29

I received my 29th acceptance of the year this afternoon, this for a bit of crime fiction.

Starred review

Just seen on Bouchercon 2017's Twitter feed: "@PublishersWkly gave #Bcon2017 antho a Starred Review!!"

My story "Montezuma's Revenge" is in this anthology, and I, along with several other contributors, will be signing copies of Passport to Murder at Bouchercon in Toronto this October.

Read the entire review here.

Published: "The Princess and the Swineherd"

My lesbian fairy tale "The Princess and the Swineherd" was released today as a standalone short story. Find it at Amazon and Smashwords.

28

I received my 28th acceptance of the year today, this time for a bit of crime fiction.

Ninety-Eight Years of Fallen Women

Rebecca McCarthy discusses the history of confession magazines in "Ninety-Eight Years of Fallen Women" at The Awl. The timing of the article is, perhaps, ironic given that True Story and True Confessions haven't published an issue since July 2017.

The last paragraph of the article mentions my story "Spring Job Fair."

In “Spring Job Fair” from the March 2017 issue of True Confessions, the heroine is about to finish college and works nights as a waitress at a truck stop. During an interview for an unspecified office job, the interviewer begins to hit on her. In most of the MacFadden confessionals, this would be the start of a great romance; the day she met The Man Who Rescued Her From The Truck Stop. But instead, she leaves feeling anxious, she thinks he’s a creep. And that’s all. She graduates, gets another job, and does not date that guy. It’s an entirely unremarkable story, but it feels like a victory.

I don't know if the story was "entirely unremarkable," but the story summary doesn't describe the story I wrote. And, yes, for the protagonist of that story, graduating college and landing a job working  in the office of a trucking company was a victory.

Published: "The Great Train Robbery"

My story "The Great Little Train Robbery," first published in the June 1985 issue of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, has been reprinted in the August 19 issue of Kings River Life as "The Great Train Robbery." Read it here.

This story was my seventh published mystery and my fourth story in MSMM.

Twenty-five

I completed and submitted my twenty-fifth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 4,100-word bit of crime fiction I started March 7.

Twenty-four

I finished and submitted my twenty-fourth short story io the year this evening. This one's a 4,900-word bit of crime fiction I started July 17.

Reviewed: "Smoked"

Robert Lopresti reviewed "Smoked," my contribution to Noir at the Salad Bar, at Little Big Crimes, and sums it up:

"The story takes place in modern Texas but it has the feeling of an old-fashioned Western, with the bad guys getting closer and the townsfolk having to decide where they stand. A good story."

Read the entire review here.

Twenty-three

I completed and submitted my twenty-third short story of the year this morning. This one's a 3,800-word bit of holiday crime fiction.