Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Launches New Blog: Something Is Going To Happen

Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine launched a new blog last week dedicated to “suspense, short stories, and the mystery-fiction scene.” It’s called Something Is Going to Happen, a title which editor Janet Hutchings explains in her introductory column. I was very flattered — and a little intimidated — to be asked to write the first guest post for the blog, and somewhere in between those responses, I managed to get something written. My contribution, “‘The Moment of Decision’ — Perched on the Edge of What Happens Next,” begins with a discussion of Stanley Ellin’s stories, takes a quick look at a short story criteria sketched out by John Updike, and then considers the idea of the open-ended story (in several of its permutations and levels of open-endedness).

Also this week, First Person Plural, the blog for The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland, featured a preview that I wrote for an upcoming BookTalk on Double Indemnity, both the original novel by James M. Cain and the upcoming stage adaptation at Bethesda’s Round House Theatre. That event takes place on Sunday, June 10, at 12:30 p.m., and the feature includes some comments from Blake Robison, producing artistic director for Round House, as well as several of the panelists: novelists Megan Abbott and Con Lehane, and National Public Radio and Washington Post critic Maureen Corrigan. Also participating on the panel will be Eleanor Holdridge, director of the new production. I’m serving as the moderator. — Art Taylor

New Fiction: “When Duty Calls” in Chesapeake Crimes: This Job Is Murder

My story “When Duty Calls” closes  the new anthology Chesapeake Crimes: This Job Is Murder, just published by Wildside Press in conjunction with the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Here’s the first paragraph of the story — about a young woman helping to keep house for an aging and very distinguished military man:

Keri is just setting out the silverware when the Colonel calls across from the living room with a new question. He’s watching the Military Channel and finishing up the cocktail she made for him—a thimble of Virginia Gentleman, a generous portion of soda, another light splash of whiskey on top to make it smell like a stronger drink. The Colonel’s house has an open floor plan from the kitchen through the dining room to where he sits, and as she’s finished up dinner, she’s listened to him arguing lightly with the program’s depiction of Heartbreak Ridge, reminiscing about his own stint in Korea, rambling in his own way. “Last rally of the Shermans,” he mused aloud, and something about “optics” and “maneuverability” and then—a different tone than Keri’s heard in the four months she’s known him—“Is the perimeter secure, Sergeant?”

Needless to say, that perimeter is not secure, and Keri’s job caring for the Colonel quickly takes on stark new responsibilities.

Edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley (with Andrews and Goffman contributing stories of their own), the collection also features short fiction by Shari Randall, C. Ellett Logan, Karen Cantwell, E.B. Davis, Jill Breslau, David Autry, Harriette Sackler, Ellen Herbert, Smita Harish Jain, Leone Ciporin, and Cathy Wiley. This year’s editorial panel included Ellen Crosby, Sandra Parshall, and Daniel Stashower; the anthology features a foreword by Elaine Viets; and that terrific cover is by photographer Robin Templeton.

A launch party (which I unfortunately can’t make) is planned for Sunday, May 20, at Arlington’s One More Page Books, but a second Maryland-based launch may also be in the works, and I hope to be able to attend. In the meantime, however, you can also pick up the collection through Wildside Press here. And for some of the stories behind the stories, please also visit the website Writers Who Kill, which includes brief remarks from various contributors.

“Writing Your Personal History”

Also on the calendar…. Later this week, I’ll be joining Sandra Beasley, Clifford Garstang, and Dianne Hennessy King as the workshop leaders at the 12th annual “Writing Your Personal History” Symposium on Thursday, May 3, at the Vienna Community Center in Vienna, Virginia. This year’s theme is “The Many Roots to Memoir,” and promises to be great fun. For information and registration, check out the webpage here. — Art Taylor

“Booksellers and Librarians Solve Mysteries Every Day”

Here’s a quick press release from Sisters in Crime — good things going on on Saturday, April 21, across the nation!

Sisters in Crime (SinC), an international organization founded to support the professional development of women writing crime fiction, is holding a “Booksellers and Librarians Solve Mysteries Every Day” event on Saturday, April 21, to thank librarians and booksellers for 25 years of support of the mystery genre.

“In honor of the 25th anniversary of the founding of Sisters in Crime, we are very pleased to be able to thank some of the people who work the hardest on the front lines of publishing by rolling up our sleeves and working beside them,” said Frankie Y. Bailey, President of Sisters in Crime.

The April 21 celebration launches a pilot program that will bring a select group of Sisters in Crime member authors into bookstores and libraries in hometowns from Livermore Falls, Maine, to Honolulu, Hawaii, where they will work as volunteers from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (local time) on that day. The authors will work in the stacks, on the sales floor, and behind the scenes to do whatever a manager asks of staff members—shelving, bagging, sweeping, assisting patrons, pulling holds, making recommendations, taking out the trash, checking in returned books, and more.

“We know that, in their efforts to help readers find the right books at the right time, booksellers and librarians solve countless mysteries every day,” SinC board member Jim Huang, the coordinator of the event and a former independent bookstore owner, said. “This is our opportunity to thank them in a tangible way—and to find out what the publishing world is like from their perspective.”

The participating authors, bookstores, and libraries include:

• Frankie Y. Bailey, at The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, NY
• Gail M. Baugniet, at the Maikiki Community Library in Honolulu, HI
• Charlotte Cohen, at the Santa Ana Public Library in Santa Ana, CA
• Kathy Lynn Emerson, at the Treat Memorial Library in Livermore Falls, ME
• Barbara Fister, at Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis, MN
• Susan Froetschel, at the Takoma Park Neighborhood Library in Washington, DC
• W.S. Gager at the Jackson District Library in Jackson, MI
• Kathleen Heady at the Haverford Township Free Library in Havertown, PA
• Lee Kelly at Barnes & Noble in Marietta, GA
• Molly MacRae at the Jane Addams Book Shop in Champaign, IL
• Robin Murphy at the Sharpsburg Library in Sharpsburg, MD
• Chelle Martin, at the Sadie Pope Dowdell Public Library in South Amboy, NJ
• Denise Osborne, at the Mid-Continent Public Library, Raytown branch, in Raytown, MO
• Bernadette Pajer, at the Uppercase Bookshop in Snohomish, WA
• Karen Pullen, at McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, NC
• C. L. (Cheryl) Shore, at Bookmamas in Indianapolis, IN
• Mary Stanton/Claudia Bishop, at Murder on the Beach in Delray Beach, FL
• Lane Stone, at the Charles E. Beatley, Jr. Central Library in Alexandria, VA
• Susan Van Kirk, at the Warren County Public Library in Monmouth, IL
• Kathryn R. Wall, at the Beaufort County Library, Hilton Head branch, in Hilton Head Island, SC
• Tina Whittle, at The Golden Bough in Macon, GA

In addition to the in-store and in-library volunteer project, SinC’s more than 3,000 members are gearing up to support the “Solving Mysteries Day” event by going into libraries and bookstores on April 21 to personally thank the booksellers and librarians they find working behind the counters and in the stacks.

“The plan is to show booksellers and librarians how much we really care about the work they do. We couldn’t do our work without them,” Bailey said.

Sisters in Crime is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary year. The organization was established with an organizational meeting held in New York City in the spring of 1987. Today, SinC is made up of more than 3,000 members and 48 chapters worldwide—authors, readers, publishers, agents, booksellers, librarians, and others who love mysteries. Sisters in Crime is online at www.sistersincrime.org.

Upcoming Event: Barrelhouse Launch Party

To celebrate their just-released Crime Issue, the good folks at Barrelhouse are hosting a launch party on Wednesday, March 7, at the Black Squirrel, 2427 18th Street NW (Adams Morgan) in Washington, DC. The evening kicks off at 7 p.m. and features three readers: Michelle Dove, Tara Laskowski, and me (the first time, to my knowledge, that my wife, Tara, and I have read together). I’ll be sampling from my story “Blue Plate Special,” and Tara will be reading from her story “The Etiquette of Homicide,” part of a series she’s been working on. For full details, visit the event’s website here. — Art Taylor

Interview: Steve Almond, author of God Bless America

I’m pleased to welcome two great short story writers this week: the inimitable Steve Almond in conversation with Tara Laskowski. Almond is just on the eve of a new book publication, the short story collection God Bless America, and a short tour with some key stops worth mentioning. On Wednesday, October 26, Barrelhouse will host Almond at The Black Squirrel in Washington, DC. On Saturday, November 12, he’ll keynote the Baltimore Writers’ Conference. And in the midst of a several appearances in North Carolina—beginning with Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill and ending at Raleigh’s Quail Ridge Books—Almond will also keynote this year’s Writer’s Week at UNC-Wilmington, where he’s currently serving as a visiting writer this fall; that talk, on Wednesday, November 16, also serves as the official launch party hosted by the publisher, Lookout Books. The book itself is available for pre-order at Lookout.org for 30 percent off the retail price until October 24, and will be released on October 25. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the chat below. — Art Taylor

After six years, fans of Steve Almond are pleased to hear that he has a new collection of short stories out. God Bless America, Almond’s third story collection after The Evil B.B. Chow and My Life in Heavy Metal, offers up 13 new glimpses into the lives, hopes and dreams of Americans.

Packed with humor, tragedy, sadness and hope, the collection is written, as the New York Times Book Review says, by a “gifted storyteller” who delivers “always enjoyable, often hysterical stories.”

Almond is an opinionated guy, and his stories don’t shy away from politics either—the effects of war, terrorism, the economy, big business, religion. As Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!, says, “Almond’s characters are sons and fathers, inveterate gamblers, thwarted dreamers, the mothers of children gone astray, and God Bless America teach us how to love every one of them.”

I had an opportunity to ask Almond a few questions about the collection, current and future projects, and his thoughts on the state of the country he so carefully paints a vivid portrait of.

Tara Laskowski: You capture here some very distinct portraits of Americans. How did this collection come about? Did you sit down to write about America, or did you find later as you were writing these pieces that this was the common thread throughout?

Steve Almond

Steve Almond: This is going to be disappointing. I basically just chose what I took to be my strongest stories and put together a manuscript. I wanted to be in the world of short fiction again. I didn’t consciously set out to write about America. But like every other sane person in this country, I’ve watched in a kind of horror as our country has descended further and further into moral ruin. So obviously, that concern crops up in the work. But I’m mostly interested in particular Americans, and the way in which people seek to cope with their loneliness and regrets.