Ready, Not Ready (A tribute to Cathy Perkins)

by: Donnell Ann Bell

On December 21, 2021, The Stiletto Gang lost a blog partner and friend. Cathy Perkins passed away. She was able to celebrate her 41^st wedding anniversary with her husband, and I know firsthand how proud and delighted she was with her daughters, spouses, and grandchildren. These people were her world.

For the most part, Cathy Perkins was a private person. In this blogpost, I’d like to celebrate the dynamic person I knew, and why I enjoyed her company so much. Cathy Perkins had a soft Southern drawl, a great laugh, a terrific sense of humor, and a gleam in her eye. She enjoyed exercising and was serious about her health. Her myriad interests spanned from finance and science (chemical engineering was her first degree), to walking her dogs, to working with stained glass, and, of course, writing. 

I met Cathy at the start of her writing career, after judging her unpublished entry, The Professor, in the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. Later, we would serve on committees and a board together, and we periodically texted or phoned to catch up on the goings-on in our careers.

Whether close by or across the country, she loved to attend writing retreats, places where she was in her element and her most productive. Before COVID-19, the women in her retreat group met yearly and were very special to her.

I attended two Left Coast Crime conferences, one in Monterey, California, the other in Portland Oregon. Cathy and I roomed together in Portland where the staff stashed us next to an obnoxious chiming elevator filled with coming-and-going attendees. Didn’t matter, we spent the whole night gabbing anyway. 

Cathy Perkins on a panel at Left Coast Crime

Authors D.V. Berkom, Donnell Bell and Cathy Perkins

Authors Donnell Bell, Susan Boyer, Cathy Perkins & Allison Brennan

Cathy was not one to brag about her education or her successes. The only time I heard her beyond excited was the night she called me from Nashville to tell me The Body in the Beaver Pond had just won the prestigious Killer Nashville contest. That was so cool because I had beta read two versions of the book–the first draft was good—the final version, was outstanding. “This manuscript is ready,” I told her. “You need to get it out there.”

“Soon,” she promised, “When I’m ready.”

I also beta read Calling for the Money, book three of her Holly Price Financial series. In this book, I discerned a better understanding of this financial whiz behind the words and why she was the perfect author to write this series. She traveled constantly during her financial career, and did much of her writing on airplanes. More than once I asked her when she planned to retire.

“Working on it,” she’d say. “When I’m ready.”  

Always a planner, she and her husband had purchased a secluded property in Washington state, they were clearing a tree-filled lot, and were building their dream home. I never got to see the property in person, but trust me, I saw it in my mind’s eye when I read The Body in the Beaver Pond. Cathy occasionally described the labor-intensive maintenance and the construction woes, mostly laughing when she relayed the drama. 

The dilapidated cabin that her protagonist Keri Isles inherits is an exaggerated structure for the real deal. In its place, stands the Perkins’s long-awaited home with its stunning vistas, which eventually came to fruition.

In March of 2020, the Perkins came to visit my husband and me in Las Cruces. COVID was just starting to rear its awful head, and I’m grateful we had these few days to spend together.

Author Cathy Perkins in Monterey

In closing, Cathy Perkins did more living in her six decades of life than many people do who are granted an additional thirty. She loved, lived, traveled, and gave of herself to numerous volunteer organizations and charitable causes. I still have her text messages and I confess I’ve saved her last voicemail. At some point I’ll probably delete it. Maybe . . . when I’m ready. For now, I’m not ready. Rest in Peace, Cathy.

Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning author, including finalist in the 2020 Colorado Book Award, and the 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards for her first straight suspense Black Pearl. Book two is on her editor’s desk and she’s working on Book Three. You can learn more about her other books or find her on Facebook, Twitter, or BookBub. Sign up for her newsletter at www.donnellannbell.com

 

 

 

A Tribute to Sandra Seamans

by Paula Gail Benson

If you’re a writer of mystery short fiction, you’ve probably followed a blog called “My Little Corner” that was written by Sandra Seamans. Faithfully, Sandra chronicled potential publishers seeking short fiction and linked to information about the submission guidelines. Every time I spoke to groups about writing short stories, I referred them to Sandra’s blog as an essential market guide.

Sadly, Sandra Seamans passed away on the morning of Thursday, May 23, 2019. Here is a link to her obituary. 

Paul D. Brazill wrote a message spotlighting Sandra’s talent and work on December 3, 2010. He began with a quote from Sandra, who described herself as “a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a writer. But not always in that order.”

Later in the Brazill interview, she explained how she became a writer and why she felt that short stories were important:

“I’ve been making up stories in my head since I was a kid but about twenty years ago I decided to start putting them down on paper. Not very good ones, I might add. I discovered that there was a whole lot I didn’t know and started studying. About five years or six years ago I started submitting my stories on a regular basis instead of just one a year then quit for a year because it got rejected. Staring that rejection in the face, then sending that story back out is the hardest part of writing. . . . I was also tired of being told that just writing short stories wasn’t good enough, that you had to write novels to be an actual author. But there’s so much talent out there in the short story field, and especially online, that I decided to share what I loved about shorts, the writers who pen them and the zines that publish all those great stories. So, the Corner became a place to celebrate short stories.”

Since her passing, a number of authors have written tributes about her contributions:

“R.I.P. Sandra Seamans--My LittleCorner” by Patricia Abbott (May 30, 2019).

“Remembering Sandra Seamans” by Al Tucher (May 30, 2019).

  

“Small Crimes: Sandra Seamans and Friday Reads” by David Nemeth (May 31, 2019). 

“Loss and Gratitude” by Travis Richardson at Sleuthsayers (June 3, 2019). 

Her blog, which she last updated on May 16, 2019, contains messages of admiration and respect in the comments to her final message: https://sandraseamans.blogspot.com/

In 2007, Sandra’s story “Home Entertainment” (A Cruel World, July/August 2006) was a finalist for a Derringer Award for Best Flash fiction.

From 2010-2012, she served as President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Prior to her election, she wrote a statement that was posted on the SMFS blog. Here are a few snippets from that message:

“I’d like to see every short story writer feel welcome at the SMFS, no matter if they write cozy or dark. Only the strength of the story should count. . . . I’d also like to see if we could get editors to post more often on the list - get them to give us insights into their selection process or maybe just do a Q & A interview that we could post. . . . Shorts are starting to come into their own via the online markets, there are more and more people talking about them and I know of several sites that actually review individual stories and collections. As a short fiction society we should be a part of this. Well, I know I’m not supposed to be posting this before I’m asked, but the membership deserves to know where I stand so they can nominate someone to run against me if they don’t agree with what I believe the SMFS should be about. And I’d really prefer that this be an election not just a put her in office because nobody else wants the job situation.”

See, https://shortmystery.blogspot.com/2010/05/early-statement-from-smfs-presidential.html (May 28, 2010)

Unfortunately, Sandra’s anthology, Cold Rifts, is no longer in print. I appreciate so much the interviews and tributes I found for this post because they directed me to links where you can read Sandra’s work online and in anthologies. Here is the list of Sandra Seamans’ stories that I found:

“Rabbit in a Trap” (June 15, 2008) http://powderburnflash.blogspot.com/2008/06/shifting-gears-flash-sandra-seamans.html

“The Dumb Factor” (November 28, 2008) https://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/2008/11/twist-of-noir-sandra-seamans.html

“A Mulberry Street Christmas” (December 19, 2008) https://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/2008/12/twist-of-noir-027-sandra-seamans.html

“Rock Bottom Anonymous” (February 16, 2009) https://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/2009/02/twist-of-noir-048-sandra-seamans.html

“Once Upon a Blue Moon” (July 21, 2009) https://thrillskillsnchills.blogspot.com/2009/07/once-upon-blue-moon-by-sandra-seamans.html

“Forever After” (April 18, 2010) https://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/2010/04/twist-of-noir-431-sandra-seamans.html

“In God’s Own Time” (September 21, 2010) http://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/2010/09/twist-of-noir-583-sandra-seamans.html

“Best Left Buried” (December 27, 2010) https://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/2010/12/twist-of-noir-647-sandra-seamans.html

The following are available though Amazon:

“The Gimmick” in Discount Noir an anthology edited by Patricia Abbot and Steve Weddle, Untreed Reads (October 21, 2010) (available on Amazon).

“Taking Back” in Grimm Tales an anthology edited by John Kenyon with introduction by Ken Bruen, Untreed Reads (December 19, 2011) (available on Amazon).

In a July 25, 2012, interview with Steve Weddle, Sandra described the process that led to her story “Taking Back” in Grimm Tales:

“The minute John Kenyon put up the challenge to rewrite a fairytale into a crime story, I was in. Yeah, I’m a fairytale freak. I also knew I wanted to do something different. There are only so many variations of the usual suspects that you can write. I found a website that had many of the Grimm’s published. Reading down through the list of titles ‘The Blue Light’ caught my eye. It was the story of a Soldier who’d fought for the King and when he was wounded and not as useful, the King sent him away. Through a meeting with a witch he finds a way to get his revenge on the King - perfect setup for a crime story. I used the basics of the fairytale but turned the soldier into a cleanup man for a mob boss, gave him some rules he lived by and off we went. It was a fun story to write.”

Thank you to a writer’s writer, Sandra Seamans. We are richer for the legacy you have left us.