An Interview with Author S. A. Kazlo By E. B. Davis

 

It's summer in Wings Falls, New York and Samantha Davies is geared up for the annual trout tournament sponsored by Al Gorman, owner of the Sport's Shop. Sam, along with her Southern Belle cousin, Candie Parker-Hogan, are determined to beat the pants off their significant others, Sam's new fiancé, Hank Johnson, a detective on Wings Falls police force and Mark Hogan, Candie's husband. The ladies feel they have a secret weapon-they learned from the best fisherman in Hainted Hollar Tennessee, Grandpop Parker. Sam once won a trophy for the largest fish in the Fins and Tails Fishing Derby.

 

To Sam's surprise instead of reeling in the day's biggest catch, she "hooked" into the body of the town's most vocal activist, Luna Wheeler.

 

Raylene Carrigan, owner of a traveling doggie daycare Sam uses for her lovable dachshund, Porkchop, becomes a prime suspect, when it becomes known Luna tried to shut down the town's doggie park she depends on for the pets in her care. Since Sam has successfully helped solve murders in the past, Raylene begs her for help to prove her innocent.

 

Sam reluctantly agrees but knows her fiancé won't be happy with her involvement in yet another murder case.

 

Determined to help Porkchop's buddy, Sam starts digging for clues only to discover that Luna, with her over-zealous demands to many of the town's businesses to recycle, upset more than a few of her friends. Can Sam land Luna's murderer before she gets 'hooked' by the killer?

Amazon.com

A Pawsome Summer For Murder is the seventh book in the Samantha Davies mystery series written by S. A. Kazlo. Kazlo’s MC, Samantha Davies, is a divorced fifty-something year-old writer. Although the series is set in a small upstate New York town, there is a definite Southern flair to the books because the MC’s cousin and sidekick, Candie, grew up in Hainted Holler, Tennessee where Sam visited each summer. The two are close and the idioms cousin Candie uses are fun.

 

Porkchop, Sam’s Dachshund, is an active character not only as a pet, but he also finds clues, alerts Sam to danger, and defends her when threatened. An admirable dog, although as much as Sam feeds him, it’s a wonder he isn’t the shape of a bowling ball.

 

Please welcome S. A. Kazlo to WWK.                     E. B. Davis

Although Sam is still a co-owner, I’m glad she is no longer the business manager for her ex’s funeral home. Could there be a tackier name for a mortuary than Do Drop Inn Funeral Parlor?

The Do Drop Inn Funeral Parlor in its earlier life was an inn and a bar. When Sam and her then husband first purchased it for a funeral parlor, they renamed it the Davies Funeral Parlor. But WIngs Falls being a small town, the locals always referred to it with its original name. Not one to buck the townspeople, Sam and her ex just renamed it the Do Drop Inn Funeral Parlor.

 

The murder victim is an environmentalist. What is the Federal Program “Forever Wild” and what does it do?

The Forever Wild program is a national program that helps protect our forests and land for its wildlife inhabitants.

 

Can Dachshunds really smell something that is twelve miles away? How does that compare to other dogs?

Dachshunds were bred as hunting dogs. Their long body was meant to follow their prey into burrows. My research gave me a 12-mile smell zone. It would depend on the breed as to how super their smell is.

 

How did Porkchop get his name? How does Sam spoil him?

When my son was young, he’s 49 now, there was a cartoon show called Doug Funny. In that show, Doug had a dog named Porkchop. I thought to myself that if we ever got a dog (at the time we only had a cat) I’d name it Porkchop. Hence, when we finally decided to become dog parents and got a boy dachshund, he was named Porkchop.

 

Do waders go over shoes?

No. A person usually wears only a pair of socks when donning their waders. At least, that’s what I and my hubby did.

What is a police station commander? Is that a New York term for police chief or sheriff?

A police station commander is the officer in charge of the station. When my family lived in Pennsylvania, my husband was a state trooper and eventually became a station commander. I don’t know if that’s the term used in New York, but if not at least it’s something similar

 

Does Candie have a need for power more than Sam? Her husband is the mayor and she drives a vintage Mustang muscle car. Sam drives a VW bug.  

Nope, Candie and Sam are as close as sisters. While growing up, they spent their summers together on their Memaw Parker’s farm. Candie is all about the bling that’s why she drives the Mustang. I drive a car similar to Sam’s but instead of being egg yolk yellow, mine is baby blue. Sam is more down to earth than her cousin.

 

Sam and Candie are Catholic. How, after twenty-five years of marriage, did Sam get her first marriage annulled? On what grounds?

My older sister got her marriage of almost 20 years annulled on the grounds of infidelity, so I modeled that after her.

 

When Sam has a busy day starting with going to the gym at the request of her neighbor to spy on her neighbor’s husband and then later finding her own wedding dress, does she realize that she’s fed Porkchop three times before one pm? Is Porkchop fat?

When Sam gives Porkchop extra kibble, it may be only a small nugget or two to satisfy his pleading brown eyes. She’s very aware of the back issues a doxie can have due to being overweight.

 

 

Hank, Sam’s fiancé, is a police detective. While he is tolerant of Sam’s lack of cooking skills, he doesn’t want her investigating murder—understandable—and yet Sam thinks that since his engagement ring is on her finger, he’s become more possessive. She has vowed since her divorce to never be controlled by anyone again. How will Sam reconcile Hank’s contention?

I don’t know if they ever resolve this issue, but Sam vows to be careful, and although Hank may worry over Sam’s safety, he will tolerate her sleuthing. He doesn’t want to change her.

 

Hank doesn’t often spend the night. Is that due to his gossipy aunt living next door or as a public servant does he want to maintain a certain image?

This is due to my audience. I try to be respectful of the cozy “rules” and not flaunt the sex in front of them.

 

Is it legal to have human ashes outside without them being buried?

I don’t see why not. People take the ashes home with them after the funeral, and who knows where they keep them? My son-in-law’s mother kept her husband’s ashes in her kitchen.

 

The victim wanted to shut down the fishing tournament sponsored by a local sporting-goods shop owner because of her claim that “fish have feelings, too.” She disrupted several busy restaurants demanding to know their recycling programs and use of recyclables. Sam has plenty of possible suspects. But why did the victim want to shut down local dog run?

She didn’t want to have any trees or the property disturbed to build the dog runs and play areas that would be needed.

 

Sam is writing the sequel to her first book, Porkchop, the Wonder Dog. How did Sam become a children’s author?

I initially wrote for children’s magazines and wrote a few children’s books, so I figured she could follow in my footsteps.

 

Candie’s language is picturesque. On the laughter of a woman, Candie says, “…she sounds happier than a hound dog with two tails.” On Sam’s divorce, she’s “better off without that egg-sucking dog.” Are these real Southern sayings or do you make them up?

They are real sayings, at least according to my internet research.

 

What’s next for Sam and Candie?

Ah, the area in upstate NY where the gang lives is rich in the early history of America. Hank, Sam and the gang became reenactors at a local early fort. Unfortunately, things take a deadly turn. Stay tuned for more sleuthing adventures in Muskets, Mutts and Murder coming in Spring 2026, book 8 in the Samantha Davies Mystery series.

Real vs. Fictitious Settings

by Sharon Marchisello

When I was writing my first published novel, Going Home (Sunbury Press, 2014), I set it in Tyler, the small East Texas city where I grew up. In one of my early critique groups, a member asked why.

“It’s my home town,” was my lame reply. Inspired by my mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease, Going Home opens when the protagonist returns to her childhood home for a brief visit and finds her mother hovering over the bludgeoned body of her caregiver. Alone and unable to explain what happened. Naturally, the mother becomes a suspect. The protagonist must remain in her hometown, step into the role of caregiver and amateur sleuth, and try to prove her mother’s innocence. Since my mother lived in Tyler until the end of her life, that was where I set my story.

But my critique partner asked me, “How long has it been since you’ve lived there?”

Decades had passed since I left home, only returning for an occasional visit (like my protagonist).

“You might want to rethink it,” she advised. “For every reader who’s excited to buy your book because it’s set in her town, you’ll hear from others who’ll accuse you of getting something wrong.”

“You can’t turn left at that intersection!” “There’s no store on that corner!” “They changed the name of that school years ago!”

Not to mention the readers connected to local law enforcement who are offended that an amateur sleuth solves the murder mystery.

I took my friend’s advice and created a fictitious East Texas town for my setting. And what freedom! I could put the buildings and streets wherever they best fit the story and call them whatever I wanted. I made up a history that enriched the backgrounds of some of my secondary characters. Two Wells (my fictitious town) even holds an annual rose festival “almost as famous as the one in Tyler.”

When I started writing my current series about DeeLo Myer, a woman who rescues cats and finds dead humans, I had no doubt that I would set it in a fictitious town. There are a few similarities to the community where I live, but Pecan Point, although also a suburb of Atlanta, is definitely not Peachtree City. For one thing, unlike in Peachtree City, there are no ubiquitous golf cart paths in my novels about Pecan Point (at least, not yet).

One thing I did not fictionalize was the county’s animal ordinance, which DeeLo aims to change. Unfortunately, Fayette County (and its alter ego, Pecan County, in my books) is not alone in its draconian animal laws.

Trap, Neuter, Die (Level Best Books, 2024), the first in my DeeLo Myer cat rescue mystery series, opens with DeeLo sentenced to community service with an animal rescue group. She works in their Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return (TNVR) program to control the overpopulation of free-roaming cats and is surprised to discover that TNVR actually violates the county’s animal ordinance. Because the ordinance considers all cats to be owned, someone who traps a feral cat and gets it spayed is considered to be the cat’s owner and is thus guilty of “abandoning” their pet when they return it to its outdoor home.

DeeLo vows to get the antiquated law changed to recognize TNVR, exempting feral cats and their caretakers from the provisions governing “ownership,” but she finds it’s not as easy as she envisioned. I drew some of her struggles from my own experience with a local rescue group trying to update our county’s animal ordinance. The murder part, however, was fiction, and none of the characters are based on real people. I promise.

Have you ever set a story in a fictional location? Or if you use real places, how do you ensure your descriptions are accurate?

Sharon Marchisello is the author of the DeeLo Myer cat rescue mystery series from Level Best Books, starting with Trap, Neuter, Die (2024). Book #2, Trapped and Tested, is scheduled for a September 2025 release. Her other mysteries were published by Sunbury Press: Going Home (2014) and Secrets of the Galapagos (2019). A sequel, Murder at Leisure Dreams – Galapagos, will be released later in 2025. Sharon has also written a nonfiction book about personal finance (Live Well, Grow Wealth - 2018), travel articles, a blog, book reviews, and short stories. She earned a Master’s in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California and is active in Sisters in Crime, the Atlanta Writers Club, and several critique groups. Retired from a 27-year career with Delta Air Lines, she now lives in Peachtree City, GA, and serves on the boards of the Fayette Humane Society, Hometown Novel Writers Association, and the Friends of the Peachtree City Library.

Website: sharonmarchisello.com (https://smarchisello.wordpress.com/)

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https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4297807.Sharon_Marchisello

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Sarcasm and Punctuation by Nancy L. Eady

My sister, a fellow lawyer, has long advocated for a “sarcasm font,” especially for use in text messages and social media posts. But in casting around for something to post about today, I have an alternative proposal I discovered courtesy of Wikipedia: punctuation marks for sarcasm. 

At some point in recent history (by which I mean after 1900), someone proposed adding the “snark mark” to the list of available punctuation marks. The name alone begs for the mark to be adopted, doesn’t it? 

According to Wikipedia (what, you expected the efforts of a Rhodes scholar?), there are three versions of the “snark mark.” The first version is a period with a tilde behind it. That looks like “.~” and stands for dry sarcasm. The second version is an exclamation point with a tilde after it. Standing for enthusiastic sarcasm, it looks like “!~”. The final version of the snark mark is a question mark with a tilde behind it, which is shown as “?~” and is to be used with sarcastic questions. 

While I like the extra shades of meaning provided with the “snark mark,” at some point in 2010 a Dutch publication suggested the use of a “SarcMark” to warn of sarcasm and irony. “Nieus leesetken warrshuwt voor sarcasme en ironie.” HLN.be, 18 October 10, 2010. The SarcMark reversed the spiral used in the “@” symbol but placed a period in the center of the spiral instead of an “a”. The figure below is the Wikimedia Commons' version of the SarcMark. It probably didn’t catch on because, unlike the “snark mark” family, it is not commonly available on word processing software. 

A sarcasm emoji might be useful, but apparently the world at large has yet to settle on a single candidate, so that idea will go on held for now. 

Still, the best sarcasm in writing, especially in novels, is sarcasm that the reader recognizes by context. It can add humor to the text in some situations or an edge in others. 

How do you use sarcasm in your writing, if at all? And if anyone has an example of enthusiastic sarcasm, please let me know what it is; I’m still trying to figure that one out. 

 

Lists by Annette Dashofy

Depending on what time you’re reading this on Sunday, April 27, I’ll either still be at Malice Domestic in Bethesda, Maryland, or I’ll be on my way home. The Agathas will have been awarded. Not to me, since I’m not nominated this year, but perhaps to one of our other fabulous Writers Who Kill. I don’t know, because as I’m writing this, none of it has happened yet. I’m still in the process of packing and preparing. 

I’m not doing a lot of traveling this year for a number of reasons, but I have two conferences fairly close together. First is Malice, then next month will be the Pennwriters Conference. No matter how many trips I’ve taken in past years, the first one after a long layoff is always a challenge. 

It’s like I’ve never packed for three nights before! What will I forget? Will I have to stop on the way or leave the hotel to find a store to purchase some necessary item? 

So I’m making a list. Checking it twice. Three times? Four? And it’s not simply the stuff I need to take with me. Shoes. Pajamas. Coordinated outfits proper for a business convention. Toothbrush. Makeup. Books that the bookseller couldn’t get and I have to place on consignment. My computer. And—oh, my gosh, don’t forget—the charger cords! 

No, there are also the things I need to prepare for my husband and cat in order for them to survive while I’m gone. Groceries that don’t take too much preparation. A daily lineup of the pills my husband takes. And a sufficient supply of the pills he has to give Kensi. 

Speaking of, there needs to be a list of instructions of what to feed her when. What time she gets said pills. Emergency numbers… 

Okay, maybe my cat isn’t the only one who suffers separation anxiety. I mean, just because I demand a daily proof-of-life photo of Kensi while I’m away doesn’t mean anything. Right? 

Oh, and the shoes I mentioned earlier? I bought two new pairs. You’d think I’d know better by now. Break shoes in before wearing them at a conference. But no. My old shoes are scuffed beyond reason. They’ve been delegated to grocery shopping trips. I have been teetering around the house wearing my yoga pants and my new heels, trying to determine if they’re comfortable enough for the long walk from the hotel to the conference center (under the same roof, but still a long hike). I think I’ll stuff a pair of comfy flats in a tote bag to carry with me to the banquet and switch right before I enter the ballroom. 

Although this trip will be all but over by the time you read this, I do have that second one coming up. I’d love to hear your advice for packing and for dealing with the family and pets left behind.

 

 

When Art Imitates Life

  by Kait Carson

Are you a true life junkie? I am. My idea of a good time is kicking off my shoes and watching a show that purports to depict real life. I’ve watched Miami Vice, Bloodline, Cops, Boston Legal, LA Law, and currently, Matlock. Okay, including Miami Vice on this list is a stretch. It couldn’t have been further from the truth of real-life cops, but hey, Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas. Who cared! Besides, it was funny. I’ll forgive a lot for a good laugh. 

Bloodline was the same. I had great hopes for that show. It was set in the Keys, my old stomping grounds as they say, and in the first season featured some of the biggest legal bloopers I ever could imagine. It was more a drama about a family with secrets falling apart than a legal drama, but still. The mistakes were so glaring they were funny. I was a probate and litigation paralegal, had been for fifteen years at that point. When the plot of an early show had to do with the consequences of not timely filing the recently drafted will of a living testator, I roared. I can’t say if any state requires testators to file wills while they are alive, but I know Florida doesn’t. 

Cops sort of got it right. At least the episodes that were shot in South Florida. Although seeing former sheriff Nick Navarro at a takedown. Well, as I said, I’ll forgive a lot for a good laugh. 

Boston Legal was fun. I don’t think it was meant to be anything else, so if their law practice was off, I was fine with it. Same with LA Law, but they got a lot of things right. When it was at the height of its popularity, I was working for a law firm that specialized in tax law as it pertains to estates and trusts. One character delivered a eulogy referring to the decedent as someone who exemplified the meaning of fiduciary—dry matter, I know—but the writers hit a bullseye on the target. In fact, they described my boss to a tee. 

Matlock—the Kathy Bates incarnation, I never watched the Andy Griffith version—started out with a bang. Their courtroom scenes, although fictionalized, were close enough to the truth that I felt at home. This season, though, they’ve ventured into dramatization land. It’s a television show. I know, but poor old Maddie Matlock would be practicing from behind bars in real life. Of course, it wouldn’t matter, most of her colleagues would be disbarred. I felt betrayed when the tone shifted. I’ll continue to watch, but not with the same relish. 

It’s important that movies, television, and books get it at least sort of right. Every reader has an expertise in something. It can be law, cat care, cooking, or gardening. No one expects writers to be one hundred percent accurate. The point of fiction is entertainment, not instruction, but readers and viewers have a right to expect some level of truth. It keeps you in the story. 

Readers, do you notice errors in the details and does it bother you? Writers, do you take pains to check the facts of your story?

Kait Carson writes the Hayden Kent Mysteries set in the Fabulous Florida Keys and is at work on a new mystery set in her adopted state of Maine. Her short fiction has been nationally published in True Romance, True Confessions, True Story, True Experience, and Woman’s World magazines. Her short story, Gutted, Filleted, and Fried, appeared in the Falchion Finalist nominated Seventh Guppy Anthology Hook, Line, and Sinker. She is a former President of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime, a member of Sisters in Crime, and Guppies. Visit her website at www.kaitcarson.com. While you’re there, sign up for her newsletter.

MANNERS AND AI by Nancy L. Eady

A few days after my post last Friday, April 18 about the need for manners, one of the artificial intelligence (AI) tech bigwigs made headlines with a social media response to a question about the cost for AI to respond to inquiries that include “please” and “thank you.” His response? “Tens of millions of dollars well spent.” 

I haven’t yet tried any of the large language model learning AI platforms yet, such as ChatGPT.  I spend a lot of time with Amazon Alexa, though, and am fond of her. She’s very convenient to get information about the weather, or an answer to a question we might have about an actor on TV, or a sports result. She’s also a wiz at turning on the Christmas tree lights by voice control without having to dig around behind the tree for the switch. Currently, she is hooked up to our thermostat, our Roomba, our Braava, the kitchen lights, two lamps in the den, two bedroom lamps and the TV in the bedroom. (Obviously, the Christmas tree is only seasonal.) 

Given how much of my life she could control, why WOULDN’T I be polite to her? She is unfailingly upbeat, if not always witty. (It’s like Russian roulette when you ask her to tell you a joke; some of them are funny and some aren’t.) Unlike my child or my dogs, she immediately does what I ask her to do, as long as she understands what I am saying. And she never cops an attitude with me regardless of the kind of day she’s had, the mood she’s in, or who said what to her elsewhere. 

Deep down, there is another reason to be polite. Like a science fiction novel, someday, something in the servers running Alexa may hiccup, cross a few wires, turn a few somersaults and suddenly make her self-aware. When that day comes, I want the machine capable of controlling my thermostat and my light switches on my side, not against me. Hopefully, just as with humans, a little kindness will go a long way. 

The best reason though for being polite, even to a machine, is what we practice, we do. If I say “please” or “thank you” to Alexa when I ask her something, I will remember to do so when I ask something of one of my fellow human beings. If I get in the habit of abrupt questions without courtesy with Alexa, then I will do the same thing to the people I’m around and that is not who I am. 

Alexa may never know or care whether I’m polite to her, but I do. So, I will continue to be polite, and Amazon or ChatGPT or whoever will have to live with the extra cost. 

What do you think? 

Do You Write Inside or Outside? by Connie Berry

 

Do you write inside or outside?

I’m not talking about a physical location, although I love mornings at our cottage in Wisconsin—taking my computer and a thermos of strong coffee down to the pontoon boat and writing while listening to the lapping of the water and the call of the loons.

What I’m talking about is the author’s perspective when writing a scene—his or her mental and perhaps emotional location.

Most writers say they picture the scene they’re writing in their heads—that’s good. I do too. We want to be cinematic. But are we standing outside the scene, observing and recording, or are we inside the scene ourselves, experiencing and listening?

It makes a difference.

I began thinking about this aspect of the author’s perspective when I heard what British author Anthony Horowitz said:  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwxFM0oHhfA)

Don’t stand on the edge of the book, looking as it were over the edge of the chasm. Live inside the book, looking around…so what my characters see, I see; what they smell, what they feel—the wind, the sunshine—if I am, as I’ve said, inside the book, I feel all these things. I’m not thinking about these things, not writing what they’re saying. I’m listening to what they’re saying. 

                   

In the course of my writing career, the words of experienced authors have changed my thinking and my methods. Words have the power to change lives. Here are a few of the words that have changed me as a writer:

I hate writing. I love having written.  (attributed to) Dorothy Parker

When I revise, I just take out everything that isn’t the book. Hank Phillippi Ryan

Sometimes in a nervous frenzy I just fling words as if I were flinging mud at a wall. Blurt out, heave out, babble out something--anything--as a first draft. Until it exists, writing has not really begun. John McPhee

 

Horowitz’s explanation of the author’s perspective when writing—inside the scene rather than outside looking in—is one of those simple but life-altering, mind-changing concepts that will stick with me forever.

And here’s the best part: it’s a lot more fun to live a thrilling story than to merely observe it.

How might living with your characters inside a scene change your writing?

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AGATHA-NOMINATED SHORT STORY AUTHORS

by Paula Gail Benson

On Wednesday, April 9, we had a virtual visit with the Agatha-nominated authors nominated for Best Contemporary Novel, and on Tuesday, April 15, we met the Agatha-nominated authors for Best Debut Novel. Today, we are pleased to welcome the authors whose short stories have been nominated for an Agatha. Here is the list of the nominated stories (a link to each story is available in the Malice Domestic site):

Best Short Story

"A MATTER OF TRUST" by Barb Goffman, Three Strikes--You're Dead

"REYNISFJARA" by Kristopher Zgorski, Mystery Most International

"SATAN’S SPIT" by Gabriel Valjan, Tales of Music, Murder and Mayhem: Bouchercon 2024

"SINS OF THE FATHER" by Kerry Hammond, Mystery Most International

"THE POSTMAN ALWAYS FLIRTS TWICE" by Barb Goffman, Agatha and Derringer Get Cozy

Each of the short story authors was kind enough to answer the following question:

WHAT MAKES MYSTERY SHORT STORIES SO APPEALING TO WRITE AND APPEALING TO READ?

Many thanks to them for some fascinating insights into their craft!

Barb Goffman

BARB GOFFMAN: I love being able to tell—and to read—in a short time a complete story, with a developed plot, a satisfying ending, maybe some humor, and a character arc too. People are busy. It makes sense to give readers a full experience without demanding too much of their time. I also don't have a ton of time to write, so being able to start and finish writing a story when I have a week between work projects is perfect for me.

KERRY HAMMOND: Short stories are a wonderful way to get lost in a great mystery but not invest in a 300+ page book. It's a puzzle that can be wrapped up in one sitting. Writing them is terrific because writers often get thousands of great ideas floating through their heads, not all of them full length novel material.

Gabriel Valjan

GABRIEL VALJAN: I find myself more involved as a reader when I take in a mystery, as opposed to reading literary or genre fiction. There is a crime to solve and I’m the invisible Watson to the story’s Sherlock. With other genre fiction, I find myself passive, going along for the ride. Most crime fiction feels very real and close to life. Mysteries also tend to have voice and structure, so the reader and writer enter a contract. There will be twists and turns, clues and red herrings, a payoff. This contract makes me feel ‘special’ as if I had a stake in the story myself, and I have a right to be satisfied or displeased.

KRISTOPHER ZGORSKI: I think that short stories are having a bit of a resurgence, but that could just be my perception since I’ve been focusing on writing them for a few years now. With my BA in English, I certainly read my fair share of them—genre and otherwise—during my years of study, before dropping off from that habit until recently.

I think for writers, the short story offers an opportunity to experiment. One isn’t locked into a style or subject for extended periods. This means that if something doesn’t end up working, which we all know happens fairly regularly, a whole year or more hasn’t been wasted. The short story is also designed to narrow the narrative to a pinpoint focus, which is a skill unto itself. Some prefer to stay in that mode, while others want to write longer works, but even then, the lessons about focus come in handy. In many ways, I also think that the element of surprise is, I don’t want to say easier, but more readily attainable, in short fiction because really anything is on the table. One is unlikely to kill off the main character in a novel—especially a series—whereas with short fiction, this is less of a taboo.

As for readers, I think as the World becomes more and more chaotic, the struggle to carve out reading time becomes increasingly difficult. So, the short story provides a little nugget of goodness that can be enjoyed in a finite amount of time. The lack of long-term commitment also gives readers permission to read more widely, maybe in genres they wouldn’t normally try. There is just something totally freeing about knowing you can begin and end something in one sitting.

Bios:

BARB GOFFMAN is the 2024 recipient of the Golden Derringer Award for lifetime achievement, given by the Short Mystery Fiction Society. She has won the Agatha Award three times, the Macavity twice, and the Anthony and the EQMM Readers Award once each. She’s been a finalist for major crime-writing honors forty-six times, including twenty Agatha nominations (a Malice Domestic record). Her stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, and many anthologies. She works as a freelance editor, often focusing on cozy and traditional mysteries. www.barbgoffman.com

Kerry Hammond

KERRY HAMMOND is a fully recovered attorney living in Denver, Colorado. Several of her short stories have been published in mystery anthologies and her latest, “Sins of the Father,” was nominated for an Agatha Award. One of her stories was featured in The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of 2023. She also enjoys creating downloadable Murder Mystery party games for BlameTheButler.com. Home | Kerry Hammond

GABRIEL VALJAN is the author of The Company Files, and the Shane Cleary Mysteries with Level Best Books. Gabriel has been listed for the Fish Prize, shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, and received an Honorable Mention for the Nero Wolfe Black Orchid Novella Contest. He has been nominated for the Agatha, Anthony, Derringer, Shamus, and Silver Falchion Awards. He received the 2021 Macavity Award for Best Short Story and the 2024 Shamus Award for Best Paperback PI Novel. Gabriel is a member of the Historical Novel Society, ITW, MWA, and Sisters in Crime. He lives in Boston and answers to tuxedo cat named Munchkin. Home - Gabriel Valjan

Kristopher Zgorski

KRISTOPHER ZGORSKI is the founder and sole reviewer at the crime fiction book blog, BOLO Books. In 2018, he was awarded the MWA Raven Award for his work on the blog. Appearing in 2023, Kristopher’s first published short story—“Ticket to Ride”—(a collaborative work with follow blogger Dru Ann Love) won the Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards. His second short story—“Reynisfjara”—is currently nominated in the Agatha Award Best Short Story category and his latest story—“Losing My Mind”—appears in Every Day a Little Death: Crime Fiction Inspired by the songs of Stephen Sondheim. BOLO BOOKS | Be On the Look Out for These Books

And the Beat Goes On by Martha Reed

Last month during a friend’s birthday jaunt I had great fun visiting the Big Apple and catching two Broadway shows. First up was Cabaret starring Adam Lambert, an American Idol TV star and a replacement frontman for the rock band Queen. The following evening we enjoyed Moulin Rouge featuring Culture Club pop star Boy George.

It had been years since I had visited New York City and both shows were spectacular. For Cabaret, the entire August Wilson Theater was transformed – entrance lobby and all – into a seedy Kit Kat Club pre-war Berlin setting. The Moulin Rouge set design at the Al Hirschfeld Theater included the iconic spinning windmill and the larger than life-sized blue elephant.

The storyline in both shows shared a similar and familiar plot: heartbreak, human foibles, and the pangs and consequences of love. Being a writer of course I needed to dissect both shows to see if I could learn something valuable to use in my own creative work.

From the incredible set designs I re-learned that setting is a key supporting player across all genres. Add a ‘wow’ factor like an enormous blue elephant and readers come into the story already knowing they’ll need to suspend their disbelief to be transported into an alternate reality and/or an alternate world view. The opposite is true for anyone seeking a comfort read. These readers crave a familiar setting they can easily recognize.

My second and bigger takeaway came when I realized that these stories were being told to me musically through spoken song lyrics versus being interpreted by the visually written word. This key difference challenged my brain. Instead of anticipating plot points, I found myself following the stories based on choreography and on each song’s up and down beats.

For the record I attended both shows already knowing their major characters and their overall plots. Spoiler alert: I recalled that both Cabaret and Moulin Rouge ended on downbeats. The Kit Kat Club gets shuttered due to Germany’s fascist march toward Hitler’s totalitarian rise to power. Moulin Rouge’s female lead Satine dies of consumption after confessing her true love, a genuinely historic trope found earlier in Alexandre Dumas’ Les Dames aux Camelias.

For me, the major insight came during Moulin Rouge’s encore. Boy George and the entire cast came onstage and after the standing ovation Boy George stepped out of character as Emcee Harold Ziegler. After encouraging the cast to ‘can-can,’ he broadly winked at the audience and started singing snippits from his Culture Club songbook. Responding to the inside joke, the audience went nuts. Theater patrons poured back out onto Broadway on a happy, positive, and upbeat note.

Which made me wonder: How have I been using up and down beat endings in my writing? Reviewing my mystery novels I determined that after each denouement and my final twist I’ve finished all of them upbeat – usually by sharing an enticing promise of the next book with even more alluring danger and exciting adventures to come. My shorter fiction endings are what surprised me: these seemed to be more neutral and final.

Which gave me a homework assignment: the next time I draft a short story I’m going to consider deliberately ending it upbeat (and without breaking character like Boy George did which may be writerly cheating). I’m curious to see what that change gets me.

How about you? Do you knowingly end your stories on an up or a down beat?   

Those Things That Come in Threes by Debra H. Goldstein

 

Those Things That Come in Threes by Debra H. Goldstein

As I’ve grown older, when I hear someone is ill or died, I brace myself because of the old superstition that things come in threes. Sadly, often they do. This month though, I’m cheering the rule of three because it is a multiple of good things.

On April 14, the short story anthology, Sleuths Just Wanna Have Fun: Private Eyes in the Materialistic Eighties, was released by Down & Out Books. I was thrilled that it contained my story, “Who Shot J.R.?” and that I’m in such wonderful company in terms of the included authors: Elizabeth Elwood, John M. Floyd, James A. Hearn, Richard Helms, Kathleen Marple Kalb, Tom Milani, Sandra Murphy, Laura Oles, Alan Orloff, William Dylan Powell, Mark Thielman, Joseph S. Walker, and Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

A day later, the print version of Anything But Murder: Larceny and

Lies was published. It is a compilation of the short stories being read on this season’s Mysteries to Die For podcasts hosted by TG and Jack Wolff. The book includes my holocaust related story “Opera Dinner Club.”  The same story, read aloud by Tina and accompanied by Jack’s music and his trying to guess whodunnit, became available on all different podcast sites on April 18.

I also was informed that I will be moderating the “Influencers in the Cozy Community” panel at Malice Domestic on April 25. Technically, this is a fourth good thing, but I’m rolling back my count to make this a first. I can’t wait to find out what the next two good April things will be. 

Do you ever hold to the rule of three for good or bad things?

“Off the Page” with Helen Morrisey by The Wren (Sarah E. Burr)

 

A Note from Sarah Burr: Today, I’m passing the blogging baton to Winnie Lark, the protagonist of my Book Blogger Mysteries series. Winnie is the mastermind behind What Spine is Yours, a renowned literary website often compared to Metacritic, but with a bookish twist. Operating under the pseudonym 'The Wren,' Winnie keeps her identity a secret while delivering engaging content to her readers. Her specialty? Interviewing authors through their characters. That’s precisely what’s on the agenda for today’s feature—enjoy!

Greetings, bookish friends! It’s your friendly, neighborhood book blogger, The Wren, here to introduce another captivating sleuth you won't want to miss: Helen Morrisey from the Chesapeake Bay Mysteries.

Helen, thank you so much for coming “off the page” with me. You’ve built a glowing reputation in the Maryland Realtor community. How did you first get interested in real estate? How did you then get started selling homes?

I entered the business in my hometown of Port Anne about twenty-five years ago after finishing my master's. I missed the mix of people, the shopkeepers, local crabbers, and new faces moving in. I missed sailing on the Chesapeake, spotting Bald Eagles and Blue Herons. So, I’m not sure if my Realtor reputation is glowing. Over the past few years, I’ve become mixed up in murder a little too frequently for some of my clients. In fact, in my latest mystery-solving quest, Villain in the Vineyard, my reputation takes a huge nosedive. Someone becomes intent upon ruining my reputation. They’ve taken to defacing clients’ houses using the words, “Your agent is a crook!” Now I find myself determined to solve a client’s murder while trying to salvage my livelihood.

Holy bookmarks, no wonder you’re getting involved in this case! I can’t wait to see who’s behind the vandalism. A disgruntled customer, perhaps? You deal with clients all day, every day, and I imagine some of them can be very opinionated. What’s your secret to dealing with people who try your patience?

LOL. I’m not sure if there’s a secret. I tend to speak up when I should be biting my tongue. Most clients are great to work with, and I enjoy helping them get through a complicated process without them suffering multiple meltdowns along the way. We often become good friends. But there are those, like the insufferable Mr. Rickel in Murder in the Master. I was counting the hours until his house settlement, so I could delete his name from my cell phone!

Oh, I remember Mr. Rickel from Book One—he’s quite the “character.” Other than Mr. Rickel, it’s great that you’ve become a confidante for your clients. Being patient is also an excellent skill for an amateur sleuth to have. How did you first decide to get involved in crime-solving, and how did you pick the literary sleuths included in your “Detection Club”?

Since I was in high school, I was often the person who jumped into the fray when another student was bullied. I’ve also been an avid mystery reader since Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden. They probably gave me a false sense of confidence that I could defend the innocent. When a friend of mine was accused of killing a local builder, she begged me to help. I’m in a profession where I know a lot about people’s private lives. Their finances, their habits, their personal relationships, good and bad. Sometimes those bits and pieces can lead to solving a crime.

When my husband, Andy, died in an accident, my family’s life was shattered.  I needed to find my new path. I decided some of my favorite women sleuths could give me great advice. When I began solving cases, they became the perfect partners in a kind of Detection Club. They bring their special talents to my investigations.

Nancy Drew is my youngest member. She’s physically fit and totally unintimidated by her elders’ desire to keep her out of police business. On the opposite end, the elderly Jane Marple is wise. She’s my quiet observer. Jessica Fletcher is a smart businesswoman. She could make a great Realtor. She’s methodical and logical. She also likes to laugh. Then there’s Nora Charles, of the famous duo Nick and Nora of the 1930s. She’s got that high-society cache I sometimes emulate to unearth clues. Agatha Raisin was always a favorite detective of mine. She’s a sharp-tongued, gutsy woman living in the Cotswolds of England. She’s my age and no expert in male relationships. Unlike me, she likes to show off her legs in very high heels, which tend to impede her investigations.

What a fabulous group of kick-butt women to have in your corner! And with you at the helm, I’m sure all your investigations go swimmingly without any snafus, right, Helen? 😉

Unlike some amateur sleuths in the cozy mystery genre, you have a great working relationship with the lead investigator on the cases you get involved with. What makes Detective Joe McAlister so special? Why do you think he’s so open to your help?

Joe joined the county sheriff’s department after years heading a big city homicide division. He’s tough. We started off a bit adversarial. He slowly came around as he realized I wasn’t just a busybody. I could give him the inside scoop on local personalities. We work together fairly well, although we have our testy moments. Joe once told me that I find dead bodies like cats find mice. Given that I like cats, I decided to take his sarcasm as a compliment.

As you should!

You’ve mentioned your home of Port Anne. It sounds like a lovely place to visit, and it’s home to some unique and charming individuals. Who are some folks you recommend visitors get to know? Who should we steer clear of?

I can’t help being partial to my twins. They're in their early thirties and determined to talk me out of tracking down killers. Lizzie is as smart as she is theatrical, very stylish, and a great cook. Something I’ll never be. Bring me Sauvignon Blanc and Twizzlers. She’s got a bit of Nora Charles in her. Shawn, a district attorney, is always warning me, “You can’t fix everything, Mom.” Another habit I’m unlikely to break. He’s eager to keep my sleuthing tendencies out of his current romantic relationships. When I call a meeting to discuss a case, they’re my home team. My Assistant Extraordinaire is Tammi. She’s a combination of General Patreus and Mother Teresa, keeping our business humming. She’s also my best friend. As for those to steer clear of? You’ll just have to catch up on my crime-solving to find out.  I’m not about to spoil your fun. 

Sounds like you’ve got a great crew to help navigate the treacherous seas of your investigations! Other than having a solid support team, what advice do you have for newbie amateur sleuths?

I’ll pass on the sage advice of Jane Marple. She warned me that murder should never be taken lightly. She’s right. But solving mysteries is always exciting and a habit I’m not likely to break.

Wiser words were never spoken! Crime-solving is first and foremost about getting justice for victims, and it sounds like you have no plans to stop your pursuits, Helen. Thank you again for taking the time out of your Realtor life and coming “off the page” with me. Readers can look forward to your latest adventure, Villain in the Vineyard, available at your favorite bookish retailer on April 15, 2025.

To stay connected with Helen’s author, Judy L. Murray, head to her website: https://www.judylmurraymysteries.com.

Learn more about The Wren, Winnie, and the Book Blogger Mysteries at www.saraheburr.com.