so register now if you wish to attend.