Elena Smith is back with another interview of one of the great writers in the Short Mystery Fiction Society. In the spotlight this time is Golden Derringer winner Barb Goffman--by any measure, one of the most honored and accomplished writers in our field today. To mention just a couple of the many impressive things about her, Barb has won the Agatha Award four times, and been a finalist for major industry awards an astonishing fifty times! How does she do it? Take it away, Elena!
I think of you as the “Everything Woman,” one who wears many hats. You are an award-winning short story writer, associate editor of a successful mystery magazine Black Cat Weekly, and freelance editor (“developmental editing, line editing, and copy editing for crime novels and short stories, specializing in cozy and traditional mysteries”). You have been “a finalist for major short story crime-writing awards forty-seven times and crime-editing awards three times,” including the “Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Short Mystery Fiction Society". Let’s take a look at how this journey started.
According to your website, your first published story was in 2005 (and the story was nominated for an Agatha Award!). Was this your first stab at getting published, or had you been trying for a while?
That story (“Murder at Sleuthfest”) was the first fiction I had written since high school, and it was my first crime story at all. I had been working on a suspense novel in 2004, and short stories weren’t on my radar. (I know—sacrilege.) But when my Sisters in Crime chapter put out a call for short stories for an anthology, I decided to try my luck, thinking a publishing credit might be helpful toward getting my novel published. Who knew I would fall in love with writing short stories? Anyway, that first story was accepted, and I have been focused on short stories ever since. I always like to give thanks to Jan Burke. I had received a collection of Jan’s stories, and before I wrote my own, I read a few of Jan’s to see how crime short stories worked. (I don’t like reading craft books. I prefer to learn by immersing myself in fiction and figuring out what works and what doesn’t and why.)
At what point in life did you decide you wanted this to be your “day job” and how did you transition to it?
I would love it if I could write short stories as my day job, but that won’t pay the bills. So I earn my living by editing. I used to be an attorney (and before that I was a reporter). When I was laid off from my job working as an in-house counsel about fifteen years ago, I didn’t want to return to working at a law firm. By that time I had been editing the Chesapeake Crimes anthology series with Donna Andrews and Marcia Talley, and some friends whose work I had edited told me I was good enough to hang out my shingle. I decided to try it. I was quite fortunate to get a number of clients right away through word of mouth. It didn’t hurt that I knew a lot of people in the crime-fiction community from regular attendance at my Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America chapter meetings, as well as at Malice Domestic and Bouchercon.
Was there any special person, or special moment, in your process when someone told you this was what you should be doing?
I’m going to focus this answer on writing, and I’m going to give a shout-out to Toni Kelner. I’d had maybe ten stories published, all of them in anthologies. Toni reached out to me and asked if I was submitting to Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock, which I wasn’t because I knew they were the big leagues, and despite having a few award nominations, I didn’t think I was ready for that. But she told me I was. She told me I definitely should be submitting to these magazines. It was a real confidence booster. I’ve always been so appreciative, and it’s one of the reasons I sometimes reach out to newer authors to cheer them on. I like following Toni’s example.
In your career as an attorney, what was your area of practice? How much did that career contribute to your writing, and in what way(s)?
I practiced higher-education law (with a little election law early in my career). I was in my second year at my old law firm and found writing legal memos and briefs stifling. I needed a creative outlet. I’d had an idea for a mystery novel while I was in law school but never wrote a word (because I didn’t know how to write a book, just articles). Even when I was at the firm and realized I needed a creative outlet I didn’t start writing because, again, I didn’t know how. I decided to give up on that dream. But fate had other ideas. Less than a week after I made that decision, I saw an ad for a how-to-write-a-mystery workshop that was being held on Saturday mornings a mile from my apartment. I signed up. So my legal career did contribute to my writing career by pushing me to seek it out. I expect I’m not the only attorney with a story like that.
My legal career is still helpful. I have a decent understanding of police procedure and rules of evidence and other types of law that often play a role in mysteries and crime fiction. This knowledge helps me to get details right in my own writing, and it enables me to point out legal issues in manuscripts I edit for others.
Do you prefer to write from prompts? When you’re not writing from prompts, how do you come up with story ideas?
I like writing from prompts, and I like coming up with my own ideas on my own. I don’t really have a preference these days. Prompts are great because they can spark an idea. But I get ideas from lots of places. Newspaper articles can prompt ideas. Advice columns. I also mine my memories for story ideas. If something happened to me decades ago and I still remember it, that means there’s probably something I can pull from that and use in a story. My story “Beauty and the Beyotch” is a perfect example. That story was sparked by something that happened to me in high school. Most of the story is fiction, but there’s one little part of it that’s real. And I built the story up around it.
Have you always lived in Virginia? Does the South influence your stories?
I’ve lived in Virginia for nearly twenty years. I grew up on Long Island. (I also have to give a plug to the great state of Maryland, where I lived for nine years.) I’ve written a number of stories set in the South because there’s something about that voice that is really appealing. Every time I watch Steel Magnolias I get itchy to write.
You have a long list of published work and award recognition. I’m sure it is thrilling each time, but was there any one recognition that was really special? Why?
Winning the Readers Award from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine for my story “Dear Emily Etiquette” is a big standout for me. As I’ve said, I spent years thinking I wasn’t good enough to even submit to the big magazines, and even after I started submitting, it took a few years before I sold a story to Alfred Hitchcock’s, and a few years more before I sold to EQMM. So receiving an email from Janet Hutchings in 2021 telling me I had won the Readers Award was an incredible high—and a real honor. Each year EQMM readers get to submit a ballot listing their three favorite stories published in the magazine in the prior year. For my story to rise to the top, well, it still makes me smile. What made it even more special is that “Dear Emily Etiquette” is one of my funny stories, and humorous fiction often doesn’t get the same recognition that serious work does (be it novels or short stories), even though writing funny stories isn’t easy. You have to do all the things you do in a typical story and make it funny too. So I was delighted that the EQMM readers appreciated “Dear Emily Etiquette” enough that it won.
I know you asked for one, but I can’t wrap this answer up without mentioning receiving the lifetime achievement award the Short Mystery Fiction Society gave me in 2024. Being recognized this way by my fellow authors and readers in the society was an unexpected and amazing honor. I remain thankful.
Who would you recommend that I interview next? (Feel free to name more than one person)
I’ll make two recommendations. First, John M. Floyd, who is incredibly prolific and funny (and helpful and kind). Second, I recommend Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier, who is only a few years into her career, but already she has developed a wonderfully lyrical voice and real storytelling prowess. They also are easy to work with. True professionals. You can’t go wrong with either of their work.
