Little Big Crimes: Mr. Moto at Manzanar, by George Zebrowski

Little Big Crimes: Mr. Moto at Manzanar, by George Zebrowski:  "Mr. Moto at Manzanar," by George Zebrowski, in Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, #30, 2022. I'm not generally a fan of past...

SMFS Member Publishing News: Ripen by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier

SMFS list member Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier’s short story, Ripen, appears today in Black Cat Weekly #48. Published by Wildside Press, the issue is available here in digital format.

 

Website Description:

For this week's Black Cat Weekly, Michael Bracken has acquired an original mystery by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier, Barb Goffman found a tale by SJ Rozan that will surely satisfy crime fans, and Cynthia Ward tracked down a Matthew Hughes story. Plus, for the sheer silliness of it all, there’s a Mickey Spillane parody from 1954 (which manages to be both a mystery and fantasy…but wasn’t everything of Spillane’s?) and classics from R. Austin Freeman (a Dr Thorndyke story), a Nick Carter novel, and the first Skylark of Space novel by E.E. “Doc” Smith.

 

Here’s the complete lineup:

Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure:

“Ripen,” by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier [Michael Bracken Presents short story]

“Death Takes a Swing,” by Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery]

“E-Golem,” by SJ Rozan [Barb Goffman Presents short story]

“The Case Of Oscar Brodski,” by R. Austin Freeman [short story]

A Human Counterfeit, by Nicholas Carter [novel]

“The Shaky Undertaker,” by Ed Cox [short story]

 

Science Fiction & Fantasy:

“The Shaky Undertaker,” by Ed Cox [short story]

“To the Sons of Tomorrow,” by Irving Cox, Jr. [short story]

“Mastermindless,” by Matthew Hughes [Cynthia Ward Presents short story]

“Problem In Solid,” by George O. Smith [short story]

“Sequel,” by Ben Smith [short story]

The Skylark of Space, by E.E. “Doc” Smith [novel]

SleuthSayers: Writing My First PI Story by R. T. Lawton

SleuthSayers: Writing My First PI Story: .38 Super Last September, I wrote a blog article in SleuthSayers challenging myself to create my  first PI story. In that article, I bemoan...

SleuthSayers: Isn't This Where We Came In? by John Floyd

SleuthSayers: Isn't This Where We Came In?: The idea for this post came to me a few weeks ago, when my daughter and I went to see Top Gun: Maverick at a multiplex nearby. (Unlike my w...

SMFS Member Nominees for the 2022 Macavity Awards

 
The Macavity Award is named for the “mystery cat” of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats). Each year The Macavity Awards are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends and supporters of MRI who all nominate and vote for their favorite mysteries in four categories. The winners will be announced at Bouchercon in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in September. 

This year we have five members of the Short Mystery Fiction Society nominated in the category of Best Short Story. The nominees are: 

Richard Helms: “Sweeps Week” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine: July/August 2021)

Steve Hockensmith: “Curious Incidents” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine: January/February 2021)

R.T. Lawton: “The Road to Hana” (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine: May/June 2021)

G.M. Malliet: “The White Star” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine: July/August 2021)

Gigi Pandian for “The Locked Room Library” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine: July/August 2021)  The story is also nominated for an Anthony Award.

 

The full list of nominees and their categories can be found here.

SMFS Member Publishing News: Dead Ends and One Way Streets by Mike McHone

 

SMFS list member Mike McHone’s short story, Dead Ends and One Way Streets, appears online today at Shotgun Honey.  You can read it for free here.

 

 

Criminal Minds: Superman or Batman? from James W. Ziskin

Criminal Minds: Superman or Batman? from James W. Ziskin: Which side of the fence are you most comfortable writing from, the good, the bad, or the ugly? Do you consider one side or the other more ma...

Little Big Crimes: Storm Warning, by Dana Haynes

Little Big Crimes: Storm Warning, by Dana Haynes: "Storm Warning ," by Dana Haynes, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July/August 2022. This is the third appearance on this...

SMFS Members Published in Vautrin - Volume 4, Issue 1, Summer 2022

Several SMFS list members are published in the new issue, Vautrin - Volume 4, Issue 1, Summer 2022. Edited by Tod Robins, the print issue is available at Watermark Books and Café. The SMFS list members in the issue are:

 

Michael Bracken with “Sparks.” (Cover image comes from Mr. Bracken's recent Facebook post regarding his story.)

 

Jacqueline Freimor with “Foreword.”

 

Curtis Ippolito with “The Estate Sale.”

 

Saira Viola with “The Future’s A Fraud.”

  

Website Synopsis:

 

Gritty urban fiction. Crime Fiction. Or gritty urban fiction with crime fiction elements. A touch of mythology, the supernatural. While laughing at the absurdity of it all. That’s the Vautrin mojo.

 

In this issue:

Fiction

 

C. R. Resetarits, Quem Quaeritis?

Eli Cranor, Mussel

Dennis Tafoya, Last Night At Jack’s

Saira Viola, The Future’s A Fraud

Hector Acosta, El Diablero

Zach Vasquez, Panama

M. E. Proctor, Bathing Beauty

Thomas Pluck, Blue Canaries

Jacqueline Freimor, Foreword

Michael Bracken, Sparks

Curtis Ippolito, The Estate Sale

 

You can also read more about the issue with details about the content and other information  here.

SMFS Member Publication News: John M. Floyd

 

SMFS list member John M. Floyd once again has a short story appearing in Woman’s World Magazine. His latest tale, "A Very Deadly Clue" is in the current issue (August 1, 2020) of  Woman’s World Magazine. The publication is available on some newsstands and by subscription. 

Members are reminded that Mr. Floyd shared in his piece at SleuthSayers Blog how he goes about writing short stories for this market. Well worth reading, especially if you are looking to break into this market. Especially when you consider the fact that Mr. Floyd has had his short stories published considerably over 100 times by this market.

SleuthSayers: The Importance of Tenacity by Barb Goffman

SleuthSayers: The Importance of Tenacity: Hi, everyone. I'm taking a mental-health break. Instead of writing a new column to run today, I'm rerunning one from New Year's ...

SleuthSayers: What’s It All About, Reader? by Elizabeth Zelvin

SleuthSayers: What’s It All About, Reader?: A couple of posts on DorothyL, the mystery lovers’ e-list, got me thinking the other day. DLers read widely and voraciously, and are a great...

Do Some Damage: James L'Etoile's New Thriller, DEAD DROP

Do Some Damage: James L'Etoile's New Thriller, DEAD DROP: Thriller writer James L'Etoile stops by today with a few training tips for writers. The cute dog photos are just a coincidence. - Clai...

Ladies of Mystery: Discovering the Story by Susan Oleksiw

 Ladies of Mystery: Discovering the Story by Susan Oleksiw 

2022 Public Safety Writers Association Award Winners: Jim Guigli, Ellen Kirschman, Frank Zafiro

The SMFS would like to announce and congratulate our list members, Jim Guigli, Ellen Kirschman, and Frank Zafiro for their award wins at the Public Safety Writers Association conference held last weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada.

 

Jim Guigli came in third place for his short story, “Looking for Mishka,” in the “Short Story Published” category. The tale was originally published in Rock and a Hard Place, Issue 7: Winter 2022 (January 2022).

Jim Guigli also came in third place for his flash fiction short story, “Listen to the Gunsmith,” in the “Flash Writing Fiction” category. It was then published online at Guilty Crime Story Magazine: Flash! and can be read for free.

 

Ellen Kirschman won second place for Answer to His Prayers (the fourth book of the Dr. Dot Mystery Series) in the “Fiction Book Published” category. Published by Hillcrest House Publishing in digital last December and then in print last March, the book also took second place in the “Fiction Book Unpublished” category in 2020.

 

Frank Zafiro won three awards in the “Short Story Published” category.

In first place, “One Fine Day” which appeared in The Tattered Blue Line: Short Stories of Contemporary Policing anthology. Independently published, Mr. Zafiro was also the editor for the anthology.

In second place, “Hallmarks of the Job.” Published by P. I. Tales, this novella was published in the book titled, Hallmarks Of The Job / Aloha Boys: A P.I. Tales Double Feature, by Frank Zafiro and Michael Bracken last August.

Mr. Zafiro also won a “Honorable Mention” for the short story, “The Last Cop,” which appeared in the To Serve, Protect, and Write: Cops Writing Crime Fiction anthology published last February. Published by Publicious Pty Ltd, the book was edited by A. B. Patterson.

 

The full list of the Public Safety Writers Association Award winners can be found here.

SleuthSayers: Doing the Math by Robert Lopresti

SleuthSayers: Doing the Math:   For months I have had a fragment of a story idea kicking around my head.  Just something I knew I wanted to write about someday. Then on ...

Little Big Crimes: The Secret Sharer, by W. Edward Blain

Little Big Crimes: The Secret Sharer, by W. Edward Blain:  "The Secret Sharer," by W. Edward Blain, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July/August 2022. In the last two years many fi...

SMFS Member Publishing News: Dead Drop: A Detective Nathan Parker Novel by James L'Etoile

Today is publication day for Dead Drop: A Detective Nathan Parker Novel by James L'Etoile. Published by Level Best Books in print and digital formats, the book is available at Amazon and other vendors. 

Synopsis:

Hundreds go missing each year making the dangerous crossing over the border. What if you were one of them?

While investigating the deaths of undocumented migrants in the Arizona desert, Detective Nathan Parker finds a connection to the unsolved murder of his partner by a coyote on a human smuggling run. The new evidence lures Parker over the border in search of the truth, only to trap him in a strange and dangerous land. If he’s to survive, Parker must place his life in the hands of the very people he once pursued.

Border violence, border politics, and who is caught in the middle. The forces behind it might surprise you.

SMFS Member Publishing News: Peppermint Barked: A Spice Shop Mystery by Leslie Budewitz

Today is publication day for Peppermint Barked: A Spice Shop Mystery by Leslie Budewitz. This is the sixth book in the series that began with Assault and Pepper. Published by Seventh Street Books in print and digital formats, the book is available at Amazon and other vendors.

 

Synopsis:

As the holiday season lights up Seattle’s famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece’s beloved Spice Shop is brimming with cinnamon, nutmeg, and shoppers eager to stuff their stockings. Add to the mix a tasty staff competition—a peppermint bark-off—along with Victorian costumes for this year’s Dickensian Christmas theme, and Pepper almost forgets to be nervous about meeting her fisherman boyfriend’s brother for the first time.

But when a young woman working in her friend Vinny’s wine shop is brutally assaulted, costumed revelers and holiday cheer are the last things on Pepper’s mind. Who would want to hurt Beth? Or were they looking for Vinny instead?

The vicious attack upsets everyone at Pike Place, but none more than Pepper’s own employee, Matt Kemp. At first, Pepper is baffled by his reaction, but his clandestine connection to Beth could hold the key to the assailant’s motive. Or perhaps it’s Vinny’s ex-wife who knows more than she’s letting on . . . and what about the mysterious top-hatted man with whom Pepper saw Beth arguing that morning?

As the secrets of the market come to light, long-held grudges, family ties, and hidden plans only further obscure the truth. Is it a ghost of the past rattling its chains, or a contemporary Scrooge with more earthly motives? As Pepper chases down a killer, someone is chasing her, and in the end, the storied market itself may hold the final, deadly clue.

A cozy holiday mystery full of culinary delights and a rich cast of characters, the sixth installment in the Spice Shop Mystery series will keep you turning the page . . . and reaching for another piece of peppermint bark.

SMFS Member Award Nominee: Tara Laskowski for The Mother Next Door

SMFS list member Tara Laskowski and her novel, The Mother Next Door, is a nominee for the Library of Virginia 2022 People's Choice Awards in addition to being an Anthony Award nominee. The voting period runs from July 15 through August 31. The ballot is here. Published by Graydon House last October in print and digital formats, the read is available at Amazon and other vendors.