Sixteen Lives

Launched in 2017, BCMM
lasted 16 issues.

Black Cat Mystery Magazine—not to be confused with Black Cat Weekly, though it often is—lasted sixteen issues, the final issue releasing September 16, 2025. I had hoped to convince the publisher to continue through issue eighteen, so I held onto the stories already accepted for issues seventeen and eighteen far longer than I should have, not notifying the writers of the magazine’s demise until early February of this year.

My excuse for the delay, lame as it is: I was unable to accept the magazine’s demise, especially during fall 2025 when so many other publishers and publications had announced closure, hiatus, restructuring, new ownership, and other negative news. The market for short crime fiction was collapsing and I didn’t want to share one more bit of bad news in the midst of the shit-storm.

UNOFFICIAL HISTORY

Perhaps someday someone will write the official history of Black Cat Mystery Magazine but, as someone associated with every issue of the magazine, I can share some unofficial history.

I first heard about the impending launch of Black Cat Mystery Magazine when another writer shared inside information mid-2017. I contacted the publisher for more information and was invited to submit. Carla Coupe and John Betancourt were co-editors and they accepted my stories for the first six issues.

After the fourth issue, Carla announced her retirement from the magazine (she didn’t stay retired; she now edits Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine and co-edits, with John and me, Malice Domestic’s annual anthology), and I joined the editorial staff. I co-edited issue five with Carla and John and became the sole editor with issue six.

Many of the stories selected for issues five and six—including mine—were acquired by Carla and John, so my influence over the content didn’t take full effect until issue seven, the special private eye issue.

While the magazine was—much like Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine—open to all sub-genres of crime fiction, we produced two-more themed issues. Issue twelve was the cozy issue and issue sixteen was the historical issue.

I believe the content of the first issue was solicited, but I’m uncertain how Carla and John found the content for the next few issues. While John selected the classic reprints each issue, I acquired the original content for the issues I edited via open submission calls.

And that lead to the situation mentioned earlier. From the hundreds of stories submitted, I accepted more than I could publish in a reasonable amount of time given the magazine’s publication schedule.

BCMM's final issue was
published in 2025.

LEGACY

Though BCMM lasted only sixteen issues, it published many great stories, including several that were recognized by awards and best-of-year inclusions:

“Rhonda and Clyde” by John M. Floyd (issue 5) was selected for inclusion in The Best American Mystery Stories 2020.

“Blest Be the Tie That Binds” by Michael Bracken (issue 6) was selected for inclusion in The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2021 and was named one of the Other Distinguished Mystery and Suspense stories by The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021.

“Mustang Sally” by John M. Floyd (issue 7) received a Shamus Award.

“Show and Zeller” by Gordon Linzner (issue 7) was short-listed for a Shamus Award.

“The White Calf and the Wind” by Mike Adamson (issue 11) was short-listed for a Derringer Award and was included in the Honor Roll for The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023.

“Real Courage” by Barb Goffman (issue 14) was nominated for Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards.

“El Paso Heat” by Peter W.J. Hayes (issue 14) was selected for inclusion in The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024.

SUPPORT 

While I am dismayed at the loss of Black Cat Mystery Magazine as an ongoing publication, all back issues are still available from the publisher and at various online booksellers. If you didn’t purchase copies when they were first published, you can certainly purchase them now.

Additionally, there are several crime fiction magazines still publishing and a few new ones have recently launched. So, while you’re picking up back issues of BCMM, spend a few dollars supporting the remaining and new publications. Your support helps ensure their continued success.

* * *

“Store-Crossed Lovers” was published February 4, 2026, in Cold Caller.

“Takes the Cake” was published February 5, 2026, in Micromance.

* * *

I’ll be at Left Coast Crime later this week and will be joining the “Short But Usually Not Sweet” panel at noon Thursday in the Seacliff CD room with Tom Andes, Vera Chan, and David Hagerty. Brian Shea will moderate.

* * *

ShortCon, the Premier Conference for Writers of Short Crime Fiction, returns to Alexandria, Virginia, on June 6. Join acclaimed crime fiction professions for an immersive one-day event and learn how to write short crime fiction, get your stories published, and develop and sustain a long-term career writing short. Session leaders include Gary Phillips, Art Taylor, and Michele Slung. Learn more and register at https://www.eastcoastcrime.com/#/.

* * *

Spend four weeks in South Carolina this summer learning to write crime fiction from some of today’s masters: Joe R. Lansdale, Cheryl Head, Michael Bracken, and Warren S. Moore. The Newberry Crime Writing Workshop is an intensive, in-person, one-month workshop focusing on fundamentals particular to the writing of crime, mystery, and suspense fiction. It takes place July 6-31, on the historic campus of Newberry College, in Newberry, South Carolina.

A different professional writer or editor conducts the workshop each week. About fifteen participants are housed in college apartments, and classes are held in seminar facilities. Lunch and dinner are provided and continental breakfasts with coffee will also be available. The writers-in-residence live nearby and are continuously available to students. Mornings are devoted to critiquing manuscripts in a workshop setting. Afternoons, evenings, and weekends are devoted to individual writing, conferences with the current writer-in-residence, social activities, and the completion of class assignments.

Learn more and apply at https://www.newberry.edu/academics/academic-experience/crime-writing-workshop.

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.

Hot Streak

Attempting to predict anything in publishing is a mug’s game, especially trying to predict how long it will take for a short story to find a home.

I’ve been on a roll this summer, with 10 original short story acceptances beginning June 20 and ending as I write this, a few days before it posts. (I placed a pair of reprints and a few originals earlier this year, but I’m only looking at my recent summer sales because there are some interesting things to note.)

Ten acceptances in nine weeks means an average of 1.11 acceptances per week. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had acceptances at a rate averaging more than once a week.

Six were accepted by paying publications; four by non-paying publications.

Three stories were accepted on first submission, five on second submission, and two on third submission.

The two fastest responses came quickly—one the same day as the submission and the other the day after submission. The slowest response took one year and 11 days. Ignoring the three outliers, acceptances ranged from eight days to 120 days.

One story took 10 days from submission to acceptance, but in between the editor requested some small revisions, so I date the acceptance as the day the editor accepted the revised version.

One other story required a revision before it was accepted, but the editor did not request the revision. The original rejection letter was so specific that I knew what I needed to change to fix/improve the story, but the story sat on my computer for more than three years before I figured out how to solve the problem. I submitted the revised story to the same editor with a note about why I was resubmitting it and what I had done to fix the problem. An acceptance followed. So, it sold on second submission, but to the same editor who had previously rejected it.

Eight of the stories are crime fiction. Two are romances.

One story was written to invitation. One was written for an open-call anthology. The two romances were originally written for a specific market that did not accept them. The other stories were of the “write first, market second” variety, which I haven’t been doing much of the past few years. Most of my writing has been “market first, write second”—that is, writing stories by invitation or writing to meet specific open-call anthology guidelines.

Now, here’s where I found some interesting data:

One story was written in 2003, one in 2010, two in 2016, one in 2020, one in 2024, and the last four were written this year, which means the oldest story would be old enough to vote, were it a person, and another would be getting its learner’s permit to drive. Many of the publications where I placed these stories did not exist when I wrote the stories.

What I learned from these acceptances is two-fold: 1) Never throw anything away because 2) the market is in constant flux.

I’ll be surprised if this pace continues, but it might. I’ve been looking through my unsold stories and putting them back out to market. After all, they’ll never be published if I don’t submit them.

* * *

I’ve been having a good streak with publications as well. In addition to the five stories I mentioned in my two previous posts, two more stories are hitting newsstands and mailboxes as you read:

“The Girl in the Shop” appears in the September/October issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and “Blind Pig” appears in the September/October issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.

“Curves” was published August 17 on Guilty Crime Story Magazine’s website.

* * *

Like many of you, I’ll be at Bouchercon in New Orleans the first week of September.

Barb Goffman and I will accept the inaugural Derringer Award for Best Anthology for Murder, Neat. I will also be celebrating Tammy Euliano’s Derringer Award for Best Long Story for “Heart of Darkness” (Scattered, Smothered, Covered, and Chunked, which I co-edited with Stacy Woodson), and I’ll be celebrating Stacy Woodson’s Derringer Award for Best Novelette for “The Cadillac Job” (Chop Shop, which I edited).

I’ll be hanging on tenterhooks awaiting word about M.E. Proctor’s Shamus Award nomination for Best PI Story for “Drop Dead Gorgeous” (Janie’s Got a Gun, which I edited).

And I’ll be hanging on different tenterhooks awaiting the announcement of the Anthony Award for Best Anthology because I co-edited two of the nominees: Murder, Neat, with Barb Goffman, and Scattered, Smothered, Covered, and Chunked, with Stacy Woodson.

I’ll also be participating in two events:

“Killing Your Darlings: Edit that Manuscript,” a panel discussion with me, Luisa Cruz Smith, Donald Maass, Paula Munier, and Otto Penzler, moderated by Sara J. Henry. Friday 2:30–3:25 p.m. in Galarie 5-6, followed by a signing in the Acadia Ballroom.

“Jumpstart Your Story,” which I’ll co-host with Harry Hunsicker and Stacy Woodson. Saturday, 10:00–11:00 a.m., in the Media Room.

If you see me, say howdy!

Old Memorials, New Choices

 

They come in two kinds.

The official ones look like typical road signs but instead of telling you when you can park they say something like IN MEMORY OF SO-AND-SO.  PLEASE DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE.

We used to make a trip every winter on a rural road where there were four or five of those official memorials.  Seems like there was an alcohol problem there.

The private ones are more impressive.  There's usually a poster with a photo of the loved one.  There may be balloons, teddy bears, pinwheels, religious paraphernalia.  The message is the same.

Downtown here a private display sat for years, leaning against the fence of a business's parking lot.  It was continuously refreshed.  I used to wonder how the owner of the store felt about this memento mori.

One day it occurred to me: That could be a source of conflict and conflict is the main ingredient in fiction. So could I write a story about it?

Let's raise the stakes: Say that the business is a liquor store.  What would the owner think about this warning against his product?

It seemed like a pretty solid premise but I couldn't make any progress.  My main character refused to solidify.  All I knew was that he was a grumpy small businessman.  He just wouldn't develop. 

So I tried a trick.  I have written here before about the improv comedy game called New Choice.  The idea is that two actors make up a scene and at any point the third player call yell "New Choice!" and whoever spoke last has to come up with something different to say. 

In that earlier column I had suggested this as a solution for dealing with cliches in your plot.  My problem this time wasn't a cliche but I figured it was worth a shot.  So what could I change?

How about if I made the store owner a woman?

And boom, what a difference that made.

It felt like my true protagonist had been waiting in the wings, arms folded and foot tapping impatiently, waiting for me to kick the imposter off the stage and let her make her grand entrance.  I found that I knew her name, her backstory, even her speech patterns.

The result was a story called "Memorial" which appeared in Issue #95 of Black Cat Magazine.  

By the way, the photos  were taken in Greece.  In the USA we would assume these were "little libraries" but over there they are something else.  Our guide said they are created by families and mark the spot where a loved one died - or miraculously didn't.  They range in size from a domestic mailbox to almost as large as a bus shelter.  I haven't written any stories about them.

Yet.

Introducing Black Cat Mystery Magazine

It's not everyday you get to blog about the premier issue of a new magazine, especially on the very day it's scheduled to launch. And it's especially exciting when the magazine is coming from a publisher that's been around for nearly thirty years, so you can feel confident that the magazine should have staying power.

Well, this is that day. Welcome to the world, Black Cat Mystery Magazine!

The brainchild of Wildside Press publisher John Betancourt and Wildside editor Carla Coupe, the magazine is expected to come out quarterly. The first issue features new stories from fellow SleuthSayers John Floyd and Art Taylor, as well as one from me. (More on that below.) The other authors with new stories in the issue are Dan Andriacco, Michael Bracken, Kaye George, Meg Opperman, Alan Orloff, and Josh Pachter.

Editor Carla Coupe was kind enough to answer some questions about this new venture.

Why did you decide to start this magazine?
To provide an outlet for great short fiction, which we love. We decided to launch Black Cat when certain other mystery magazines cut their publication schedules in half. 

​How do you hope to distinguish BCMM from other mystery magazines?

We're focusing on edgier, noir-tinged, character-based short stories—which happen to contain a crime of some sort. (A crime is essential, or it isn't mystery fiction.) We don't want fantasy, horror, science fiction, routine revenge stories, or sadism. We do want stories with characters who feel real, in situations that are possible (and plausible), and of course great writing.

Do you have a minimum or maximum word count? How about a sweet spot?

​We’re looking for contemporary and traditional mysteries, as well as thrillers and suspense stories. We hope to feature stories by established and new authors, and will include a classic reprint or two in each issue. We aren’t looking for flash fiction, and our sweet spot is for stories between 1,000 and 8,000 words. We will look at material up to 15,000 words in length—but it better blow us away to take up that much of an issue!

 

Where will the magazine be available for sale? Bookstores?
It will be for sale at our website (http://wildsidepress.com/magazines/black-cat-mystery-magazine/), on Amazon, and hopefully some independent bookstores. US readers can buy a four-issue subscription, so they won't miss any.


You're aiming for it to come out quarterly?
Yes, but as with all our publications, we're not wedded to a strict schedule.


When will submission guidelines go up?
Hopefully this week.

When will you open for submissions?
We'll start accepting submissions at the beginning of October.

Do you make the acceptance decisions alone or with John?
We make the decisions together, and so far have agreed on almost every story!


What do you pay?
We pay 3 cents/word, with a maximum of $250.

Is there anything you'd like people to know about the magazine that I haven't asked?
John thinks the response times are often unreasonably long in the short fiction field. Our goal is to respond to most submissions within 2 weeks. (We're going to try for "all submissions"—but in rare circumstances we may take longer.) We also will look at poetry ($5 for short poems, more for longer ones) and cartoons.

Thank you, Carla!


So, readers, here's your chance to read some great fiction in this brand new issue, which is already available for sale on the Wildside website (http://wildsidepress.com/magazines/black-cat-mystery-magazine/), and which should show up any moment now on Amazon, if it isn't there already. My story in the issue, "Crazy Cat Lady," is a tale of psychological suspense about a woman who comes home and immediately suspects there's been a break-in, even though everything looks perfectly in order. Go pick up a copy of the magazine. I hope you enjoy it!

Art, John, and all the other authors with stories in this premier issue, I hope you'll comment with information about your tales. I'm so glad to be sharing this moment with you.