2025 Year in Review: Editing

I’m splitting my 2025 Year in Review post into two parts. I’ll discuss writing and other things next post; this time I’m concentrating on editing.

This year saw the release of one issue of Black Cat Mystery Magazine (issue 16); 52 issues of Black Cat Weekly, for which I serve as an associate editor; the second six episodes of the serial novella anthology series Chop Shop; and three original anthologies and one reprint anthology I edited or co-edited.

The original anthologies include:

Sleuths Just Wanna Have Fun: Private Eyes in the Materialistic Eighties (Down & Out Books)

Malice Domestic 19: Mystery Most Humorous, co-edited with John Betancourt and Carla Coupe (Wildside Press)

Trouble in Texas (North Dallas Chapter of Sisters in Crime)

The reprint anthology was the first in a new best-of-year series for which I am the Series Editor:

The Best Private Eye Stories of the Year 2025, Matt Coyle, editor (Level Short)

Outside the mystery world, I edited six issues of Texas Gardener, a bi-monthly consumer magazine, and 52 issues of Seeds, a weekly electronic newsletter for gardeners that, incidentally, published three short stories.

Adding all the editing projects together, in 2025 I had the honor of shepherding or helping shepherd 87 short stories and novellas through to publication.

This is a significant reduction from 2024, in part because Down & Out Books closed, leaving a couple of anthologies and several novellas in the Chop Shop series unpublished; production delays at Level Best pushed some projects into 2026; and I downshifted from editing a story a week to a story every other week for Black Cat Weekly.

RECOGNITION

This year, two anthologies I co-edited were recognized:

Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology (Level Short), co-edited with Barb Goffman, received a Derringer Award for Best Anthology and was short-listed for an Anthony Award for Best Anthology

Scattered, Smothered, Covered, and Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House (Down & Out Books), co-edited with Stacy Woodson, was short-listed for an Anthony Award for Best Anthology

Also, several stories from projects I edited or co-edited were recognized:

Thielman, Mark “The Kratz Gambit,” Private Dicks and Disco Balls, was short-listed for a Derringer Award, Short Story

Euliano, Tammy “Heart of Darkness,” Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked, received a Derringer Award, Long Story

Welsh-Huggins, Andrew “Cold Comfort,” Private Dicks and Disco Balls, was short-listed for a Derringer Award, Long Story

Milani, Tom “Barracuda Backfire," Chop Shop, Episode 4, was short-listed for a Derringer Award, Novelette

Woodson, Stacy “The Cadillac Job,” Chop Shop, Episode 1, received a Derringer Award, Novelette

Taylor, Art “Two for One,” Murder, Neat, was short-listed for a Macavity Award

Proctor, M.E. “Drop Dead Gorgeous,” Janie’s Got a Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Aerosmith, was short-listed for a Shamus Award

The Best of Mystery Stories of the Year

The following stories were selected for inclusion in The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2025:

Falenwolfe, Tracy “Jamming at Jollies,” Black Cat Weekly #151

Larsen, Tom “The Other Brother,” Black Cat Weekly #168

McClusky, Sean “The Secret Menu,” Scattered, Smothered, Covered, and Chunked

McMahan, Rick “Mr. George,” Black Cat Weekly #137

Walker, Joseph S. “Run and Gun,” Chop Shop, Episode 2

Honor Roll:

Lundin, Leigh “Razing the Bar,” Murder, Neat

Best American Mystery and Suspense

The following stories were selected for inclusion in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025:

Aptaker, Ann “Neon Women,” Private Dicks and Disco Balls

Brown, Susan Love “In Kind,” Malice Domestic 18: Mystery Most Devious

Phillips, Gary “The Darklight Gizmo Matter,” Private Dicks and Disco Balls

Other Distinguished:

Milani, Tom “Barstow,” Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir, Vol 5

Plakcy, Neil S. “The Missing Delegate,” Private Dicks and Disco Balls

Woodson, Stacy “The Cadillac Job,” Chop Shop, Episode 1

The Best Private Eye Stories of the Year 2025

The following stories were selected for inclusion in The Best Private Eye Stories of the Year 2025:

Plakcy, Neil S. “The Shandiclere,” Black Cat Weekly #150

Powell, William Dylan “Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting,” Private Dicks and Disco Balls

Proctor, M.E. “Drop Dead Gorgeous” Janie’s Got a Gun

Thielman, Mark “The Kratz Gambit” Private Dicks and Disco Balls

Wiebe, Sam “Broken English” Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir, vol. 5

Also Walking the Mean Streets:

Aptaker, Ann “Neon Women” Private Dicks and Disco Balls

Lawton, R.T. “Leonardo,” Black Cat Weekly #148

FORTHCOMING

Misti Media picked up my unpublished Down & Out anthologies for its White City Press imprint, including the Chop Shop and Mickey Finn series, and I’m editing a new anthology for them.

Level Best should release some or all of the anthologies I’ve already delivered.

And I anticipate continuing with Black Cat Mystery Magazine and Black Cat Weekly.

On the other hand, given all the turmoil impacting the publishing of short crime fiction (see “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”), I’m not actively seeking new editing opportunities, and likely won’t until things settle down. Next time: I review what happened with my writing in 2025.

 * * *

“Beehive and Bouffant Beauty Blowout” appeared in Von Stray’s Crimestalker Casebook, December 2025

“Field of Bodies” appeared in Black Cat Weekly #224

Mining the Files

Some of the many publications containing my stories, including those that were mined from the files.

If you’ve been writing for any length of time, as I have, you likely have a file drawer (or a file folder on your computer) filled with unsold stories.

Likely, some of them are unpublishable under any circumstances. Some, however, are publishable as is or with minor tweaking. Because you were unable to find suitable markets at the time, you disappeared the stories into your files. If enough time has passed, you may have even forgotten writing them.

This is a mistake. Every so often, you should reread your unsold stories and spend time seeking information about markets that have changed or that did not exist when you wrote the stories. You might be sitting on a gold mine (figuratively; you do know how well short stories pay, don’t you?).

This has been one of those years. Though there’re still thirty-one days left (as I write this) and I could receive additional acceptances that will impact the numbers I’m about to share, this has been a good year for mining my unsold stories file.

So, far, I’ve placed eight of those stories. I wrote the oldest—a bit of crime fiction—in 2013; the other seven are short romances I wrote in 2016. I placed them with three different publications, none of which existed at the time I wrote the stories.

Other than correcting typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors I hadn’t caught at the time, I only found it necessary to revise one story. I found a submission call for a winter-themed romance anthology, so I added a few sentences to one story to make it clear the story took place during winter.

UNFINISHED STORIES

I have another, larger, file of unfinished stories, and I frequently mine it as well. I’ve written about this before, but whenever I am not writing to deadline and have no specific project top of mind, I read my unfinished stories until one captures my attention.

Sometimes, I have a burst of inspiration and finish the story. Other times, I add a sentence, a paragraph, or an entire scene. Sometimes I create a rough outline for the balance of the story. If nothing compels me to finish, I move on to other unfinished stories.

Both “Blind Pig” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2025) and “The Girl in the Shop” (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2025) were stories I had started and which lay dormant for four years (“Blind Pig”) or three years (“The Girl in the Shop”) between the time I started them and the time I finished them.

So, whether you’re mining your files for finished stories and seeking new markets for them or you’re mining for unfinished stories in hopes of inspirational sparks that will propel you through to the end of finished manuscripts, mining your files can prove quite beneficial.

I know it does for me.

* * *

“Forever Family” was published in Micromance Magazine, November 22, 2025.

The Best Private Eye Stories of the Year 2025

The mystery genre’s two best-of-year anthologies—Steph Cha’s The Best American Mystery and Suspense and Otto Penzler’s The Best Mystery Stories of the Year—provide readers with excellent examples of some of the best short mystery fiction published each year. If you write in the genre, you should regularly read both anthologies, not only for the enjoyment of reading some of the best short fiction our genre produces, but also to learn about the wide range of publications where the selected stories were originally published.

However, because the series editors and guest editors of both anthologies select stories from the entire panoply of crime fiction subgenres, some subgenres are unrepresented or underrepresented among their selections. Cozies, for example.

Though private eye stories are neither overlooked nor underrepresented in the two best-ofs, there are many more excellent private eye stories published each year than can be included in anthologies that attempt to cover the entire field. To remedy that situation, I’m now the series editor of The Best Private Eye Stories of the Year, and the inaugural volume, with multiple-award-winning private eye writer Matt Coyle as guest editor, releases soon.

As series editor, I read every private eye short story published in 2024 that I could find. Using the Private Eye Writers of America’s definition of private eye—“a private citizen (not a member of the military, federal agency, or civic or state police force) who is paid to investigate crimes. A Private Investigator can be a traditional private eye, a TV or newspaper reporter, an insurance investigator, an employee of an investigative service or agency (think Pinkertons) or similar character”—I eliminated stories that missed the mark. I then selected what I felt were the thirty best private eye short stories published in 2024.

Just like Cha and Penzler do with their guest editors, I sent my selections to Matt. He selected twenty stories for inclusion in the anthology, with the remaining ten being listed in the back as “Also Walking the Mean Streets.”

The twenty selected stories were written by Tom Andes, Pete Barnstrom, Robert J. Binney, Alec Cizak, Libby Cudmore, O’Neil De Noux, Luke Deckard, BV Lawson, Andrew McAleer, Ron Miller, Bruce W. Most, Marcia Muller, Twist Phelan, Neil S. Plakcy, William Dylan Powell, M.E. Proctor, Mark Thielman, Vicki Weisfeld, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, and Sam Wiebe.

Additionally, Matt wrote the introduction and Kevin Burton Smith, the driving force behind Thrilling Detective, wrote “The Private Eye Year in Review,” which is exactly what it sounds like.

Also Walking the Means Streets includes stories by Ann Aptaker, John M. Floyd, James A. Hearn, R.T. Lawton, Josh Pachter, Michele Bazan Reed, Gary Ross, Jeff Soloway, Bev Vincent, and Dave Zeltserman.

The selected stories and those listed as Also Walking the Mean Streets were originally published in a variety of anthologies, magazines, and websites, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, Cowboy Jamboree: A Case of Kink, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Janie’s Got a Gun, Jerry Jazz Musician, Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir, Midsummer Mysteries, Mystery Magazine, New York State of Crime: Murder New York Style, Private Dicks and Disco Balls, Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Shamus & Anthony Commit Capers, Starlite Pulp Review, Strand Magazine, The Amber Waves of Autumn, The Killing Rain, and Yellow Mama.

So, keep your eyes open for the release of The Best Private Eye Stories of 2025, pick up a copy, and prepare yourself for a walk down the mean streets with some of today’s most interesting private eyes and their creators.

2026

SJ Rozan will be the guest editor for The Best Private Eye Stories of the Year 2026. If you had (or will have) a private eye short story published in 2025, follow the directions here to submit a copy of your published story.

And remember, if we don’t see your story, we can’t consider it.

* * *

“All I Ever Wanted” was published today in Dark Yonder 11.

“Home for the Holidays” was published in KissMet Quarterly: The Greatest Holiday Romance Stories Ever Written.

Bouchercon Waffle Report

And the Anthony award for best anthology goes to... 

Tales of  Music, Murder, and Mayhem, edited by Heather Graham.

The convention anthology took home the Anthony this year. It is filled with amazing stories written by talented authors.

Still, it was disappointing news, not only for our Scattered, Smothered, Covered, and Chunked siblings, but for Murder Neat’s SleuthSayers as well. 

After the awards ceremony, writers offered heartfelt “literary condolences” to our Waffle-clan, and I appreciated their thoughtful remarks. Later, as the dust settled on our syrup bottle (so to speak), I reflected on the convention and our amazing contributors with a tremendous sense of gratitude. Scattered, Smothered, Covered, and Chunked may not have won the Anthony, but our contributors won in many other ways.

Connection

At the convention, our Waffle-writers connected with attendees, creating buzz about the anthology and joyful energy. They shared waffle-inspired swag on giveaway tables and at the author speed dating event. Convention-goers wore waffle charms on their badges and recounted personal Waffle House stories. An editor asked if a second anthology was planned because she had a client who wanted to be part of it. 

Fifty copies of the anthology in the book room were gone before the conference concluded. The bookstore sold out. And our auction basket, Breakfast with a Side of Crime, was popular, too.

Visibility

During the Anthony mixer, I had a chance to talk about the anthology and was honored to mention each of our contributors.

Leading up to the convention, Tammy Euliano’s story, “Heart of Darkness,” won the Derringer Award for best short story, an award she received at Bouchercon’s opening ceremonies.

 Waffle Swag with Tammy Euliano

Sean McCluskey’s story, “The Secret Menu,” was selected for inclusion in The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2025, edited by John Grisham.

We may have lost the Anthony award, but the visibility our authors received and the connections we made with readers were priceless.

***

Anthony awards with Tammy Euliano, J.D. Allen
Andrew Welsh-Huggins, & Bonnar Spring

 

Want to learn more about Scattered, Smothered, Covered, and Chunked—the birth of an idea and what it’s like working as a co-editor with short story legend, Michael Bracken? Check out this SleuthSayers post from May.

Newberry Crime Writing Workshop

Sometimes dreams come true.

I began my writing career as a science fiction/fantasy writer, and I know or know of many writers who attended the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop (founded in 1968, it later split into two workshops—Clarion and Clarion West—and spawned similar SF/F workshops) and then went on to long careers as SF/F writers. I dreamed of attending myself, but that never happened and, as time went on, my writing drifted into other genres and (mostly) settled in crime fiction.

For many years I dreamed about having a similar workshop specifically for crime fiction writers. A while back, I mentioned this in a Facebook post and discovered Warren Moore shared the same dream.

I’m happy to announce that our dream is now a reality. Warren and I are co-directors of the Newberry Crime Writing Workshop, which will offer the inaugural four-week workshop next summer. The college’s official press release follows, with links to additional information, including a way to sign up to receive email once the workshop opens to applications.

Newberry Crime Writing Workshop Press Release

Newberry, SC – Newberry College today announced the launch of the Newberry Crime Writing Workshop (NCWW), an intensive 4-week writers’ workshop for developing crime and mystery authors, taught by major figures in the field. The inaugural workshop will take place July 6-31, 2026, on the historic campus of Newberry College.

“Newberry College has always been about helping people grow and develop their vocations, whether that has meant a traditional career or some other gift,” said Professor of English and NCWW co-director Dr. Warren Moore. “This workshop is another way of doing that – we’re working to grow the community of crime and mystery writers, and to keep a popular and powerful genre of fiction vital for today and tomorrow.”

Attendees will take part in daily sessions where they will develop and share their work with one another. Each week’s sessions will be led by an instructor who is active in the crime writing field. The instructors for 2026 include Joe R. Lansdale, Cheryl Head, Michael Bracken, and Moore.

Participants will live and work on the college’s historic campus, with meals provided at the college as well. Part class, part writers’ colony, NCWW is adapting the model of other successful workshops (most notably the famed Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop) and applying it to a genre with a wide range of fans and writers.

Fifteen applicants will be selected based on samples of work and statements of purpose – writers of any level of publishing experience are welcome to apply. The workshop’s $4000 tuition will cover room and board for the four-week term, as well as instruction, and some financial aid may be available. Applications and further information will be available at the NCWW website: www.newberry.edu/ncww.

For further information on NCWW, please contact Prof. Moore at crimefictionworkshop@newberry.edu.

Though Warren and I are co-directors, he did most of the hard work putting the workshop together, and he discusses the genesis of the Newberry Crime Writing Workshop in his blog post “So, About that Big Project…”

This workshop is for writers of all ages and experience levels. So, if you can spend four weeks in Newberry, S.C., next summer learning how to write crime fiction, this is for you.

We hope to see you there.

* * *

“Banking on Love” was published in Micromance Magazine, August 20, 2025.

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!

Frittering

There are too many hours in the day, and I sometimes fritter them away. When I haven’t enough to do, I do even less, often spending my available time on activities that accomplish nothing more than fill time. Word games. Card games. Reading the Wikipedia entries for obscure rock ’n’ roll bands.

I find I accomplish more when I have projects with deadlines I can segment into discrete, definable tasks. I’m not an adrenalin junkie, spurred to action by last-minute rushing to meet deadlines. I like projects with far-away deadlines so I can compartmentalize each step, accomplish each step, and know that with each completed step I’m that much closer to meeting the deadline.

For example, for many years I was a regular contributor to the now-defunct confession magazines. I knew each month’s submission deadlines and, because I often wrote stories tied to holidays and seasons, I could plan ahead to know which stories to complete and when to submit them.

Writing to invitation, or writing to meet an open-call deadline, is similar. I know the submission deadline, so I work step-by-step: Generate several ideas, research (if necessary) to refine the ideas, winnow the unworkable ideas until only one remains, draft the story, edit or revise as necessary, and deliver it to the editor. Without that deadline, I fritter my time away.

But frittering around isn’t inherently bad. Sometimes it means washing dishes, doing laundry, paying bills, or, as I have the past few days, going through my file of unsold stories to see if any fit, or can be made to fit, anthology calls or the requirements of new (or new to me) publications.

I’ve also found a way to direct my frittering: I leave a list of non-writing/non-editing tasks on the kitchen table so that each time I pass through the kitchen I see something that needs to be done. (Temple has noticed this daily list and now often adds tasks to it.)

I approach tasks on the list the same way I approach writing to deadline: in discrete steps. For example, when putting away laundry, I might fold and put away towels, then an hour later deal with T-shirts. The process might appear messy (and it may actually be messy) but I usually meet my daily deadlines. The laundry is folded and put away, the dishwasher emptied, the bird bath filled, and the plants watered, all before Temple returns home from her day job.

In the spaces between these tasks, I’ve written a page on this story or a paragraph on that story, or I’ve made notes on a third story. In this way, I continually make progress on writing and editing projects that have no specific deadline.

And, sooner or later, a project with a deadline will land on my desk, I’ll have less time available to fritter away, and—for a while, at least—I’ll postpone my visits to the Wikipedia pages of obscure rock ’n’ roll bands.

* * *

“Schrödinger’s Blonde” appeared in Black Cat Weekly #202.

“The Safety Dance” appeared in Gag Me With a Spoon: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of the ’80s (White City Press, J. Alan Hartman, editor)

“Cowboy Up” appeared in KissMet Quarterly #2: A Serendipitous Summer (MM Publishing, G. Lynn Brown, editor) 

Get Away to Recharge

A view from the porch last year.

I am writing this one week before it posts, as Temple and I are preparing to visit Hot Springs, Arkansas, over the Independence Day weekend. We will be staying in a VRBO on the Ouachita River, our third Independence Day weekend visit to this location in four years. During the two previous visits, I spent much of my time sitting near the river with my laptop computer, working on various short stories. (“Working Vacation” [Tough, March 2, 2025] was inspired by the location and written during our first visit.)

We eat most of our meals at the house, but we found a German restaurant (Steinhaus Keller) that surpasses any we’ve come across elsewhere, so we plan at least one meal there. We also found a hole-in-the-wall burger joint (Bailey’s Dairy Treat) that we like to visit at least once during our stay.

There are two other locations we might visit this year, both new to us—Black Ribbon Books, located in the historic Arlington Hotel, and the Garven Gardens Trains, a garden with four separate scale-model train layouts running through it.

Even so, sightseeing and dining out aren’t why we make the six-hour drive. We go to get away from daily life, to relax in a way we cannot at home.

Temple and I take other trips throughout the year—we did a whirlwind weekend trip to Chicago in mid-June, often take one-day and two-day road trips around Texas, and attend various conferences and conventions (together when we can)—but as enjoyable as those trips are, I’d be hard-pressed to call them relaxing. The closest any of our other trips come to the relaxation level of Hot Springs is the annual fall trip when we rent a VRBO with Andrew and Dawn Hearn. Sometimes Andrew and I write or talk writing—“When Sin Stops” (Weren’t Another Other Way To Be) resulted from a discussion at one of these getaways—but mostly the four of us just hang out.

And that’s something I think writers need to do—take time to relax, chill out, do little or nothing away from the hustle and bustle of daily life, and recharge the batteries.

I know I return home refreshed after our Hot Springs trips and our fall weekend trips with Andrew and Dawn. Maybe it’s time to schedule more trips like this.

* * *

Another writing milestone crept up on me when I wasn’t paying attention. Sometime recently I sold my 1,300th short story. If yesterday’s count is correct, I’ve now sold 1,307 original stories and sold reprint or other subsidiary rights 205 times.

These numbers are always a bit spongy. I can verify publication of 1,029 original stories. The other 278 originals are either scheduled for future publication or were sold to publications that never provided contributor copies. Same for the reprint and other subsidiary rights sales: I can verify 181 of them; the other 24 are either scheduled for future publication or sold to publications that did not provide contributor copies.

* * *

“Renovated to Death,” co-authored with Sandra Murphy, appeared in Black Cat Weekly 198, June 15, 2025. This is our sixth collaboration.

“Penalty for Early Withdrawal” appears in the July/August issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

An Anthology is Born

It started with one hula hoop, eight writers drinking S.J. Rozan-inspired martinis all basking in ShortCon’s afterglow…

Dan White & S.J. Rozan with her Signature Martini

There is something magical that happens when writers gather after a conference.

Maybe, it’s because of how we are wired. Maybe, it’s because of the creative energy that still lingers in the air—and we had plenty of it this year, thanks to the incredible presentations by S.J. Rozan, Jeffrey Marks, and Michael Bracken. Being together ignites our imaginations and fosters inspiration.

At Elaine’s Literary Salon that night was no different.

Conversations about the conference turned to hula hoops. I am still not sure what sponsored the now-infamous hula hoop-moment between Dan White and S.J. Rozan and the deep dive into iconic playground games and equipment that quickly followed.

Like so many similar moments when crime fiction writers are together, snippets of story ideas began bouncing around like a gaggle of kids on pogo sticks: hopscotch and chalk-lined bodies, Double-Dutch turned deadly, butt-burning metal slides, death-defying jumps from swings, and tether ball clashes. Some, reimagined the Tony Sopranos of the sandbox-world uttering,“What happens in the sandbox stays in the sandbox.” I can still hear the New Jersey-accent playing in my head.

We also discovered just like “regional words” exist for carbonated drinks (soda, pop, Coke), names for playground equipment vary, too: Seesaws or Teeter-Totters, Monkey bars or Horizontal Ladders, Spinners or Merry-Go-Rounds or Roundabouts, Spring Riders or Spring Rockers.

And the list goes on.

Others recounted playground politics and social hierarchies, what it felt like to be fearless, what it felt like to desperately want to be accepted—all of us reliving nostalgic and not so nostalgic moments from our childhood.

Less than an hour later, short story legend (aka Michael Bracken) roughed out a proposal for a crime fiction anthology where a piece of playground equipment or a playground game plays an important role. These had to exist on old-school playgrounds, where the playground was was made of asphalt and the equipment was made of metal, which likely meant these stories would be set in the past or in the present with flashbacks or in neighborhoods that had not upgraded to modern, safe playground equipment.

Michael Bracken
exhausted by the "Idea Fairy"

And just like that, Playground Noir: For the Kids Who Never Grew Up, was born.

Michael was surrounded by his list of contributors. He also had a publisher in mind.

As I write this post today, Michael has already pitched his proposal and awaits a response.

My key takeaways from that night at Elaine's:

Crime fiction writers are all a little twisted. Thank God, we have each other.

The best story ideas happen when writers gather to enjoy one another’s company.

It’s important to stick around after conferences and connect with fellow writers. You never know what is going to happen. You may become a contributor in an upcoming anthology.

***

Stacy Woodson with Dan White

Want to make space for your own hula-hoop moment?

ShortCon 2026 is just around the corner.

Hosted by Michael Bracken, the conference will be held at Elaine's Literary Salon in Alexandria, Virginia on June 6, 2026.

Gary Phillips will lead a three-hour writing workshop on “Blueprinting Criminal Behavior.”

Michele Slung will present “Every Moment is a Story,” a behind-the-scenes look at putting together annual best-of collections.

Art Taylor will discuss “Linked, Intertwined, or Seamless: The Curious Case of the Novel in Stories.”

I will also lead an end-of-day panel discussion with the presenters. Registration opens in July.

You can find it here: https://www.eastcoastcrime.com/#/.

Hope to see you there!

Wipe Out

Michael, standing at the ShortCon 2025
registration table moments before
attendees arrived.

“Banzai Pipeline,” published May 23 by Kelp Journal, is one of the stories I used during my presentation at ShortCon 2025 as an example of writing a story for an anthology submission call, but finishing well past the deadline.

At the conference, I presented “Writing for Anthologies: How to Slip Between the Covers,” which was an overview of the various types of anthologies, how they are conceived and assembled, things writers can do to improve the odds of acceptance, and what to do with stories that didn’t make the cut.

And I veered a bit off-track when I briefly discussed “Banzai Pipeline,” a story that exists because of an anthology’s open call for submissions but was never submitted to that anthology.

A while back there was a call for crime fiction short stories inspired by musical one-hit wonders, and I wondered what song with the fewest number of words in its lyrics could inspire a story. The answer was:

Two. Two words.

I chose The Safari’s “Wipe Out.”

(The Champs’s “Tequila,” with a single word repeated three times, might be an even greater challenge.)

The sound of a breaking surfboard, followed by a maniacal laugh and someone shouting, “Wipe Out,” provided both the setting and the inciting incident for my story.

Writing the opening proved easy enough. The surfer who wiped out dies, his girlfriend thinks he was murdered, and the private eye she hires to investigate knows nothing about surfing.

Then I wiped out. The wave of inspiration collapsed beneath me, I found myself floundering, and the file remained unfinished on my computer as I moved on to other projects.

One day, while falling into a research rabbit hole for another project, I discovered “Hawaii: Black Royalty in the Pacific,” and what I read upended everything I thought I knew about the ethnicity of our 50th state.

And I knew what my story was about, and knew it wasn’t just about investigating a possible murder.

I finished the story, changed the title from “Wipe Out” to “Banzai Pipeline” and submitted it to various publications until it found a home with Kelp Journal.

Michael, pontificating about
anthologies at ShortCon 2025.

NOT THE FIRST TIME

Something similar happened with “Denim Mining” (AHMM, May/June 2023).

I had already begun writing “Denim Mining” when the 2019 Bouchercon in Dallas announced that the theme of their anthology was denim and diamonds. Incorporating diamonds into the story I had already begun was no problem. Unfortunately, as with “Banzai Pipeline,” the wave of inspiration collapsed when I ran into a problem.

The solution, in this case, wasn’t diving down a research rabbit hole, but help from fellow SleuthSayer Leigh Lundin. He provided a few suggestions as well as information about gunpowder that gave me what I needed to finish the story.

LESSONS LEARNED

The lesson I intended to impart at ShortCon when I shared the story of “Banzai Pipeline” is to never give up on a good story even if the inspiring project’s submission window ends before you finish writing.

And if you do finish your story in time, and it gets rejected, keep it circulating. That’s what fellow SleuthSayer Joseph Walker did with “Give or Take a Quarter of an Inch,” rejected from the same Boucheron anthology to which I had intended to submit “Demin Mining.” He placed it with Tough, it was selected for inclusion in The Best Mystery Stories of the Year, and then it was reprinted in The Saturday Evening Post.

So, how about you? Have you missed a submission deadline and still sold the resulting story? Or has a story rejected by the editor of a themed anthology later appeared in a better market or received recognition?

Murder, Neat is on a Roll!

In February of 2024, I had the good fortune of having my turn to post here on SleuthSayers fall on the very day that our first anthology, Murder, Neat, was released. The book has twenty-four short stories, all written by members of this blog. Michael Bracken and I edited it, stepping in after our original editor and fellow SleuthSayer, the late Paul D. Marks, fell ill.

Every anthology editor has high hopes their baby will be well received and that the individual stories in it will be beloved. (The authors with stories in the book hope that too, of course.) So you can imagine the smiles we all shared when Murder, Neat was named one of the six finalists a few months ago for the inaugural Derringer Award for Best Anthology. Those smiles turned to grins on May 1 when we won the Derringer, especially because the competition was stiff. (Hats off to the editors and authors of the other five anthologies. You can find a list of the finalists here.) 

Then, a couple of weeks ago, Murder, Neat was named a finalist for this year's Anthony Award in the Best Anthology category. Talk about icing on a delicious cake. So this is a good time to remind you about the anthology and, if you haven't read it, entice you to do so. (I also hope you will check out the four other anthologies nominated for the Anthony Award. Bouchercon attendees, please read before you vote. You can find the names of the nominated anthologies, as well as the finalists in all the other categories, here. One of those other anthologies was edited by Michael Bracken (him again!), working with fellow SleuthSayer Stacy Woodson.)

Back to Murder, Neat. Every story takes the reader to a location where drinking happens. Bars--be they regular, college, dive, or gastropub--make an appearance, of course, as do restaurants and even a winery. What also happens in those locations? Crime, of course!

When the book came out, Art Taylor, a retired fellow SleuthSayer with a story in the book, hosted four other of our bloggers on his personal blog, The First Two Pages. There they each wrote about--no surprise here--the first two pages of their stories. I invite you to click here to read the first of those essays, by Melodie Campbell. Near the bottom of that screen, you will be able to click to read the next essay by one of the Murder, Neat bloggers, Lawrence Maddox, followed by one by David Edgerley Gates, and finally, one by Leigh Lundin.

If you haven't yet read Murder, Neat, you can purchase it in trade paperback and ebook. We all hope you enjoy it. Cheers!

Finally, before I go, a little more news: I'm honored to have been named a finalist for this year's Anthony Award for Best Short Story for my tale "A Matter of Trust," which appeared in the anthology Three Strikes--You're Dead! The other nominated authors are James D.F. Hannah, Curtis Ippolito, Gabriel Valjan, and Kristopher Zgorski. I hope you will take the time to read all of their nominated stories. You can find the names of those stories by clicking on the link in the third paragraph of this blog. And you can read my story here.