Last year I put out two quarterly newsletters using Tinyletter, but they just went out business. I tried another newsletter service and it was so complicated I said the hell with it. I will be putting up my quarterly newsletter here. If you want to be notified when a new issue comes out send me an email at rob@roblopresti.com
Greetings!
Happy February, if that is not an oxymoron. At least it’s almost over.
I’ve been busy the last two months, with six published stories. (Of course, this is misleading. Some of these stories were written four years ago, and submitted back in 2022. Then somehow they all pile up at once…)
It has definitely been busy for my most popular character, Leopold Longshanks, the cranky but brilliant mystery writer. “Shanks in Retreat” appeared in the Jan/Feb issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. In honor of that event I had a chat with him at SleuthSayers.
And then, what do you know, he shows up in the March/April issue of AHMM with “Shanks’ Role Model.” That story was inspired by some crimes that really happened when I was in college, and I wrote about that at Trace Evidence, the AHMM blog.
But the most exciting event is that the SleuthSayers bloggers, which I have been a part of since the founding in 2011, have just put out an anthology (Level Shorts is the publisher). All the stories in Murder, Neat are set in bars, including my “Shanks’s Sunbeam.” If you want to read the Story Behind the Story on that one you can find it on SleuthSayers, naturally.
But not all my work features Shanks, of course. Black Cat Weekly #125 includes my story “Late Bus,” which was inspired by a bus trip my wife and I took decades ago.
And speaking of Black Cat Weekly, the previous issue, #124, featured one of my rare science fiction stories. It was quite literally inspired by a dream. As I get older I find it harder to separate a dream from reality when I wake up. For example, if I dream about a car accident I will wake up wondering how to get my car fixed. Oh, right! Didn’t happen. It was something like that that led to “When The Aliens Left.”
I made the cover of the February issue of Mystery Magazine with “Slow News Day.” It was inspired by a horrifying true event which I wrote about at, you guessed it, SleuthSayers.
If you read my version and reality’s version you will see that I left out some nasty things that happened while raising the suspense with something that ALMOST happened.
Did I say I had six stories published this year? Ha! Number seven just dropped today. And “Underpass” is the second to be on the cover of a mag this month. I assure you the story has nothing to do with the cool picture on the cover. “Underpass” is my second published story set in Bellingham. The first was “The Accessory” which appeared in the June 2014 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and made the Other Distinguished Stories list in Best American Mystery Stories. I mention it only because the same pair of cops have minor parts in both stories. Who knows? Maybe one day they’ll get to star.
So, what’s coming up?
I have nothing scheduled for March (although some editor may surprise me), but April will be busy again. The May/June issue of Hitchcock’s will feature a non-Shanks story I am very proud of. (And then I will probably be absent from AHMM until next year, I think.)
And I will be attending Left Coast Crime in my nearby metropolis of Seattle, April 11-14. I will be moderating a panel on Thursday called "Twenty Panels in One: YOU Choose the Topics." Audience members will toss panel ideas into a hat and my brave panelists will have about 30 seconds each to dispense their wisdom. A friend described it today as “panel improv,” which is pretty sharp. Those courageous souls are: Ellen Byron/Maria DiRico, David Corbett, Julie Hennrikus/Julia Henry, and Matt Witten.
And speaking of conferences, if you attended Bouchercon last year or are going this year you have probably just received the Anthony ballot. If you haven’t made up your mind as to which short stories deserve your love you can check my Award Bait.
Over at Youtube you can hear my latest contribution (or, what's the opposite of a contribution? Withdrawal?) to music: the Social Media Blues.
See you in the funny pages.
Robert Lopresti
