Novel Ventures

For several decades now, I have been known as, and have actively worked at being, a short-story writer.

But I wasn’t always.

Early in my career, I wrote a few novels, and most of them are still available and still generating royalties. Today I’m looking back at those early-career novels.

DEADLY CAMPAIGN

I finished writing my first novel, a mystery titled Deadly Campaign, in November 1983. It was rejected by several agents and publishers until it found a home with Books in Motion and was released in May 1994.

Books in Motion published audiobooks on cassette tape and sold most of their titles at truck stops around the U.S.

In February 2003, Wildside Press released Deadly Campaign as a trade paperback, and it is still available at online bookstores.

Covering City Hall during an election year was all the excitement reporter Dan Fox needed—until he discovered Alderman Bill Franklin’s bullet-ridden body.

Who killed the alderman? Why did they do it? Fox wants the story. Everyone else wants him.

Hit men, mob bosses, politicians, and mistresses: They all have stories to tell, and Fox pieces them together while dodging bullets and fighting deadlines.

While Fox digs for the story, long-hidden secrets rise to the surface—secrets that threaten the political fabric of the city—and Fox soon discovers he’s caught in the middle of a Deadly Campaign.

JUST IN TIME FOR LOVE

I wrote Just in Time for Love, a YA romance, in 1983/1984, and for years the manuscript made the rounds of agents and publishers, finally finding a home with Hardshell Word Factory in 1998, first as an eBook and then in 2001 paired with Melissa Ford’s His Friday Girls as half of the paperback Twin Spins #1.

It is now out of print.

His father writes confessions and jokes, and the biggest joke of all is his name—Justin Tyme. But Jay, as he prefers to be called, hasn’t had much to laugh about in the years since his mother died. His father retreats into an alcohol-hazed world of denial and self-pity, reversing their care-giver roles, and forcing Jay to grow up virtually on his own.

Then, they move to O’Shea, where his father manages a mobile home park, and Jay begins yet another year as the “new kid” in school. He has a lot to learn—about life, his father, and himself, but most of all, about love. And it all begins the day Jay meets Cindy Hamilton.

PSI COPS

I wrote Psi Cops, a science fiction police procedural, in 1987/1988, and sent my first query to an editor in March 1988. I received several rejections and a request for revisions from an editor at Berkley (which I did, but they passed on the revised version), and I ultimately placed it with Books in Motion in 1994.

In February 2003, Wildside Press released Psi Cops as a trade paperback, and it is still available at online bookstores.

Geeks and freaks.

That’s what Detective Sergeant Tony Carvelli thinks of Psi Cops until he’s faced with a sadistic serial killer who leaves no evidence behind.

In a near-future St. Louis, after sexually-transmitted diseases have been eliminated and sex without commitment is a lifestyle for much of the population, Carvelli investigates the deaths of women dismembered in their own bedrooms.

Carvelli still believes in the old values: love before sex and investigation before technology. When Psi Cop Colleen Allison is assigned to the case against his wishes—thanks to his new partner, recently-promoted Detective Phil Palmer—Carvelli resents her and everything she represents.

Fighting against time and against each other, Carvelli, Palmer, and Allison struggle to find the killer before he strikes again.

ALL WHITE GIRLS

I don’t know how it happened, but I’ve lost the paper trail for my first private eye novel, All White Girls. So, I don’t know when I completed the novel, nor how many agents and publishers may have passed on it. I do know Wildside Press released it as a trade paperback in May 2001 and later released a hardcover version. It is still available at online bookstores.

One young woman is missing. Another is dead.

They were drawn to Windy City like moths to a flame, but the city’s bright lights can’t illuminate every dark corner. Hidden in the alleys and back streets and in a three-block-long stretch of strip clubs and adult bookstores are the men who prey on young women like these: the pedophiles, pimps, and pornographers.

When former partners, unlicensed investigator Big Dick Rickenbacher and Homicide Lieutenant Salvador Castellano, find their cases overlapping in this violent world of sexual depravity, old flames rekindle, old secrets finally surface, and old crimes demand retribution.

STUD

Sometime in the mid-2000s, I discovered the first chapter of an erotic romance I had drafted in the early 1990s. I picked it up again and finished writing Stud just before I sent my first query letter to an agent in September 2008.

I collected a string of rejections from agents and publishers for the next few years and finally released Stud in July 2011 as a Kindle-only title on Amazon, using my Rolinda Hay pseudonym.

Christiana Kern is already overworked as the top customer service representative at Wett, Inc., the country’s largest printer of special interest magazines, when her boss assigns her a new title. She isn’t eager to accept the additional responsibility…until she meets Bobby Ray Cartwright, the sexy rancher publishing the start-up magazine. It isn’t long before business and pleasure mix and Christiana learns that Stud isn’t just the title of Bobby Ray’s new publication. Soon Christiana is having the best sex ever and is facing life-altering decisions in and out of the bedroom.

SHORT STORY FOCUS

I’ve had many other books published—mostly short story collections—but I have no completed and unpublished novels buried in my files.

Given the length of time it took to write and find homes for each of my novels (11+ years for Deadly Campaign, 14+ years for Just in Time for Love, 6+ years for Psi Cops), is it any wonder I shifted my focus to short stories?

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“The Tattooist” was published in Black Cat Weekly #253.

Wish Upon a Crime

On June 2, Level Short released Wish Upon a Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Fairy Tales, an anthology I edited with Stacy Woodson. Though it’s the second published of the three anthologies we’ve co-edited, it was the first we delivered to a publisher. The path from concept to publication was a long and torturous road, but that’s a story for another day.

Stacy and I have collaborated on various projects over the years—a Derringer-nominated short story, classes and presentations for Outliers Writing University and The Back Room, ShortCon, and more—so adding an anthology or three to the list wasn’t much of a stretch.

The anthology’s concept was Stacy’s, I helped her turn concept into submission guidelines, we made a list of writers to invite, and we worked together to edit the resulting stories.

MY CONTRIBUTION

The stories range from light-hearted to deadly serious. My contribution—“Three Billy Goats Gruff”—leans toward the lighter side.

The three Gruff brothers run a marijuana dispensary, and their cannabis crop is infected with Hop Latent Viroid, which doesn’t kill the plants but does cause dudding—the plants are shorter, have smaller leaves, and have tighter node spacing—and the Gruff brothers are losing customers to the Trolls.

The cannabis plants at Troll Bridge Farm, located in a small valley accessible only via a single one-lane bridge, seem immune to the disease, and the Gruff brothers want access to the higher-quality product.

Well, if you’re familiar with the fairy tale, you know all three brothers have a go at crossing that bridge.

I don’t write much that would be considered light or humorous, so it was fun to explore the lighter side, to bury Easter eggs throughout, and to model human characters after goats.

THE TABLE OF CONTENTS

• “Hansel and Gretel” by Joseph S. Walker
• “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” by John M. Floyd
• “Rapunzel” by Adam Meyer
• “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Laura Oles
• “Three Billy Goats Gruff” by Michael Bracken
• “Beauty and the Beast” by James A. Hearn
• “The Bremen Musicians” by Debra H. Goldstein
• “Jack and the Beanstalk” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins
• “Cinderella” by Donna Andrews
• “The Frog Prince” by Josh Pachter
• “Little Red Riding Hood” by Barb Goffman
• “The Briar Patch” by Tom Milani
• “King o’ the Cats” by David Dean
• “The Gingerbread Man” by Stacy Woodson

These probably aren’t bedtime stories for your children, but you’ll enjoy them all. So, go Wish Upon a Crime.

Oh, What a Tangled Web(site) We Weave

Though I’m unable to pinpoint the exact date, I created my first personal website sometime around the turn of the century as hidden pages on the website of a prepress company I managed, and I printed the URL on promotional material for books published in 2000 and 2001. You had to know the pages were there because there were no links to them from any page on the company’s website.

A printing company purchased the prepress company in January 2002 and eliminated the prepress company’s website, leaving me without a website. Shortly after that, I registered CrimeFictionWriter.com and created a slightly more sophisticated personal website.

I created and updated both versions of my website—the hidden one and the official one—using HTML, and I later redesigned it using Adobe’s Muse. A few years ago, Adobe stopped supporting Muse and I was no longer able to update my site. Luckily, I had been working with my website host—a designer I worked with on several company websites for almost three decades—took over site maintenance.

Last year, I decided my site needed a complete refresh and it needed to be mobile friendly. Unfortunately, my need to redo my site coincided with his desire to retire from website design and hosting.

Stacy Woodson recommended Xuni, Alan Orloff seconded the recommendation, and I saw that Xuni had designed sites for several other writers I knew.

Shortly after I settled on Xuni, my existing host set a deadline for transferring everything from his system. He was shutting down mid-2026.

So, in January, work began in earnest with Maderia James and Riley Mack of Xuni. Luckily, we weren’t reinventing the wheel. I already had a website, and my goal was to duplicate the basic structure and make the site more attractive, easier to navigate, and mobile-friendly.

I revised much of the text, collected new graphics (book covers, mostly), and uploaded everything to a shared Dropbox folder. Before long, Xuni presented a draft of the new site and we worked through some small tweaks (correcting my typos, adding new text, rearranging a few things).

Done. Simple as that.

Unfortunately, what wasn’t simple was transferring my email to a new host. I had been spoiled: For almost three decades, my website host had also been my email host, and I did not realize that was not the norm. Changing email hosts and migrating all my email to the new host was a headache of immense proportion.

But it’s done.

And I think everything turned out great.

So, check it out: www.CrimeFictionWriter.com.

* * *

“Wealth of Knowledge,” Kings River Life, March 14, 2026. 

“Death of an April Fool,” Black Cat Weekly 239, March 29, 2026.

“Hit or Miss,” KissMet Quarterly Spring 2026: Tiptoe Through the Tulips with Me 

The Derringer Award winning “The Downeaster ‘Alexa’” is reprinted in Hot Shots: Celebrating Thirty Years of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, which releases today, April 7, 2026.

Later this month, Temple and I will be at Malice Domestic. If you see us, say howdy!

The Conferences and Conventions We Didn’t Know We Needed

The audience at Left Coast Crime 2026’s
“Short But Usually Not Sweet” panel.

With the success of ShortCon, the Premiere Conference for Writers of Short Crime Fiction, it’s obvious that some segments of the crime writing community have long been overlooked.

Additionally, having recently returned from Left Coast Crime in San Francisco, I am reminded once again of where most of the important things happen at mystery conventions.

So, I propose a new crime-writing conference and two new new mystery conventions.

FlashCon

ShortCon is an annual one-day conference intended to teach new and early career writers how to build and sustain a long career writing short crime fiction.

But what about writers of flash fiction? Don’t they need their own conference?

I propose FlashCon, a two-hour conference with three half-hour presentations and 15 minutes between each presentation where new and early career writers learn how to build and sustain a long career writing flash crime fiction.

HallCon

At nearly every mystery convention I’ve attended, I’ve met more people and learned more during unplanned meetings in the hallways between panels and presentations.

So, let’s flip the script for HallCon. Instead of 45-minute panels and presentations with 15 minutes between them, let’s have 15-minute panels and presentations with 45 minutes between them.

Fifteen minutes is more than enough time for moderators to introduce panelists and for panelists to say, “Buy my book!” Or, if they’re short-story writers, to say, “Read my story!”

If the conference venue is small enough and the event rooms located close together (rather than spread over multiple floors), this will enable attendees to crowd together in the hallway and have meaningful conversations that can lead to any number of positive outcomes.

BarCon

At some conventions—Bouchercon in Minneapolis was one—the bar is small, centrally located, open late, and where nearly everyone gathers after dinner.

So, how about BarCon? There’s no programming, and the non-programming doesn’t start until eight p.m. and lasts well into the night.

Your Thoughts

So, what about you? Do you see opportunities for conferences and conventions that meet needs not currently served by the mystery/crime fiction community?

* * *

“Under the Proctor Street Bridge” was published in Time After Time (Thalia Press).

“Wealth of Knowledge” was published in Kings River Life, March 14, 2026.

Jukes & Tonks, originally released by Down & Out Books, has been rereleased by Audecyn Books.

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.

One in Six

A few days before this post went live, Queer Crime Writers released “One in Six is Not Equity: The State of Queer Representation in Mystery Anthologies,” the results of a survey of twenty-seven crime fiction anthologies published in 2024, and the conclusion is similar to their survey of anthologies published in 2023:

LGBTQ+ writers are underrepresented.

I don’t think that conclusion can be disputed.

“Only six of [the twenty-seven surveyed] anthologies contained a story by a queer author.” That means “the percentage of anthologies with at least one queer story was 22%.” Out of 304 stories, only eight (2.2%) were written by queer writers.

I do wonder, though, what the results would be if the survey included anthologies from a wider range of publishers. QCW tallied data from twenty-seven anthologies released by publishers included on the Mystery Writers of America’s Approved Publishers List.

Anyone who writes short crime fiction knows there are (or were in 2024) many anthology publishers not on the MWA’s Approved Publishers List.

I lack access to every mystery anthology published in 2024, so I examined a different subset of anthologies: those published in 2024 that I edited or co-edited.

QCW “defined an anthology as any short story work featuring more than two authors participating in the book.” By QCW’s definition, I edited or co-edited nine anthologies published in 2024, some released by publishers that might be on MWA’s Approved Publishers List and some that definitely are not.

Of those nine, four (or 44.44%) include stories by queer writers.

The anthologies contained 123 stories, six of which were written by queer writers, representing 4.88% of all the stories.

BREAKDOWN BY TYPES OF ANTHOLOGIES

Lumping all the anthologies together does not lead to a clear understanding of how the anthologies acquired stories and how that may have impacted the totals, and this is important.

Of the nine anthologies I edited or co-edited, I was not included in the selection process for two of them (an open call and a limited open call); the sponsoring organizations made the selections. There are no stories by queer writers in these anthologies.

Three were open call or limited open call and I, alone or with a co-editor, selected the stories. Two (66%) contained stories by queer writers. Two of forty stories (5% of the total) were by queer writers.

Four were invitation-only and I, alone or with a co-editor, selected the stories. Two (50%) contained stories by queer writers. Four of thirty stories (13.33% of the total) were by queer writers.

Five queer writers are represented in these totals. One contributed two stories. The other four each contributed a single story.

WHAT RAW DATA DOESN’T REVEAL

What raw data doesn’t reveal is that personal relationships and past experience impact writers’ opportunities. Every queer writer published in these anthologies—whether their story was written to invitation or selected from the slush pile—is someone I knew and worked with long before these nine anthologies were ever conceived, and they are all writers I hope to work with again in the future.

Why? For the same reasons I like to work with any writer: They produce quality work, it’s delivered on time and meets the guidelines, and they are easy to work with throughout the editing process.

CONCLUSION

I wish I had something pithy to say here, but I don’t.

The data I shared from my own projects is no more and no less valid than that shared by the QCW, and it leads to a similar conclusion, especially when considering the number of stories by queer writers considered as a percentage of all the stories surveyed—2.2% vs. 4.88%—LGBTQ+ writers are underrepresented.

So, read “One in Six is Not Equity: The State of Queer Representation in Mystery Anthologies.”

Then ask yourself: As an editor, as a writer, and as a reader, what can you do so that in the future, when QCW releases their annual surveys, underrepresentation is not a foregone conclusion.

* * *

“Collateral Damage” was published in Black Cat Weekly #231. “Drawn to Love” was published in the July 16, 2026, issue of Micromance. “Between the Covers” was published in KissMet Quarterly: I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.

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2025 Year in Review: Writing and Other Things

In my previous SleuthSayers post, I discussed my year as an editor; in the following I discuss my year as a writer, and I discuss some of the other things with which I was involved.

WRITING

Productivity was up from last year, but still nowhere near my best year (75 stories in 2009) with 18 original stories completed, including a novella I co-authored with a fellow SleuthSayer. This is my most productive year since 2020, when I completed 26 stories.

The shortest story was 700 words and the longest (excluding the novella) was 6,700 words, for a total of 52,950. The average length (excluding the novella) was 3,100 words, and the novella was 19,000 words. One story was horror; the rest were crime fiction of one sub-genre or another.

ACCEPTED

Although I wrote only 18 new stories, I received—exclusive of the collections mentioned in the next paragraph—23 acceptances, all for original stories.

Also accepted were a collection of 22 of my stories and a collection of 6 stories I coauthored with Sandra Murphy that also includes one individually written story from each of us. I’ll provide more details closer to publication dates.

PUBLISHED

In 2025, 21 original stories, including a collaboration with Sandra Murphy, were published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, Chop Shop, Dark Yonder, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Gag Me With a Spoon, Guilty Crime Stories Magazine, In Too Deep, Kelp Journal, KissMet Quarterly, Lunatic Fringe, Micromance, The Vigilante Crime Pulp Fiction Anthology, Tough, and Von Stray’s Crimestalker Casebook.

Also in 2025, two quasi-reprints were published: one appeared in an anthology that was rereleased by a new publisher, and a collaboration with James A. Hearn first published in AHMM was released as a podcast.

I also wrote three articles for the Mystery Writers of America’s The Third Degree.

Five publications/publishers are represented multiple times: Black Cat Weekly with four stories, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine with two stories, KissMet Quarterly with two stories, Micromance with two stories, and White City Press with stories in two anthologies.

REJECTED

I received nine rejections, which is fewer rejections than acceptances, and any year in which acceptances outnumber rejections is a good year.

RECOGNIZED

While two anthologies I co-edited won or were short-listed for awards, and while several stories I edited won or were short-listed for awards or included in best-of-year anthologies, my own writing flew under the radar in 2025.

FORTHCOMING

Including those accepted in 2025 and in previous years, I have stories forthcoming in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, Chop Shop, Cold Caller, Cryin’ Shame, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Get Your Kicks, Kings River Life, KissMet Quarterly, Mickey Finn, Micromance, Sex & Synthesizers, Skinning the Poke, The Perp Wore Pumpkin, Time After Time, and Wish Upon a Crime.

LOOKING AHEAD

So many publishers (book, periodical, and web-based) closed in 2025, are struggling with publication schedules, or have announced their impending end that it is impossible to predict what the market for short mystery fiction will look like this year. Rather than fret about it, I choose to keep writing and keep my eyes open for whatever new opportunities present themselves. That might mean—as it was this year with the discovery of new romance publications—working in other genres.

SHORTCON

After the successful launch of ShortCon, the Premier Conference for Writers of Short Crime Fiction, in 2024, we presented the second ShortCon in 2025. The third ShortCon will be presented Saturday, June 6, 2026, in Alexandria, Virginia, and we plan to continue this as an annual event. (Learn more at https://www.eastcoastcrime.com/#/.)

MYSTERY IN THE MIDLANDS

As I did in 2024, I helped Paula Benson organize the 2025 Mystery in the Midlands, an online conference that emphasized writing and publishing short crime fiction. Paula has invited me to join her again in organizing the 2026 Mystery in the Midlands, again focusing on short crime fiction.

OTHER EVENTS

I participated—as a panelist, moderator, or presenter—in several live and online conferences, conventions, and presentations in 2025 and am already scheduled to attend or present at several events (live or online) in 2026.

MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA

I’m halfway through my second two-year term as an at-large board member of the Mystery Writers of America. I will rotate off the board in January 2027.

NEWBERRY CRIME WRITING WORKSHOP

The most exciting event on the horizon is the inaugural Newberry Crime Writing Workshop, an “intensive four-week writers’ workshop for developing crime and mystery authors, taught by major figures in the field,” which takes place July 6–31, 2026, on the campus of Newberry College in Newberry, South Carolina.

Teaching one week each are Joe R. Lansdale, Cheryl Head, Warren S. Moore, and me. Writers-in-residence will live nearby and share meals with the students, providing students with an immersive experience.

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.

The registration fee includes housing and all meals throughout the four-week workshop. There is at least one small scholarship available, and we’re working on adding more, so don’t let the $4,000 tuition stop you from applying.

Add your name to the mailing list here to be notified when applications are open.

AND THAT’S ALL FOLKS

This past year was quite a wild ride, and 2026 looks to be more of the same. I can’t predict the future, so the best I can do is buckle up and prepare for whatever comes.

I hope y’all were productive last year and that this year brings you even greater success.

* * *

To kickstart the new year, my story “Glass Beach” appears in the January/February 2026 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

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.