Sources of the Mystery Short Story

by Paula Gail Benson

Continuing the celebration of May as Short Story Month (see http://shortstorymonth.com/ and http://storyaday.org/), here are a few sources where you can find excellent short stories and receive encouragement or ideas for marketing short stories.

  

Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (https://www.themysteryplace.com/ahmm/),

Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (https://www.themysteryplace.com/eqmm/), and The Strand (https://strandmag.com/) are perhaps the best known monthly publications that feature stories, interviews, and reviews. Woman’s World (http://www.womansworld.com/) is a weekly periodical that features a short solve-it-yourself mystery, often written by well-known mystery writers such as John Floyd and B.K. Stevens.

Wildside Press (http://wildsidepress.com/) offers the monthly Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine as well as anthologies produced for the Malice Domestic Mystery Conference (Malice Domestic 11: Murder Most Conventional and Malice Domestic 12: Mystery Most Historical) and the Guppy and Chesapeake Chapters of Sisters in Crime. Wildside has also published single author short story collections, like Barb Goffman’s Don’t Get Mad, Get Even and B.K. Stevens’ Her Infinite Variety.

Level Best Books (https://levelbestbooks.com/) is well known for publishing the Best New England Crime Stories series and is currently seeking submissions (which close May 31, 2017) for the 15^th anthology, to be titled, Snowbound. Now under new editors, Level Best has branched out with a law enforcement anthology, Busted! Arresting Stories from the Beat, and an upcoming culinary collection, Noir at the Salad Bar.

Two excellent online magazines are Mysterical E (http://mystericale.com/), published quarterly, and Kings River Life (http://kingsriverlife.com/), issued weekly. If you look at the Mystery Rats Maze portion of Kings River Life (http://kingsriverlife.com/category/kings-river-reviewers/mysteryrats-maze/), you’ll find interviews with mystery authors, book reviews, and short stories. Sometimes there’s even a give-away offer!

Finally, both for its list of online resources and its continuous updates of contests and calls for submissions, Sandra Seamans’ blog (http://sandraseamans.blogspot.com/) can’t be beat. In addition, the Short Mystery Fiction Society (https://shortmystery.blogspot.com/) has been commemorating the short story month with selected stories from its member authors, including our own Debra Goldstein.

If you love short stories, particularly mystery ones, please be sure to check out these great sites!