First, sincere congratulations to all the 2026 Derringer Award winners, especially to Adam Meyer, Alan Orloff, and Michael Bracken--and special congrats to Golden Derringer recipient David Dean. I'm also thrilled that Dave Zeltserman has won the Edgar for Best Short Story. Well done and well deserved, my friends!
Now, to less important matters . . .
I'm a couple of days past April, here, but this is a quick look at the stories I published last month. And I should begin by saying, yes, these are mystery/crime stories even though I mentioned a few weeks ago that I've started producing stories in other genres lately. I'm hoping that in several months some of the science fiction/fantasy stories I've been writing since then will pop up someplace. We'll see.
Anyhow, here are my three stories that popped up in April.
"Creativity," published on April 3 at Curated by Costuic, a market I discovered via one of my friends on the Short Mystery Fiction Society list. This 1100-word story consists almost entirely of dialogue between two characters, both of them businesswomen who meet on a flight from Lost Angeles to Dallas. As I've said before at this blog, stories that are heavy on dialogue are always among the easiest and the most fun for me to write, and I remember this one coming together pretty fast. It was published many years ago and was lucky enough to be a Pushcart Prize nominee. If anyone feels the urge to read a quick little crime story, it's posted here. Many thanks once again to editor Nikita Costuic.
Speaking of SMFS, the second one of my April stories was "On the Road with Mary Jo," published April 7 in the anthology Hot Shots: Celebrating Thirty Years of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. For those of you who don't already know, this anthology features 28 stories that won the Derringer Award--one story for each year between 1998 and 2025--and editor Josh Pachter did a great job of putting it together. My story in the book was a winner for Best Short Story in 2020, and had previously appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's Jan/Feb 2019 issue. Like "Creativity," this story is mostly dialogue but is quite a bit longer, at 2700 words. As I said this past Thursday night in the Zoom meeting about the anthology, I was surprised when "On the Road with Mary Jo" was accepted at EQMM because it's mainly humor, and therefore different from any of my other EQ stories. Quick summary: It's a weird story about two nitwits who carjack a self-driving vehicle and use it as a getaway car in a bank heist. Yes, I said it was weird . . .
The last of these three stories was "Lewis and Clark," first published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine's May 2012 issue and reprinted on April 16 in The Ranger's Almanac, Vol 1. As the publication's title suggests, this market wants forest/park-based stories; mine was a 2200-word tale of two young Boy Scouts who get lost on a hike in the woods and stumble upon a couple of bank robbers on the run. It's more a YA adventure story than anything else, and marks one of those times when a previously published story that's sitting around doing nothing happened to exactly fit the submission guidelines of a new (to me, at least) publication. Before I forget, I owe a big thank-you to Ranger's Almanac editors Andrew Akers and Adam Geer. Check this market out here.
I think the only unusual thing about these April stories is that none of them were in publications that I'd been in before (one, of course, was a one-time anniversary anthology) and that two out of the three were sold to paying markets I didn't even know about until fairly recently. The editors of both of those were great, and were prompt in their responses to my submissions. "Creativity" wa submitted to Curated by Costuic on 11/4/25 and accepted later that same day, and "Lewis and Clark" was submitted to The Ranger's Almanac on 1/14/26 and accepted on 1/18/26. (These were breaths of fresh air in a world where we writers often wait for many months to hear back from a submission.)
So, here are my questions for the week, to any fellow short-fiction writers out there. Are you, in answer to our recent downturn in the number of available mystery markets, finding new places to send your work? Where are you looking, in order to do that? The Internet? The SMFS market list? (You can find it under "files" at the SMFS forum site.) Are you sending any stories to existing markets that you haven't tried in a while? Are you continuing to submit to those who have regularly published you in the past? Do any of you have, as I do, submissions queued up at those markets? Are any of them already accepted and waiting to be published? Are you, like me, writing and submitting some non-mystery or cross-genre stories, and getting any relief from that corner? Please update me in the comments.
And then get back to writing.
See you in two weeks.
John, I love "Creativity". Well done, my lad, well done! Good dialog really can do it all, can't it?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Eve. Glad you liked this one! Yep, it can be used to tell pretty much the whole story sometimes. I know you feel that way too--I absolutely loved your play, about Elvis.
DeleteThank you, John. That was SOOOO much fun to write.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I loved "On the Road w/ Mary Jo" when I first read it, again when I judged the Derringers that year, and again when I read it in Hot Shots. Josh has put together a terrific collection (arsenal?) of Derringer winners.
ReplyDeleteYes to most of your final questions, too. I have 30 submissions out, about half of them to new markets I found on the SMFS list. A few are at contests, too, and two VERY old stories (both first submitted in 2005 or 2006 when I was still unpublished) are at new markets. Seven markets that bought my stories in the past have shut down in the last 18 months or so, and I'm scrambling to find new places. The remaining markets I've sold to all have something in the queue.
Several of the markets I've recently found on the SMFS list pay well above the $25 I've come to consider the "normal" rate. But that may ultimately mean the competition is heavier. I should also mention that now that I'm waiting so long for so many stories, my output is slowing down. Not sure if that's frustration or age, or what...
Hey Steve. Thank you so much--I'm so glad you liked that story. I had a great time writing it. (We writers usually say this when a story happens for some reason to have done well, but it really is true.) Mary Jo was so much fun I wrote a sequel called "Liz and Drew and Betty Lou," which was published in the Strand in 2023.
DeleteYou mentioned in your comment that "the remaining markets I've sold to all have something in the queue." I think that's SO important. We can't sell a story that hasn't been submitted. I too try to keep something out there, under consideration, at every place that I can. You also said you have 30 submissions out. Good for you!!!!
My output has slowed down as well, and yes, frustration is a part of that. Maybe things'll improve with time (new markets, etc.). By the way, Joe Walker just posted on the SMFS list that submissions are now open for the 2027 Bouchercon anthology. Hint, hint . . .
Yep, saw that. ;-).
DeleteJohn, first, nice work with Creativity--you turned what is usually a cliched formula on its head. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't done so already, I'd suggest reading several issues of Analog, Asimov, Strange Horizons, and other fantasy magazine. The tone, style, and rhythm of the stories in these magazines are very different from what we grew up reading, and very different than what us mystery/crime fiction writers write. There's no sci-fi writer I have enjoyed or admired more than Ray Bradbury, and I don't think he'd be able to get published in these magazines today without radically changing his style and tone. I'm not sure about Asimov either.
Thanks, Dave, for reading that little story. I swear, I love to write dialogue.
DeleteOh man, I love Ray Bradbury's writing. My favorites are probably "The Veldt," "The Long Rain," and "A Sound of Thunder," but I'm not sure he ever wrote a BAD story. I have three or four of his collections on my shelves right now, including the giant one that has a hundred or so of his, from both early and late in his career. And you're right that I need to read some current issues of the big SF/fantasy magazines. I've read dozens, maybe hundreds, of issues in the past of Analog, Asimov's, and F&SF, but if they've changed their content a lot, I need to know that.
And congrats again on the Edgar!! Wow, what an honor.
I'm mostly looking and have submitted to short story markets that pay less than $50 online, as I don't want to risk losing my disability benefits. A couple are crime/detective, one is horror, and one is sci-fi. Another is a mux of literary, horror, and romance. One publication is very respected and established that I've submitted to a couple of times, the others are brand new.
ReplyDeleteJustin, sounds like you're doing the research on these markets--good for you! I wish you the very best with your submissions to them. Keep me posted, and thanks as always.
DeleteTerrific little story on the plane! I shared it on FB. Thanks for the new-to-me market.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kaye--glad you liked it. And yep, it's a good market.
DeleteEnjoyed seeing you the other night at the Zoom session!
John, "Creativity" is adorable. And I already know and love "On the Road with Mary Jo."
ReplyDeleteLiz, how very nice of you! Thank you. I've had so much kind feedback on Mary Jo ever since this anthology came out--I had no idea so many folks remembered that story from when it was in EQMM several years ago.
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