Six of a Kind

I had an unusual month recently, an experience I can only describe as almost John-Floydian.  It started on a Monday when an anthology was published with one of my stories in it.  That was actually expected.  But I was surprised on Tuesday when a second anthology appeared with one of my tales.  And then I was flabbergasted when it happened again on Wednesday.

A week later at Bouchercon I was delighted to sign copies of the conference anthology with yet another of my stories in it.  Since then, two more have appeared in magazines.

I assure you, this is not my usual publication record.  But let's take a guided tour of these six literary masterpieces.

"The Cage," in Better Off Dead Vol. 1: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin, edited by D. M Barr.  I actually wrote about this  at SleuthSayers in August.  It's a story about a high school student having a bad day, following him class by class.  IMPORTANT: This book is published by Down and Out Books, which is going out of business, so if you want a copy grab it fast! 

"Lucky Night" in The Most Dangerous Games, edited by Deborah Lacy.  The shortest of six stories.  A successful businessman goes back to his hometown and attends a poker game.  Crime deals itself in... 

"The Little Death," in Celluloid Crimes, edited by Deborah Well.  A few years ago I wrote a story for Monkey Business, Josh Pachter's anthology of stories inspired by the Marx Brothers, and my protagonist was Madame Matilda, a dwarf working in a circus in the 1940s.  By the end of the story she had solved a murder and been hired by a detective agency.  "The Little Death," in which she provides security for the prizes in an art contest, is actually her third adventure.  Numbers two and four have been purchased for anthologies but have not yet been published.  I am currently polishing up on #5.

"The Unreliable Narrator," in Blood on the Bayou: Case Closed, edited by Don Bruns.  This story  is about an actor who makes his living performing audiobooks.  He's very good at his job -- except you can't count on him to show up on time and sober.  He is, you see, an Unreliable Narrator.  I was very smug when I dreamed that up.  All the stories in the book had to be set in the Big Easy so I owe a debt to O'Neil DeNoux who helped me NOLA-fy my tale.

Shanks and the High Bidder," in Black Cat Weekly, #212.  My 24th story about Leopold Longshanks, grouchy writer of crime fiction and reluctant solver of true crime.  In this one he deals with the winner of a charity auction who is reluctant to come up with the cash.  This is my second story inspired by Not Always Right, a webpage where anonymous contributors send in true tales of horrible customers. It is a huge time sink but it does provide wild story prompts.

"The Night Beckham Burned Down," in Black Cat Mystery Magazine, #16. This one was fun to write.  It was inspired by a catastrophic fire in Oregon in 1936.  Most of the bizarre events I describe really happen.  I  just had to make one of the fire victims a murder victim.  I wrote about it  at SleuthSayers last year.

But wait! There's more!  After I wrote this I learned that a seventh story was coming out in October.

"Give the Gift of Murder," in Black Cat Weekly, #216. I worked for 31 years in a university library and for some of them a campus fundraiser had the office next door.  Her job consisted of talking people into donating moolah to the university, preferably in large amounts.  It occurred to me that someone giving away money that greedy relatives might want for themselves was an obvious premise for a crime novel.  I even had the opening ready.  But my novels have not been hugely successful so I set the idea aside.  But one day I remembered my New Choice! technique and had a new thought: What if I made it much shorter?  A novella?  And immediately the pieces fell into place.  As it turned out the story is only about half as long as a novella, but I like it.  Oh, here's that opening I dreamed up:

When she found the corpse of Howard Secton III ruining the expensive Persian rug in his study, Maggie Prince's first thought was Did he sign the papers?  Her second thought was: I hate my job.

Personally, I love mine. Hoping you the same.