2022 Quill Award Winner: Lyn Worthen

SMFS list member Lyn Worthen collected several honors during the recent Quills Conference held by The League of Utah Writers. The group is a non-profit organization dedicated to offering friendship, education, and encouragement to the writers and poets of Utah. Our organization aids our members in the improvement of their craft and support of their goals. You can learn more about the group at their website.  The honors she received are:

 

Diamond Quill

The anthology, Street Magic, edited by Lyn Worthen. Also includes the short story, Spirit of the Law, written under the pseudonym Leigh Saunders.

 

Collections—Recommended Reads

The short stories, The Party Planning Pickle, written under the pseudonym Lauryn Christopher, and, One Magical Christmas, written under the pseudonym as Leigh Saunders in the Whimsical Winter Wonderland: A Holiday Hijinks Anthology. The anthology was also edited by Lyn Worthen.

 

Genre Short Story—Recommended Reads

Lyn Worthen’s short story, Tilting At Windmills, written under the pseudonym Lauryn Christopher, in Fiction River: Dark & Deadly Passions.

Lyn Worthen’s short story, Virtual Oracle, written under the pseudonym Leigh Saunders, in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine: #12.

 

SleuthSayers: Getting Motivated by Robert Lopresti

SleuthSayers: Getting Motivated: In detective stories - that section of the mystery world where someone is actually trying to solve a crime - the sleuths often spend some pa...

SMFS Members Published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine: September/October 2022

Today is release day and several SMFS list members are published in the Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine: September/October 2022 issue. The issue is available at the publisher, Amazon, and other vendors. The SMFS members in the issue are:

 

Elizabeth Elwood with “The Light on the Lagoon.”

 

Smita Harish Jain with "Publish or Perish.

 

Paul D. Marks with “The Wraith of Bunker Hill.”

 

William Burton McCormick with “The Celta Wave Conundrum.”

 

Leigh Perry with “The Skeleton Rides a Horse.”

 

Anne Swardson with “Uncaged.” 

 

Art Taylor with “We Are All Strangers Here.”

 

Joseph S. Walker with “Cleaning Day.”

 

Website:

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

September/October 2022

FICTION

The Wraith of Bunker Hill by Paul D. Marks Uncaged by Anne Swardson We Are All Strangers Here by Art Taylor No Peace for the Wicked by Martin Edwards The Celta Wave Conundrum by William Burton Mccormick The Light on the Lagoon by Elizabeth Elwood Deconstruction by David Dean The Skeleton Rides a Horse by Leigh Perry Cleaning Day by Joseph S. Walker Publish Or Perish by Smita Harish Jain Sound Moral Character by Hal Charles The Kindness of Strangers by Twist Phelan The Edinburgh Vampire by Jane Jakeman

DEPARTMENT OF FIRST STORIES

Down the Mine by John Dziuban Dogs in the Canyon by Mark Harrison

BLACK MASK The Hideout by Bernard Onken PASSPORT TO CRIME Police Technique by Pierre Véry NONFICTION AND REVIEWS The Jury Box by Steve Steinbock  Stranger Than Fiction by Dean Jobb Blog Bytes by Kristopher Zgorski

 

SMFS Members Published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine: September/October 2022

Today is release day and several SMFS list members have stories in the Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine: September/October 2022 issue. The issue is available at the publisher, Amazon, and other vendors. Those members are:

 

James R. Benn with “Irish Tommy.”

 

Kevin Egan with “Becoming Ian Fleming.”

 

John M. Floyd with “The Donovan Gang.”

 

James A. Hearn with "When the Dams Break."

 

Edith Maxwell with "Peril in Pasadena.”

 

Melissa Yi with “My Two-Legs.” 

 

Website: 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

September/October 2022

FICTION

The Donovan Gang • John M. Floyd My Two-Legs • Melissa Yi Becoming Ian Fleming • Kevin Egan Polk, Pitts, and Cadaver • Michael Nethercott Dragon Well • Martin Limón The People All Said Beware • Christopher Latragna The Bosky Dell • Janice Law When the Dams Break • James A. Hearn Irish Tommy • James R. Benn The Green Man • James Tipton Peril in Pasadena • Edith Maxwell Scars • Iain Rowan A Stranger in the House • Sharon Hunt Victim of Circumstance • L. A. Wilson, Jr. Adorable • Tara Price and James Patrick Kelly

DEPARTMENTS

The Lineup Mysterious Photograph Dying Words by Arlene Fisher Scrambled Wimsey by Mark Lagasse Booked & Printed by Laurel Flores Fantauzzo The Story That Won Solution to Dying Words

SleuthSayers: Finding the Sweet Spot Between Overexplaining and Underexplaining by Barb Goffman

SleuthSayers: Finding the Sweet Spot Between Overexplaining and ...: I read two mysteries in the past week that I enjoyed very much. One was a cozy, the other sort of a historical (it involved time travel). Th...

SMFS Member Publishing News: Snake Slayer by Rob Pierce

Today is publication day for Snake Slayer by Rob Pierce. Published by Down & Out Books, the read is available in digital and print formats at the publisher, Amazon, and other vendors. 

 

Synopsis: 

Three criminals on the run, not just from the law but from other criminals. Two of them are lovers, the third her former lover. Where does love lie, except in the grave?

Deria is the psychotic woman who prefers to work with a guy who’s good in bed. Vern is her violent ex, who let her go because he thought she lived too dangerously. Russ is the new guy, new to Deria, new to whatever hell he’s gotten himself into.

Can they keep the money from the psychotics who want it?

Are they more psychotic?

Or will they break down from the acts they must commit?

If you liked Pierce’s Vern in the Heat, you’re going to love Snake Slayer. And if you didn’t read that one, strap in for the ride. It’s fast, it’s bloody, and it goes well beyond that, into the minds of those who commit the horrible crimes.

Little Big Crimes: Blindsided, by Eric Brown

Little Big Crimes: Blindsided, by Eric Brown:   "Blindsided," by Eric Brown, in The Book of Extraordinary Femme Fatale Stories, edited by Maxim Jakubowski, Mango, 2022.   I ha...