Celebrating the Agatha Nominees for Best Short Story and Best First Novel, Part Two

 by Paula Gail Benson

Yesterday, on The Stiletto Gang, I began this celebration of the Agatha nominees for best short story and best first novel. Hearing from these delightful writers is like having the opportunity for a mini-craft workshop plus some wonderful insight into the many facets of authors’ lives. Each year, as I interview these nominees, I find my to-be-read list lengthening and my real appreciation of the mystery/suspense genre increasing.

If you have not yet discovered these talented folks, you are in for a treat. Thank you to all the nominees for their time and thoughtful answers.

Best Short Story

“Beauty and the Beyotch,” Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, Feb. 2022)
“There Comes a Time,” Cynthia Kuhn, Malice Domestic Murder Most Diabolical (Wildside Press)
“Fly Me to the Morgue,” Lisa Q Mathews, Malice Domestic Mystery Most Diabolical (Wildside Press)
“The Minnesota Twins Meet Bigfoot,” Richie Narvaez, Land of 10,000 Thrills, Bouchercon Anthology (Down & Out Books)
“The Invisible Band,” Art Taylor, Edgar & Shamus Go Golden (Down & Out Books)

How long (word count) are the short stories you write? Are you consistent or do you vary the length?

Barb Goffman

Barb Goffman:

They vary. I’ve had flash stories published (less than 1,000 words) and I’ve had novelettes published (the longest more than 14,000 words). In recent years, my stories often fall in the range of 6,000 – 6,500 words long, especially if the place I’m submitting to hasn’t specified a maximum word count or a sweet spot.

 

Cynthia Kuhn:

It varies, ranging from a couple hundred words for flash fiction to a couple thousand for longer stories.

Lisa Q. Mathews

Lisa Q. Mathews:

A very easy question for me to answer, since “Fly Me to the Morgue” is my first published short story. So far my collected works clock in at 3,125 words, with zero deviation in length.

 

Richie Narvaez:

Early on I learned to write to the market, so many of my early stories are 4,075 to 4,099, to meet the then-typical word count of 5K. Over time I’ve become looser, writing both much shorter and much longer, as the story dictates. I’ve gotten to the point where once I conceive the general story, I know approximately how long it will be, and I can say, “Well, that might be short enough for Shotgun Honey,” or “Hmm, I have to find a place that still takes novellas.” 

Art Taylor

Art Taylor:

I was just talking recently about length and word count at a presentation for the Grand Canyon Writers chapter of Sisters in Crime—the range within that term “short story,” from flash fiction to novella and the differences in approach depending on length: number of characters, complexity of the plot, breadth of the storytelling canvas. One thing I emphasized there—important to me—is the need to let a story be the length it needs to be. That’s sometimes hard to reconcile with a call for submissions that has strict minimum and maximum word counts—I recognize that, and I’ve actually missed submitting stories because I couldn’t wrangle my draft into the right range, whether too short (why bloat it unnecessarily?) or too long (and yet trimmed down to the necessities in my mind). I’ve written everything from flash fiction to 20,000-word novellas, depending on the kind of story I’m trying to tell—and often I only discover that by writing it and seeing where it goes.

 

What are the advantages and disadvantages of submitting to a themed anthology?

Barb Goffman:

Anthologies often have tighter word requirements than magazines do. Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, for instance, will take flash stories and much longer stories. In contrast, anthologies often will limit submissions to 5,000 words or ask for submissions to be between a certain minimum and maximum word count. If you don’t mind writing to a word count, then that’s not a disadvantage, but if you prefer to write what you want to write without worrying about length, then you might find it harder to place your story in an anthology.

Unlike some magazines, anthology calls always have a deadline, sometimes with quick turnaround times. If you aren’t good at writing quickly or don’t like the pressure of deadlines, then that’s a disadvantage. But if you need the pressure of a deadline or are invigorated by one, then it can be an advantage.

Anthologies can be useful because their themes can spark ideas. My story currently up for the Agatha, “Beauty and the Beyotch,” was inspired by an anthology call asking for stories involving the theater. I ended up not submitting the story to the anthology because I liked it enough when I finished it to send it to the major magazines instead. There, it might be seen by more readers and I stood the chance of higher payment, but the theme in that anthology’s call for stories was useful nonetheless.

Cynthia Kuhn

Cynthia Kuhn:

As a reader, I love to see the different “takes” on a particular topic! As a writer, I appreciate a compelling theme, especially when a story concept begins to take shape, however hazily, in response. That wisp of a potential idea to follow is always thrilling.

 

Lisa Q. Mathews:

Themed anthologies provide authors with welcome inspiration. They also offer even greater incentive to create fresh, unique stories. We contributors to Mystery Most Diabolical may have been gifted a little extra leeway, though, since the act of murder itself is, well . . . diabolical. In “Fly Me to the Morgue,” the devil is also in the details: the Purgatory, NH setting; a motley cast of sinners and saints; Pearly Gates jokes from hell; and Shrimp Fra Diavalo on the menu at Joey Romano’s Sinatra-inspired restaurant and entertainment lounge.

Richie Narvaez

Richie Narvaez:

Being given a theme can be the spark needed to finish a story. I have hundreds of ideas for characters and conflicts in my head, but sometimes the story won’t come because it hasn’t answered important questions for me: Why bother writing this? Where is the fun in this for me? When the call for Land of 10,000 Thrills came along, the idea of writing about Minnesota immediately set me to googling the Gopher State. And so this vague idea I’d carried around about a private eye and a cosplay convention caught fire when I added ingredients I found out about the theme. It gave the characters voices, gave me a setting.

A disadvantage is when the call inspires a story right away, but I know it will take 6K words and the call has a strict 4K word count. Rats!

Art Taylor:

A call for submissions to a themed anthology often helps to get the imagination going in fresh directions. For the Chesapeake Crimes anthology series, for example, I’ve written stories about the weather, about holidays, and about jobs gone wrong. It’s great to have that first nudge and see where the momentum takes you. And this is exciting from a reader’s perspective, too—seeing how widely divergent stories can be while sticking too, building from the same theme. While I wouldn’t always want to have to write to a theme, and I sometimes find myself not inspired by a particular theme, I do enjoy the possibilities and the process when a theme hits just right.

Best First Novel

The Finalist, Joan Long (Level Best Books)

Cheddar Off Dead, Korina Moss (St. Martin’s)

Death in the Aegean, M. A. Monnin (Level Best Books)

The Bangalore Detectives Club, Harini Nagendra (Constable)

Devil’s Chew Toy, Rob Osler (Crooked Lane Books)

The Gallery of Beauties, Nina Wachsman (Level Best Books)

How did you determine who your protagonist would be? Will this be part of a series?

Joan Long

Joan Long:

The Finalist is a standalone, locked-room-style mystery. I chose thirty-eight-year-old Risa Marr as my protagonist because, like so many women, she is a single mom with financial concerns. When she becomes a finalist in a competition that will award a million-dollar prize, she hopes her money woes will soon be behind her. But suddenly, she is accused of murder, and money no longer matters. She must outwit a killer or risk never seeing her young child again.

Korina Moss:

I knew I wanted to make my protagonist a woman in her thirties, who had decided to take a chance in a new place and make her dream of opening a cheese shop come true. As I created more of her backstory, it made sense that she would have a dairy background (she grew up on her family’s dairy farm), and thus be a hard worker. As a business owner and eventually an amateur sleuth, she needed to be someone with a lot of determination. With these qualities, of course she’d want to strike out on her own, so I chose France as the place where her passion for cheese began, which led to her French-inspired cheese shop. Willa’s name changed three times as I continued to flesh her out, because I wanted a name that evoked her personality. Learning how she reacted to my other characters who would become her friends, employees, shop neighbors, and possible love interests allowed me to get to know her even more.

 

Cheddar Off Dead is the first book in my Cheese Shop Mystery series. The next two books are also out now—Gone For Gouda and Curds of Prey—and another, Case of the Bleus, is available for preorder. My latest publishing contract includes Books 5 and 6, with possibly more to come.

 

M.A. Monnin

M.A. Monnin:

I knew I wanted Stefanie to be smart, comfortable around people with money, and have a connection but not work directly in archaeology, so I made her a private banker on the verge of making vice president at her bank who once interned at an archaeological dig on Crete. It is a part of a series. Death in the Aegean is the first in the Stefanie Adams, Intrepid Traveler Mysteries, and the second, Death on the Grand Canal, comes out in May.

 

Harini Nagendra:

I wasn’t even planning to write mysteries until the main protagonist in The Bangalore Detectives Club parachuted into my head one day in 2007! I was looking through a fascinating pile of archival material on historical Bangalore–for my day job, as an ecologist studying the history of Indian cities–when intrepid 19-year-old Kaveri Murthy appeared in my mind, demanding that I write a book about her–and her supportive husband and able side-kick, Ramu. The second book in the series, Murder Under a Red Moon, was just published in March 2023, and I am in the middle of writing Book 3. I hope there will be many more!

 

Rob Osler

Rob Osler:

Hayden McCall—five foot four (rounding up) and one hundred thirty pounds (again rounding up) is the hero in Devil’s Chew Toy. He is a mild-mannered, twenty-five year old middle school teacher and gay dating blogger. He is at once like me and nothing at all like me. The next book in the series, Cirque Du Slay, comes out March 9, 2024.

 

Nina Wachsman:

My original protoganist was going to be a famous rabbi, orator, scholar and playwright of the Venetian Ghetto, who was also a compulsive gambler. However, after reading his autobiography, and learning about his children, I picked his daughter, as someone I could relate to, since I too, am a rabbi’s daughter, and know the blessings and limitations of that status. He still is in my book, gambling addiction and all, but his children, including one son who goes to sea and becomes a pirate, will be characters in the next two books in the series, called Venetian Beauties. The pirate son becomes a main character in Book 2, The Courtesan’s Secret.

 

What role does setting play in your novel?

Joan Long:

Setting is tremendously important in my novel. The Finalist is set on a remote tropical island where there is no communication with the outside world and no way to leave. When a finalist is found dead, there is no one to call for help. Can my characters outwit a killer? Will any of them leave the island alive?

Korina Moss

Korina Moss:

The setting was one of the first choices I made about my series. When I discovered the California cheese trail with more than two dozen Sonoma County farms and creameries included, I knew I wanted Willa’s cheese shop, Curds & Whey, to make its home there. My fictional small town of Yarrow Glen has a dairy background, making it the underdog to the surrounding, more upscale vineyard towns in the Sonoma Valley. In this way, the town mirrors Willa’s underdog qualities, as well as those of her fellow shop owners. It also makes for a tightknit community. As the series progresses, we see Willa and her crew—Mrs. Schultz and Archie—all begin to blossom, much like the town itself. Every time a reader picks up the next book in my series, I want them to immediately feel right at home again, like they’re back with old friends in a cozy place they want to hang out in . . .  even if there’s a murder to solve!

M.A. Monnin:

The settings on Santorini and Crete are everything in Death in the Aegean. The story revolves around a gold Minoan snake goddess statue that is recently discovered at Akrotiri, on Santorini, and the tourists who go there to see it. I love to travel, and I think that really comes across in my books.

Harini Nagendra

Harini Nagendra:

1920s Bangalore, the setting for my books, is a time period I love—along with the promise that it briefly brought, of a world full of possibility. As an ecologist, the natural life of the city plays a strong role in my books, which have a lot of details about the lakes, parks, and wooded bungalows of the colonial city. I also love the food of the times, and my books include recipes for traditional south Indian food—so the indoor settings of women, in their kitchens and homes, also form an integral part of my books.

Rob Osler:

The contemporary series takes place in Seattle. The story’s amateur sleuths race from neighborhood to neighborhood, even across Elliott Bay in a speed boat to a mysterious island estate. Not only does the geography of the city play a role, but so does the wet, drippy weather.

Nina Wachsman

Nina Wachsman:

As the setting for mystery, Venice of the 17th century is perfect, since it was then known as the capital of poison. But Venice was also famous for its beautiful women. I combined both those elements for my novel, when an artist’s commission to paint the portraits of the most beautiful women of the city leads to their murder—by poison.

 

BIOS:

 

Barb Goffman has been a finalist for major short-story crime awards 38 times and has won the Agatha, Macavity, Silver Falchion, and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Readers Award. She’s an editor of Black Cat Weekly and a freelance editor, often working on cozy and traditional mysteries. In addition to her current Agatha nomination, she’s a current finalist for the Thriller Award for her short story “The Gift” from the Bouchercon anthology Land of 10,000 Thrills. Look for her story “Real Courage” in Black Cat Mystery Magazine later this year. www.barbgoffman.com.

 

Cynthia Kuhn writes the Lila Maclean Academic Mysteries and Starlit Bookshop Mysteries. Her work has also appeared in Mystery Most Diabolical, Mystery Most Edible, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Copper Nickel, Prick of the Spindle, Mama PhD, and other publications. She lives in Colorado with her family, where she is professor of English at Metropolitan State University of Denver. cynthiakuhn.net.

 

Joan Long:

Joan Long is a third-generation Floridian who writes mysteries and suspense. Her debut novel, The Finalist, is an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Mystery. Joan earned a bachelor’s degree in English/Creative Writing from Florida State University and a master’s degree in Journalism and Communications from the University of Florida. Her short story “The Extra Ingredient” is in the Anthony Award-winning anthology Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible. https://joanlongbooks.com

 

Lisa Q. Mathews

Lisa Q. Mathews used to make Nancy Drew’s life miserable. Then she set her beady sights on Lizzie McGuire and Mary-Kate and Ashley—all part of early jobs as a kids’ book editor and writer-for-hire. Now Lisa is the author of an odd-couple sleuth series for adults, The Ladies Smythe & Westin, and runs an independent editing service. A co-founding member of the Chicks on the Case blog, Lisa lives in New England. https://www.lisaqmathews.com/

 

M. A. Monnin’s debut mystery Death in the Aegean has been nominated for an Agatha Best First Novel Award. Her second in the Intrepid Traveler series, Death on the Grand Canal, launches May 18^th. Mary also writes short crime fiction, with her latest short story in the SinC Guppy anthology Hook, Line & Sinker. Find her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. www.mamonnin.com.

 

Korina Moss is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series (St. Martin’s Press) set in the Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award nominated first book, Cheddar Off Dead. Her books have been featured in PARADE Magazine, Women’s World, AARP, and Fresh Fiction. Her latest book, Curds of Prey, released on 3/28. https://korinamossauthor.com.

 

Harini Nagendra is a professor of ecology at Azim Premji University and a well-known public speaker and writer on issues of nature and sustainability. The Bangalore Detectives Club is her first crime fiction novel. The sequel, Murder Under a Red Moon, will be published in 2023. https://harininagendra.com/

Richie Narvaez is the award-winning author of Roachkiller and Other Stories, Hipster Death Rattle, Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco, and Noiryorican. https://www.richienarvaez.com/

Rob Osler’s debut novel Devil’s Chew Toy was a Lefty Nominee for Best Debut Mystery and Agatha Award Nominee for Best First Novel and named a 2022 Year’s Best by Crime Reads, BOLO Books, PopSugar, and Book Riot. His first publication, “Analogue,” (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine), won the 2022 Mystery Writers of America Robert L Fish Award for best short story by a debut author. Forthcoming projects include “Miss Direction” (EQMM), Cirque du Slay (sequel to Devil’s Chew Toy), and a new historical series featuring an LGBTQ+ detective. Rob’s a member of MWA and Sisters in Crime. On good days, he writes, plays tennis, and eats pie in California, where he lives with his partner and Andy Action Cat. https://robosler.com

Art Taylor is the author of two collections—The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions and The Boy Detective & The Summer of ‘74 and Other Tales of Suspense—and On the Road with Del & Louise: A Novel in Stories, winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. His short fiction has won three additional Agatha Awards as well as the Edgar, Anthony, Derringer, and Macavity Awards. He is an associate professor of English at George Mason University. www.arttaylorwriter.com.

 

Nina Wachsman majored in book illustration at the Parsons School of Design and studied under Maurice Sendak. She is currently the CEO of a digital marketing agency in New York City. She attends the Venice Art Biennale every two years and is a descendant of a chief rabbi of the Ghetto, a contemporary of her characters. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the Historical Novel Society, and has published stories in mystery and horror magazines and anthologies. The Gallery of Beauties is her debut novel, and its sequel, part of the Venice Beauties series. The Courtesan’s Secret will be released in Summer, 2023 by Level Best Books. https://ninawachsman.com