Shanks Gets Lost

 I believe "Shanks Gets Lost" is the 34th appearance by my grouchy mystery writer.  He shows up in Black Cat Weekly, 193.

Links for the Short Mystery Fiction Society

 I will be interviewed at the Short Mystery Fiction Society Watercooler this Thursday, so here are links to a few websites I will no doubt discuss.

 A Completely Unhelpful Guide to Being Published in Japan

Bouchercon 2023: What Librarians Wish Readers and Writers Knew... RESOURCES

A Textbook Case: Advice for Fiction Writers

Little Big Crimes

Robert Lopresti Authorfella  

 

The Chortling Man

 I have a story in the new issue of Black Cat Weekly, #185. "The Chortling Man" is a sequel to "The Accessories Club," which Otto Penzler put in his list of Distinguished Stories the year it came out. Both stories are about a retired cop who finds himself a member of a club of criminals who try to figure out how each one committed a crime... a sort of reverse of Agatha Christie's Tuesday Club Murders, or Asimov's Black Widowers.

That One Friend

 And we are starting the year off right.  "That One Friend" is in #182 of Black Cat Weekly, thanks to editor Barb Goffman.

The Nurse Log

 In preparing my review of the year I discovered that I hadn't given this story its own mention.  "The Nurse Log" appeared in Agatha and Derringer Get Cozy. My fifth anthologized tale of 2024.

Award Bait

I had a walloping eighteen stories published this year.  If anyone is thinking about nominating stories for, say, the Agatha or Anthony Awards, here are my candidates...

"Welcome to JFR!" Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Nov/Dec.

"Professor Pie Is Going To Die." Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. May/June. An essay about the story at Trace Evidence.

"The Gate of Hades." Mystery Magazine. June.

"Christmas Dinner." Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Nov/Dec. An essay about the story at SleuthSayers.

"Slow News Day."  Mystery Magazine. February. An essay about the story at SleuthSayers. And another essay about the true events that inspired the story.

"The Book Deal." Lost & Loaded: The Story of a Gun.

"Shanks' Role Model." Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. March/April. An essay at Trace Evidence about the story.

"The Nurse Log." Anthony and Derringer Get Cozy. An essay about the story at SleuthSayers.

"Underpass." Black Cat Weekly. #130. An essay about the story at The First Two Pages.

"Shanks in Retreat." Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Jan/Feb. An essay about the story at SleuthSayers.

"Shanks' Sunbeam." Murder Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology. An essay about the story at SleuthSayers.

"Shanks' Last Words." Black Cat Weekly. #161. "Late Bus." Black Cat Weekly. #125. "No Escape." Mystery Most International. "Shanks Gets Lost." Black Cat Weekly. #167. "Shanks Has Reservations." Black Cat Weekly. #166.

And just to be complete, two more I don't offer for any nominations: "When the Aliens Left." Black Cat Weekly. #124. (Because it's science fiction, not mystery.) "The Trouble with Saving the World." Crimes Against Nature: New Stories of Environmental Villainy. (Because I edited the book.)

Annual review

I just put this up on Facebook. Thought I would share it here.

 A couple of my friends have put up reviews of their writing year, so here's mine. 

 The biggest highlight: Down and Out Books published the first anthology I ever edited, Crimes Against Nature: New Stories of Environmental Villainy.

Second highlight: SleuthSayers, the blog I helped found in 2011 published their first anthology, Murder, Neat. I wrote the introduction and have a story in it. Oh, and I wrote a theme song for it! 

And I have stories in three more anthologies: Murder Most International, Lost and Loaded, and Agatha and Derringer Get Cozy.

Then I had four stories in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Plus one in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (my 4th appearance there in, literally, 48 years of trying).

Six stories in Black Cat Weekly.

Two more in the late lamented Mystery Magazine.

That's a total of 18 stories, many more than I have in any previous year, and I strongly suspect more than I shall ever score again.

But wait! There's more. Otto Penzler chose my story "The Accessories Club" (from AHMM) for his list of Other Distinguished stories, and Steph Cha picked "Memorial" (Black Cat Weekly) for her Other Distinguished list.

What happens next year? I have four stories accepted but not yet published. Eleven more are waiting for judgments by editors.

And I'm still writing. I hope you're still reading.