The weather's been cold, but the members of the Short Mystery Fiction Society got 2025 off to a red-hot start with a plethora of powerful publications! Readers looking for some great stories to curl up with as we wait for spring will find a wealth of terrific options here, as SMFS proudly highlights some of the tremendous work our talented writers turned out in January.
- The anthology GONE FISHIN': CRIME TAKES A HOLIDAY, with stories of crime interrupting vacations, is the eighth in a highly successful series from the Guppy chapter of Sisters in Crime. SMFS members represented in the anthology include Susan Daly ("Postcards from Loon Lake"), Ann Michelle Harris ("Drive"), Sally Milliken ("Lesson Learned"), Nina Wachsman ("Casanova Takes a Holiday"), Vinnie Hansen ("Downward Dog") and Kate Fellowes ("Pier Pressure").
- Meanwhile, the Los Angeles chapter of Sisters in Crime offers ANGEL CITY BEAT, an anthology of stories highlighting the dark side of the City of Angels, edited by SMFS member Barb Goffman. Member Aimee Kluck does SMFS proud here with her story "The Missing Mariachi."
- Each month, the good folks at Rock and a Hard Place Press solicit flash stories on specific themes for their Stone's Throw contest, with the best story receiving publication on their website. STONE'S THROW 2024: A YEAR OF SHORT FICTION FROM ROCK AND A HARD PLACE collects year two of these tales, proving once again that great writers don't need a lot of words to grab you. SMFS members represented include Sally Millikin ("Canary in the Coal Mine") and Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier ("A Li'l Something Extra").
- With a new movie starring Anthony Mackie on the horizon, the anthology CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE SHIELD OF SAM WILSON offers short stories about the new hero taking up the mantle of Steve Rogers. SMFS member Gary Phillips sends Sam to the Caribbean in his "Surreptitious."
- In recent years, a number of crime and mystery anthologies have been inspired by the songs of a host of musicians. One of the first books in this category, and still one of the best, was THE BEAT OF BLACK WINGS: CRIME FICTION INSPIRED BY THE SONGS OF JONI MITCHELL, edited by SMFS member Josh Pachter. The book, which was a finalist for the Best Anthology Anthony award and includes a Derringer winner and a Thriller finalist, has just received a new Open Road Media edition with terrific new cover art and a new introduction. This book belongs on your shelf!
- In magazine news, January issues of BLACK CAT WEEKLY include stories by SMFS members Shannon Taft ("Missing"), Veronica Leigh ("Red Summer: A Smith Sisters Mystery") and John M. Floyd ("The Dark Woods"). With hundreds of pages of new and vintage stories every week, BCW offers as much bang for your buck as any fan of genre fiction could ask for!
- If you get to your local newsstand in the near future, keep an eye out for the issue of WOMAN'S WORLD cover-dated February 3, which includes John M. Floyd's Sheriff Jones mystery "Sure as Shootin'." Writers take note: John's stories in WW are a master class in how to compose a story with vivid characters and a memorable plot in only a few hundred words. Learn from the best!
- In the new MYSTERY TRIBUNE, SMFS member Kevin Egan delivers "Dart Man," in which a successful couple confronts a dark secret from the past.
- Mysteries can be science fiction, too! In "The Laws," published at ANDROIDS AND DRAGONS, SMFS member Michael J. Ciaraldi asks what would happen if Asimov's famous Three Laws of Robotics became reality.
- The online Texas gardening magazine SEEDS dips a toe into fiction with SMFS member Shari Held's story "Perfect Timing"--another example of a powerful narrative masterfully conveyed in a few words. You'll read this in minutes, but remember it for years!
- Another short but terrific (and free!) read comes from SMFS member Janet Innes with her "It's Almost Like Poetry" at THE BLOOMIN' ONION. This story of a woman on the edge will richly reward your time!
- Mystery, thriller, and suspense--how do we distinguish between these terms? Do they really mean different things? SMFS member Joslyn Chase takes on this question in a thought-provoking column for the online blog TRACE EVIDENCE for Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.
Of course, the members of SMFS don't just write short stories. We're proud to recognize three members with novels published in January!
- In THE PRICE OF A FUTURE, Jackie Ross Flaum offers a powerful tale of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, with the agents of an organization fighting for civil rights confronting a series of murders and a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of power.
- Elena E. Smith's MAHUENGA is the gripping story of a recovering addict caught up in the disappearance of a teenage sex worker.
- Andrew Welsh-Huggins has written a number of dynamite short stories about Mercury Carter, a freelance courier who will stop at nothing to make his promised deliveries. In THE MAILMAN, Carter makes his full-length novel debut. Don't miss this chance to meet your new favorite character!
That's a lot of great reading, and the year is just getting started. Stay tuned to see what's coming in February!
The Short Mystery Fiction Society is a free group of writers, readers, editors, publishers, and others dedicated to the promotion and celebration of mystery and crime short stories. Not a member? Why not join today?
