Little Big Crimes Review: Spirit River Dam by Susan Daly

Little Big Crimes: Spirit River Dam, by Susan Daly: "Spirit River Dam," by Susan Daly, in The Best Laid Plans, edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, Superior Shores Press, 2019. There is ...

A Short Walk Down A Dark Street: Issue 58

As posted by Peter DiChellis to our SMFS list…

Wanna little fun? This week’s blog provides plenty, with links to deviously delightful reviews, releases, free reads, and more.

Includes: almost everything you ever wanted to know about impossible crime mysteries, including an analysis of seven vs. twenty known locked-room solutions and how often writers have used them; trends in locked-room solutions through the 20th century; and summaries of dozens of impossible crime stories.

A short walk down a dark street (#58). Celebrating short mystery and crime fiction.

https://shortwalkdarkstreet.wordpress.com/2019/06/23/short-walk-58/

Best wishes,

Peter

SMFS Members Published in The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories of Mystery and Suspense

A number of SMFS list members have stories the anthology, The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories Of Mystery & Suspense published today by Superior Shores Press. Edited by SMFS list member Judy Penz Sheluk, the anthology is available in print and digital formats from Amazon and ither vendors. The SMFS list members in this anthology are:

Tom Barlow with “Heirloom.”

Peter DiChellis with “Callingdon Mountain.”

Lesley A. Diehl with “Lunch Break.”

C.C. Guthrie with “A Sure Thing.”

V. S. Kemanis with “Sucker Punch.”

Lisa Lieberman with ““Better Dead Then Redhead.”

LD Masterson with “Deadly Dinner.”

Edith Maxwell with “The Stonecutter.”

Rosemary McCracken with in “The Sweetheart Scamster.”

Lisa De Nikolits with “Fire Drill.”

KM Rockwood with “Frozen Daiquiris.”  

Peggy Rothschild with “The Cookie Crumbles.”

Judy Penz Sheluk  with “Plan D.”

Vicki Weisfeld with “Who They Are Now.”

Amazon Synopsis:

Whether it's a subway station in Norway, ski resort in Vermont, McMansion in the suburbs, or trendy art gallery in Toronto, the 21 authors represented in this superb collection of mystery and suspense interpret the overarching theme of the best-laid plans in their own inimitable style. And like many best-laid plans, they come with no guarantees.

Stories by Tom Barlow, Susan Daly, Lisa de Nikolits, P.A. De Voe, Peter DiChellis, Lesley A. Diehl, Mary Dutta, C.C. Guthrie, William Kamowski, V.S. Kemanis, Lisa 

The First Two Pages: “Fire Drill” by Lisa de Nikolits

The First Two Pages: “Fire Drill” by Lisa de Nikolits

SMFS Guest Post: Lisa de Nikolits on Writing Short Stories: Part Two

Please welcome back Lisa de Nikolits. Her short story, “Fire Drill” appears in the soon to be released anthology, The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories Of Mystery & Suspense published by Superior Shores Press. You can read Part One here.

As a followup to my first blog, which established that a number of novels had come about as a result of the short stories, I’d like to explore the ‘how” of this a bit more.

So, let’s take Fire Drill and use it as an example of using a short story to create a novel.

We have Miranda, sad and sorry protagonist.

“My mirrored reflection stared back at me in the elevator. I was ridiculously exhausted and it was only seven a.m. I counted the red numbers as we passed each floor. Going up, when my whole life was going down. Down the tubes, that is. What with the shrinking industry, tenacious Shar-Pei lines etching their way into my cheeks, my teeth like old corn on the cob, the gums receding as fast as the prospects for my future, and my electric-socket hair, the prognosis wasn’t good. Sideburns, OMG, did I see sideburns?”

I love Miranda! She’s a character I simply must  explore more. Then there’s Alice B, antagonist, aka Princess Tight Pants in Red Stilettoes.

I don’t want to give away any plot spoilers but suffice to say that Miranda exacts revenge on Princess Tight Pants. And that the current plot point would make for a good ending.

I’ve been rereading Patricia Highsmith recently, prepping for a panel at ThrillerFest in July. The topic is Highsmith, Hammett or Agatha Christie? The Thrills of Mystery. I was particularly taken by a description of of fifty-year old minor character in The Price of Salt. I read the novel after I wrote Fire Drill but I was bowled over by the power of Mrs. Robichek. I wanted her to reappear and play a larger role but she remained in the shadows. Her life had disappointed her, she was a seamstress, a fashion designer but her eyes failed her and she had to survive by taking a job in retail, shovelling peas into her mouth at lunchtime in the crowded cafetaria.

Patricia Highsmith had no regard for this character, or so I felt. She was captivated by her young and beautiful lovers. It’s true that The Price of Salt was driven more by forbidden eros than a murder mystery so it’s not fair to judge for that and I’m not. I just think that her Mrs. Robichek, like Miranda, deserved so much more air time.

But what will I do with my Miranda? Her moral ambiguity is fascinating and I do have the culmination of her anger to work with but I will have to come up with more than that! My three-point structure will need sub-plots that intertwine and twist and keep the reader turning the page until the last word.

I’ve also been watching reruns of Prime Suspect, with Helen Mirren. I’m at the penultimate season and I’ve watched Helen, oops, Jane, fight the internal politicing with a stubborn irascibility that would have made Miranda proud. And, like Miranda, Jane is clearly on her way out. What if Jane Tennison was pushed too far? But Jane is more likely to become Prime Minister than take an Uzi into work, an option I considered for Miranda since workplace gun violence is such a terrible and prevalent story today. But no, I want something more devious, more deeply planned and mapped-out.

And my Miranda is written with humour and I’d like to keep that. I like noir with humour, Tarantino-style. Highsmith wrote Mrs. Robichek with derision, as if utterly certain that she herself would never end up like that, varicose-veined and blind, shovelling peas mindlessly. But Patricia Highsmith ended up alone, surrounded by cats, with heads of lettuce in her handbag, along with dozens of snails. All of that in itself fascinating, she was a tough cat herself, with nothing warm or fuzzy there.

I think what I loved about Mrs. Robichek was the bizarre encounter with protagonist, Therese Belivet. It was utterly strange – she took her young friend home and dressed her in red velvet and fed her a tincture with Therese took ill, overwhelmed by the ugliness of the life she had stumbled into. Oh yes, the horror! And that sort of thing would make for a very rich novel.

And that my new friends, at the Short Mystery Fiction Society, is where I currently at! Which may seem like I don’t have much at all but this is where the real fun begins. I’ll begin the long process of flipping through the Rolodex of my mind for plots and stories that I haven’t yet used and start making diligent notes. Could Miranda meld with other short stories that I’ve written? Can I use any of the other stories, like so many engine parts lying around the workshop? I have a wealth of short stories that I’ve never given up on and they’ve served me well, either as descriptions for longer works, or minor characters or as mentioned, as full stories.

Thank you for sharing this exploration with me and I’m very interested to hear your thoughts. Have any of your short stories become novels? Any tips or insights or observations you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them!

Photo by Bradford Dunlop

Lisa de Nikolits ©2019

Lisa de Nikolits is the award-winning author of eight novels: The Hungry Mirror, West of Wawa, A Glittering Chaos, The Witchdoctor’s Bones, Between The Cracks She Fell, The Nearly Girl, No Fury Like That, and Rotten Peaches. No Fury Like That was published in Italian in 2019 by Edizione Le Assassine under the title Una furia dell’altro mondo. Her ninth novel, The Occult Persuasion and the Anarchist’s Solution, is also scheduled to be published in 2019 by Inanna Publications.  Her short fiction and poetry have also been published in various anthologies and journals across the country. She is a member of the Mesdames of Mayhem, the Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, and the International Thriller Writers.  Originally from South Africa, Lisa de Nikolits came to Canada in 2000. She lives and writes in Toronto.

THE STILETTO GANG: The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories of Mystery & Suspe...

THE STILETTO GANG: The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories of Mystery & Suspe...: Judy Penz Sheluk I'm beyond excited to announce that the The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories of Mystery & Suspense is now available ...

Guest Post: Lisa de Nikolits on Writing Short Stories

Please welcome one of our newest members to the blog today, Lisa de Nikolits. Her short story, “Fire Drill” appears in the soon to be released anthology, The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories Of Mystery & Suspense published by Superior Shores Press.

I’ve always believed we were born poets, novelists or short story writers. This sweeping statement may be met with some scepticism but I’m sticking to my guns! I’ve tried my hand at all three forms and I admit I’m a natural-born novelist.

I write long, I can’t help it! I’ve written dozens of short stories and here are a few of them that have made it into publication. Flash fiction in the Jellyfish review, Ms. Pacman Don’t Love Me No More in PAC’N HEAT (a Ms. Pacman-inspired noir anthology edited and published by A.G. Pasquella), Trouble Times in Thirteen O’Clock (the Mesdames of Mayhem), Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon in Thirteen Claws, Hit Me With your Pet Shark (forthcoming in In The Key of Thirteen, Fall 2019, The Mesdames of Mayhem). Tour Guide was published in the Sisters in Crime anthology, The Whole She-Bang 3, Postscripts to Darkness featured Eve Ago about an obese art instalation public figure later eaten by her ravenous siblings and, most recently, there’s Fire Drill in The Best Laid Plans (forthcoming by Superior Shores Press on 18^th June).

All of these are mystery short stories, noir suspense thrillers and they’ve all proven immensely helpful, not only for the wonderful pleasure of being published in an anthology but for sowing the seeds for novels. And if not the exact story, then at the very least, the characters. I’m a meticulous bookkeeper when it comes to characters, plot and storylines. And if I lose track of one – you know that horrible feeling of ‘where is that idea, I knew I wrote it down somewhere’ and you can’t rest until you find it again? Well, that’s me! And I mine each character, plot and storyline until I’ve wrung them dry.

When it comes to short stories, I respond best to calls for submissions, I love working towards a goal, with a theme in mind.

When Judy Penz Sheluk put out the call for The Best Laid Plans, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I’m a freelance magazine designer by day and I was called into a rather arduous meeting about a year ago. Let’s just say that the meeting wasn’t going too well and less than kind thoughts were milling around my brain, thoughts that only stepped up in tempo when the fire alarm sounded and my boss refused to let me leave. I was forced to sit there, bludgeoned by the noise and my boss was in my face, way too up close and personal. As we left via the stairwell, we were the only two people left in the building, high up in the empty stairwell, I thought “well, imagine if…”  

I immediately wrote down my observations of the meeting, how I had felt, how the sound had felt, almost a physical pounding. A character had been floating about in my brain and Judy’s call created the perfect stage for the marriage of my experience and this character, giving the story a focus and a theme.

Anyway, I’m really happy to have joined the Short Mystery Writers Society and I look forward to reading a bunch of other people’s stories and hopefully to contributing to more anthologies. Anthologies and groups like this are a great way to learn about new writers  and make new friends and I’m very glad to be part of the Short Mystery Writers Society!

Lisa de Nikolits ©2019

Photo by Bradford Dunlop

Lisa de Nikolits is the award-winning author of eight novels: The Hungry Mirror, West of Wawa, A Glittering Chaos, The Witchdoctor’s Bones, Between The Cracks She Fell, The Nearly Girl, No Fury Like That, and Rotten Peaches. No Fury Like That was published in Italian in 2019 by Edizione Le Assassine under the title Una furia dell’altro mondo. Her ninth novel, The Occult Persuasion and the Anarchist’s Solution, is also scheduled to be published in 2019 by Inanna Publications.  Her short fiction and poetry have also been published in various anthologies and journals across the country. She is a member of the Mesdames of Mayhem, the Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, and the International Thriller Writers.  Originally from South Africa, Lisa de Nikolits came to Canada in 2000. She lives and writes in Toronto.