Short Story Month and a Diabolical Treat

by Paula Gail Benson

In World News ERA, Ashleigh Durden wrote an article “Why is May Short Story Month?” that delves into the history and practices to celebrate short fiction. She traces declaring May short story month to Dan Wickett, the founder and editor of the Emerging Writers Network (EWN), who on April 7, 2007, posted an article suggesting a short story month, just as April had been designated National Poetry Month. That following May, Wickett read and reviewed a short story a day. Due to reader enthusiasm, the next year it increased to two stories a day and in the third year to three stories a day.

Meanwhile, writers were urged to set a goal of the number of stories they would write during the month. StoryADay.org continues this tradition with suggestions for short stories to read and prompts and advice about writing short stories.  

Earlier this month, on May 9, Malice Domestic released its latest anthology, Mystery Most Diabolical, published by Wildside Press and edited by Verna Rose, Rita Simmons and Shawn Reilly Simmons.

Art Taylor featured three of the stories in his The First Two Pages: “All in the Planning” by Marco Carocari, “There Comes a Time” by Cynthia Kuhn, and “Fly Me to the Moon” by Lisa Q. Mathews.

In addition, Barb Goffman, winner of the Agatha Award twice as well as the Macavity, Silver Falchion, and 2020 Readers Award given by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, described her story, “Go Big or Go Home,” in her Sleuthsayers post “Everything is Fodder”, where she explains how almost any irritation can lead to a mystery short story.

Contributors to the anthology include editor, Edgar nominee, and Derringer award winner Michael Bracken; Agatha and Thriller award winner Alan Orloff; Agatha nominees Alexia Gordon, Cynthia Kuhn, and Keenan Powell; Al Blanchard award winner Mary Dutta; and Margaret Lucke who wrote an excellent craft book, Schaum's Quick Guide to Writing Great Short Stories.  

I’m proud and humbled to have my story included with those of many accomplished and distinguished writers. Here’s a complete list:

Leah Bailey · “A Killer in the Family”

Paula Gail Benson · “Reputation or Soul”

M. A. Blum · “Little White Lies”

Michael Bracken · “Locked Mesa”

Susan Breen · “The Demon Valentine”

Marco Carocari · “All in the Planning”

Mary Dutta · “Devil’s Advocate”

Christine Eskilson · “The Reunion”

Nancy Gardner · “Death’s Door”

Barb Goffman · “Go Big or Go Home”

Alexia Gordon · “Happy Birthday”

B. J. Graf · “Servant of the Place of Truth”

Maurissa Guibord · “Into the Devil’s Den”

Victoria Hamilton · “Reunion with the Devil”

Kerry Hammond · “Strangers at a Table”

Peter W. J. Hayes · “The Ice House”

Smita Harish Jain · “Keeping Up with the Jainses”

Cynthia Kuhn · “There Comes a Time”

Margaret Lucke · “The Devil’s-Work Ball”

Sharon Lynn · “The Professor’s Lesson”

Tim Maleeny · “A Cure For Madness”

Lisa Q. Mathews · “Fly Me to the Morgue”

Adam Meyer · “Crime Rate”

Alan Orloff · “There Once Was a Man Named Larue”

Keenan Powell · “Miss Millie Munz”

Graham Powell · “A Rough Idea”

Lori Robbins · “Accidents Happen”

Cynthia Sabelhaus · “Exegesis”

Nancy Cole Silverman · “The Case of the Sourdough Starter”

Shawn Reilly Simmons · “The Devil’s in the Details”

C. J. Verburg · “A Terrible Tragedy”

Andrea Wells · “Taking Umbrage”

Here’s a little about the background for my story, “Reputation or Soul.” When I saw the call for Mystery Most Diabolical, I looked up “diabolical” in the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It had a note about the origins of the term, from the Greek “diabolos” that means “slanderer.” Usually, “diabolical” is associated with the devil. I began thinking about a trade off: if given a choice, which might a person be willing to live with--losing a soul or having a maligned reputation?

I started with an image of a jilted bride, sitting in a turret room in the church, knowing with certainty that her groom had skipped the ceremony as well as stealing a substantial sum of money. I was certain the bride remained calm about this occurrence and equally certain that her younger brother, the narrator of the story, was completely puzzled about her response.

Together, they went to visit their abusive father, now confined in a nursing home. The father berated them, but the sister spoke kindly to him without telling him about the runaway groom. Then, the sister asked her brother to go with her on her honeymoon trip, to a location where she expected the groom might resurface.

Whose action will hurt most? In a scenario where almost everyone has a reason to seek revenge, will it occur and what will be the consequence?

There are still a few more days left in the short story month of May 2022. Why not check out the stories in Mystery Most Diabolical? 

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!  

May is Short Story Month!

by Paula Gail Benson

Thanks to my friend, phenomenal author Art Taylor (Agatha, Anthony, Derringer, and Macavity award winner for short fiction and winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel for On the Road with Del & Louise: A Novel in Stories—check out his website at: http://www.arttaylorwriter.com/), I learned that May is Short Story Month. It’s a tradition that started in 2013. You can read about it at http://shortstorymonth.com/ and participate with your own contributions at http://storyaday.org/, which encourages people to complete a story each day during the months of May and September and provides writing prompts and featured guests (like Neil Gaiman) as inspiration.

Art has been celebrating this year by featuring a different story each day on his Facebook page, including one by his very talented wife Tara Laskowski (read about her terrific short story collection Bystanders at http://taralaskowski.com/). Tara is the editor of http://www.smokelong.com/, the online literary magazine devoted to flash fiction.

I began thinking about the mystery short story writers who have inspired me. I credit Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Alan Poe for luring me into the genre, but a number of current authors keep me reading and teach me the true artistry of the short story craft. Here’s a list (beginning with Art and Tara and in alphabetical order below) of a few that you may want to add to your TBR stack, if you haven’t already discovered them.

John Floyd (http://www.johnmfloyd.com/), a former Air Force captain and IBM engineer, has written more than 1,000 stories that have appeared in the Strand Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Woman's World, The Saturday Evening Post, Mississippi Noir, and The Best American Mystery Stories 2015. In addition to receiving three Derringer awards, he has been nominated for an Edgar and three times nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He blogs at http://www.sleuthsayers.org/. His books are: Rainbow's End (2006), Midnight (2008), Clockwork (2010), Deception (2013), Fifty Mysteries (2014), and Dreamland (2016).

Kaye George (http://kayegeorge.wixsite.com/kaye-george), while writing four series of mystery novels, continues to produce quality short fiction. Recently, she took on the job as editor for Day of the Dark, an anthology to be published by Wildside Press on July 21 that contains 24 stories about eclipse, to commemorate the one that will take place in August. I met Kaye as a member of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime. She served as treasurer, then President of the online chapter, and throughout her membership has been a consistent contributor and commenter to the short story critique group. Her insightful advice has helped many of us to improve our work.

Barb Goffman (http://barbgoffman.com/) has been nominated numerous times for the Agatha, Anthony, Derriger, and Macavity awards. She has won the Agatha and Macavity and her Don't Get Mad, Get Even won the Silver Falchion for best single-author mystery-short-story collection published in 2013. She blogs at http://www.sleuthsayers.org/ and is an accomplished editor.

Debra Goldstein (http://www.debrahgoldstein.com/), my blogging partner here at The Stiletto Gang, is an active member of the Guppy Chapter short story critique group. Recently, her "The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie's Place" appeared in the May/June 2017 edition of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Check out her mention on the cover at: https://www.themysteryplace.com/ahmm/.

Robert Mangeot (http://robertmangeot.com/) calls himself a  “Turner of Phrase, Counter of Beans, Crafter of Sandwiches” on his website.  His fine stories have been published in the MWA anthology Ice Cold and the Bouchercon anthology Murder Under the Oaks. He is a frequent contributor to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

Edith Maxwell (https://edithmaxwell.com/) has the distinction of having her short story and novel both featuring her Quaker midwife protagonist nominated for the best short story and best historical novel at this year’s Malice Domestic Agatha awards. In addition to writing four mystery series and blogging with the Wicked Cozy Authors, she continues to produce quality short fiction.

Terrie Farley Moran (http://terriefarleymoran.com/) won the Agatha Award Best First Novel winner, Well Read, Then Dead, the debut of her Read ‘Em and Eat series. Currently, her “Inquiry and Assistance,” a Depression era story published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, is a nominee for a Derringer award as best novelette. A copy of the nominated story may be accessed at: http://terriefarleymoran.com/short-stories/.

B.K. “Bonnie” Stevens (http://www.bkstevensmysteries.com/) has become a beloved friend and confidant. I first met her when I contacted her to tell her how much I loved reading “Thea’s First Husband” (now included in Wildside Press’ Her Infinite Variety: Tales of Women and Crime). In addition to her novel, Interpretation of Murder, a traditional whodunit, and her YA martial arts mystery Fighting Chance, Bonnie has written over fifty short stories, most published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. She won a Derringer and has been nominated for Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards. In addition to blogging at http://www.sleuthsayers.org/, her own blog features authors describing the first two pages of their work, both novels and short stories. Check it out at:

http://www.bkstevensmysteries.com/category/the-first-two-pages/

Please indulge and celebrate May as Short Story month by taking time to enjoy these wonderful authors’ stories. Then, why not write one or two of your own?