SMFS Member Publishing News: Because the Baby by M. E. Proctor

 

SMFS list member M. E. Proctor’s short story, Because the Baby, was published at Punk Noir Magazine. You can read the piece for free online here.

SMFS Members Published in Stolen Cars: Mystery, Crime, and Mayhem Book #18

 

Today is publication day for Stolen Cars: Mystery, Crime, and Mayhem Book #18. Published by Knotted Road Press, the read is available at MysteryCrimeandMayhem.Com as well as Amazon and other vendors.  The SMFS list members that reported being in the issue are:

 

Joslyn Chase with “Always Gonna Happen.”

 

Diana Deverell with “Cool Ride.”

 

David H. Hendrickson with “Dodging Bullets.”

 

Annie Reed with “Be Someone.”

 

Publisher Description

Take a joy ride with a woman desperate to escape her past. Or maybe deal with car thieves who keep stealing your car for an ever increasing ransom. Maybe delve into the mystery of a car that isn’t really stolen–it just disappears for a while. Or get into a rideshare car that appears to be driven by a zombie (if you dare…)

These tales of stolen cars, the thieves behind them, and what these theft actually represents, are sure to delight readers of all kinds. From the twisted minds of the MCM syndicate.

SMFS Member Publishing News: The Orphan by Sylvia M. Warsh

 

Today is publication day for SMFS list member Sylvia M. Warsh’s new book, The Orphan. Published by Auctus Publishers, the read is available at Amazon and other vendors.

 

Publisher Description:

Washington DC 1844: When his mother is found drowned in the Potomac, 15-year-old Samuel Evans is devastated and falls gravely ill, saved by an experimental drug given to him by the gruff Dr. James Pyper who developed it from an Amazonian plant. The drug makes Samuel so sensitive to his environment that he can communicate with animals. He sets out to prove his mother didn’t commit suicide, helped by encounters with numerous animals.

The doctor’s childless wife, Martha, convinces her husband to adopt Samuel. He discovers that their house is a stop on the Underground Railroad and that Martha helps runaway slaves.

While investigating his mother’s murder, Samuel’s life is threatened, he falls in love, he dispatches a bee hive to punish the man he suspects, and tragedy ensues. He is kicked out of the Pypers’ house, with nowhere to go. During this painful time, he uncovers lies and betrayal from people he trusts before learning the truth about his parents.

The Orphan is set against the backdrop of slavery and the 1844 presidential election that determined whether Texas would enter the union as a slave state.

SMFS Members Published in Black Cat Weekly #141

 

SMFS list members are published in Black Cat Weekly #141. Published by Wildside Press, the issue is available here in digital format. The members that reported their stories are: 

 

Vinnie Hansen “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.” 

 

Veronica Leigh with “A Slice of Life.” 

 

Publisher Description:

 

Welcome to Black Cat Weekly.

   If you like some of the series we’ve been publishing, you’re in for a treat this time. We have a new Smith Sisters story by Veronica Leigh, a Sexton Blake story by Hal Meredith, a Johnny Liddell novel by Frank Kane, and a Jules de Grandin story by Seabury Quinn.

   I don’t want to slight our non-series contents—it’s quite an all-star lineup, with tales such modern masters as Aeryn Rudell and Vinnie Hansen (courtesy of Acquiring Editors Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman), plus classics by Robert Silverberg & Randall Garrett, Lester del Rey, and Gore Vidal. And, of course, a solve-it-yourself mystery by Hal Charles.

   Here’s the complete lineup—

 

Cover: Ron Miller

 

Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure:

• “A Slice of Life,” by Veronica Leigh [short story, the Smith Sisters series]
• “Every Trick in the Book,” by Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery]
• “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” by Vinnie Hansen [short story]
• “The Clue of the Ash,” by Hal Meredith [short story, Sexton Blake series]
• Green Light for Death, by Frank Kane [novel, Johnny Liddell series]

 

Science Fiction & Fantasy:

• “Time On My Hands,” by Aeryn Rudel [Michael Bracken Presents short story]
• “The Girl from Bodies, Inc.,” by Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett [short story]
• “Whom the Gods Love,” by Lester del Rey [short story]
• “Body and Soul,” by Seabury Quinn [short story, Jules de Grandin series]
• Messiah, by Gore Vidal [novel]

2024 SMFS Member Anthony Award Nominees

Earlier this week, several SMFS list members were nominated for the 2024 Anthony Awards in various categories. The winners will be announced at Bouchercon: Nashville on Saturday evening, August 31, 2024. The full list of nominees and more information can be found on the Facebook announcement. The SMFS list members that reported on the SMFS list their nominated books and short stories are:

 

Best Anthology

Here in the Dark: Stories by Megan Lucas (Shotgun Honey Books, July 2023)

 

Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, Editor Josh Pachter (Down & Out Books, October 2023).

 

The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions by Art Taylor (Crippen and Landru, February 2023).

 

School of Hard Knox: Stories That Break Father Ronald Knox's Commandments for Crime Fiction. Edited by SMFS list members Donna Andrews, Greg Herren, and Art Taylor (Crippen and Landru, August 2023).

 

Best Short Story

Barb Goffman for “Real Courage” (Black Cat Mystery Magazine #14, Wildside Press, October 2023).

 

James D.F. Hannah for “Knock” (Playing Games, Editor Lawrence Block, Subterranean Press, July 2023)

 

Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski for “Ticket To Ride.” (Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, Editor Josh Pachter, Down & Out Books,  October 2023).  

 

Best Hardcover Novel

James L'Etoile for Face of Greed: A Novel (Oceanview Publishing, November 2023)

 

Best Paperback Original

James D.F. Hannah for Because the Night: A Henry Malone Novel (Down & Out Books, June 2023)

 

Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition 2024 Winner: Olga Popova by Susan Breen

 

SMFS congratulates SMFS list member Susan Breen for her win in the Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition 2024. Per the website, “CWA and the Margery Allingham Society have jointly held an international competition for a short story of up to 3,500 words. Our mission is to find the best unpublished short mystery, and not only that, but one which fits into Golden Age crime writer Margery Allingham’s definition of what makes a great mystery story.” Susan Breen’s winning story is titled, Olga Popova. More information can be found at The Crime Writers’ Association.

SMFS Member Publishing News: Pushing Joe Carter by John Floyd

 

SMFS list member John Floyd’s short story, Pushing Joe Carter, appears in the just released Strand Magazine: Spring 2024 issue. The issue is available at the website and from other vendors.

 

Description

Strand Magazine: Unpublished Rod Serling Short Story

(Strand Magazine: Featuring an unpublished Rod Serling short story, fiction by Adam Hamdy, John Floyd, Vasa Clarke, and exclusive interviews with Robert Littell and Laurie R. King)

Rod Serling’s unpublished short story “First Squad, First Platoon” headlines The Strand Magazine’s latest issue. Written after Serling returned from World War II, the story preceded his television career and draws from his experiences fighting with the 511th Airborne in the Philippines, where he witnessed some of the most intense combat of the entire conflict and the horrific deaths of many of his fellow soldiers. Serling wrote this story in his early twenties, yet it carries a maturity beyond his years. In terse prose, he delivers the immediacy, sense of place, and cutting dialogue you’d expect from Hemingway, Crane, or Dos Passos. It’s a powerful, unvarnished look at war in all its brutality—an unforgettable study of ordinary people in extraordinarily hellish situations. This unique issue also includes forewords to the story by Rod Serling’s daughters, Jodi and Anne, who provide context to the story and deeper insight into the man behind the words.

Also in this issue, as coincidence would have it, the inimitable John Floyd offers us “Pushing Joe Carter,” a Twilight Zone-esque tale of man’s inhumanity to man with—you guessed it—a twist at the end. Adam Hamdy and Emily Fox show us the psychological toll a life in law enforcement can take on the psyches of those sworn to serve and protect in “The Fear in Their Eyes.” And Vasa Clarke has turned Holmes and Watson’s attention to an unlikely case involving veterinary medicine and national security in “The Adventure of the Ayrshire

We have an exclusive interview with espionage novelist Robert Littell. In a career spanning over half a century, Littell has elevated the genre into the realm of serious literature with scores of novels that have earned comparisons to the works of John le Carré, Graham Greene, Len Deighton, and Eric Ambler. He is indisputably the modern-day master of the literary spy novel. Throughout his writing career, Littell has used the genre of espionage fiction to explore and say something about the human condition. One of the hallmarks of his novels are his character-driven plots. He has a keen understanding of the men and women who live in the shadows where moral ambiguity reigns, and his complex characters often find themselves struggling to hold onto the last vestiges of their humanity amid the deception required by their work, as they fight for or against the inexorable, heartless tide of the realpolitik.

We also have an exclusive with Laurie R. King, known for her Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series, among others. Throughout a prolific three-decade career, King has leveraged her extensive knowledge of history and literature to produce some of the most authentic historical novels of our time, not to mention several bestsellers set in the modern day, winning over legions of readers around the world.

As the weather warms, and benches and beaches beckon, you’ll no doubt need the best new books. Storm Watch by C. J. Box, Independence Square by Martin Cruz Smith, and The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen are but a few of the many gems you’ll find in our reviews section.