An Interview With Barb Goffman

by Grace Topping

People often complain they don’t have time to read. Finding myself in that predicament recently, I turned to Crime Travel, an anthology of short stories that had been on my shelf for a while. Each story took me minutes to read, which was about all the time I had to devote to reading in a day. The stories in Crime Travel were fascinating because they all involved a mystery and time travel. I found them so intriguing that I contacted Barb Goffman, who edited the anthology, to learn more about the theme and how the anthology came about. Crime Travel is definitely an anthology to add to your to be read collection for those times you have only minutes to read.

 

Crime Travel 

This short story collection features 15 stories from various authors that combine time travel and crime fiction. The stories are very creative, involving a variety of methods of time travel from people who build machines to those who stumble upon strange ways to get back in time. The periods range from people traveling to the present, to those traveling to Shakespeare’s England, a New Jersey beach town in the 1970’s, and a couple trips to the 1960’s to name a few. Meanwhile, we get a couple capers, a locked room mystery, and a hard-boiled PI among other great stories.

 

Mark Baker – Carstairs Considers

www.amazon.com

 

 

Welcome to Writers Who Kill, Barb.

 

Crime Travel is unique in that each story features a mystery involving time travel. What inspired the time travel theme?

 

Time travel is fun. The idea has intrigued me since I was a kid, and I have long loved watching TV shows and movies about it and reading about it. So a time travel/crime anthology was right up my alley. The beauty of an anthology like this one is that you can have so many really different settings—we had one story travel to Elizabethan England and another to 1970s New York City, just for instance—and have stories involving real historical events, if you want, which makes it all even more interesting. As an author and editor, I couldn’t resist. 

 

For those unfamiliar with anthologies, please tell us how this collection of stories came about?

 

The answer to this question also addresses, in part, the inspiration for the theme of this book. Six years before Crime Travel came out, I wrote a story involving time travel, but I hadn’t been able to find the right home for it. A friend suggested I put together a time travel anthology and include my story. It seemed a bit self-serving to do that, but since I love the topic, I pitched the idea of publishing a charity anthology of stories mixing crime and time travel to Wildside Press, and they signed on, agreeing to publish a book with fifteen stories. It helped that they knew me. At the time I approached them, Wildside had been the publisher of the Chesapeake Crimes series for about a decade—that was a series I edited with Donna Andrews and Marcia Talley. It also helped that Wildside is a publisher that focuses on mystery/crime and on science fiction and fantasy. Crime Travel was a great fit for them.

 

Is there a difference between an anthology and a collection of short stories?

 

An anthology is a book of short stories written by multiple authors. A collection is a book of short stories all written by the same author. People often use the terms interchangeably, but technically, that is the difference. 

 

What was your role as the editor? 

 

I created the call for stories and decided how to solicit them. I then read all the submissions, chose the stories, edited them, worked with the authors on revisions, chose the story order, worked with the publisher to have advance review copies sent to reviewers, worked with the authors and publisher on proofreading, arranged to have a cover reveal on Kristopher Zgorskiʼs BOLO Books blog, chose the publication date of December 8, which is Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day, and danced a jig when contributor Eleanor Cawood Jones arranged for us to have a book launch at the Barnes and Noble store she worked at. When the book was released, the authors and I promoted the book, and I ensured the stories were submitted for award consideration, where applicable. I also chose the charity the book supports: 826DC, a Washington, DC, nonprofit designed to help children and teens improve their creative and expository writing skills, as well as help teachers inspire children to write. All royalties are donated to this organization.

 

What came first, the lineup of authors or the publisher? 

 

The publisher. I wanted to ensure I had everything arranged before I put in the time of doing all the things mentioned above. I also didn’t want to ask people to write stories without knowing for sure that the anthology would come out, as well as without knowing who the publisher would be and how much they would be paid. 

 

You have an outstanding list of authors who contributed to Crime Travel, many of them award-winning short story writers. Did you have an open submission or did you invite the authors whose stories were included?

 

Thanks for saying so, Grace. I employed a combination of those two methods. I set aside three slots for authors I invited. I hoped mentioning these authors’ names in the call for stories would encourage others to submit, and I hoped their names would help with sales upon publication. I also set aside one slot for my own story. Then, to fill the remaining eleven slots, I put out a call for stories to four different groups I am a member of: the Short Mystery Fiction Society, the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, the Guppies Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and the SleuthSayers blog. I limited submissions in this manner because I feared I otherwise would be overwhelmed with submissions. But I do like to work with newer authors, so I was glad to have eleven of the slots filled through quasi-open submission. Some of the stories I accepted through this process were from established writers, but others were from authors much earlier in their careers.

 

If open submission, did you receive many submissions, and did you select the stories that appear in the collection?

 

On top of the three solicited stories, I received 53 submissions. And yes, I chose the stories. It wasn’t easy.  

 

What guidelines did you give them?

 

In the call for stories, I said that I was looking for short stories involving crime/mystery and time travel. All crime sub-genres were welcome, but I mentioned that I’m partial to soft-boiled, traditional, and cozy stories. And I set a word-count limit. 

 

Your story in Crime Travel, "Alex's Choice," was very touching. What inspired this story. 

 

Thank you. I’m so glad you liked it. It was inspired by two things. First, I had read a newspaper article about an entire family that had died in a riptide, as they all tried to save the family dog, who had been swept out into the ocean. Sadly, the only one who crawled out of the surf that day was the dog. I cried when I read that article, and I wished I could go back and change things for that family. My second inspiration was my first dog, Scout. I was heartbroken when he died, and a month later, I found myself thinking about him and thinking about that poor family, so I wrote a time travel story involving a dog that winds up in the ocean and the family that tries to save him. A member of my writing group told me after reading the story that I didn’t need a bereavement group; I had worked it all out on the page. That story went on to be named a finalist for the Agatha and Macavity awards, for which I am grateful. 

 

Your short stories appear in multiple publications and have won prestigious awards. Is there one that thrills you the most?

 

That is like asking a mom to choose her favorite child. They all are special to me for different reasons. I will say that I was extremely honored last year to receive the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Since I have devoted my writing career to mystery/crime short stories, it was wonderful to be recognized by the organization made up of authors and readers of mystery/crime short stories.

 

A number of anthologies have come out in recent years featuring stories inspired by the music of certain artists. What music or song would inspire you to write a story?

 

My most recent story was inspired by a song, actually. “Keep It Dark” was published in March in the anthology In Too Deep: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Genesis. I loved listening to Genesis in high school and college, so I was delighted when Adam Meyer invited me to contribute a story to this anthology. He sent me a list of songs to choose from. I had never heard “Keep It Dark” before. So I listened to it, and I was inspired. It’s about a man who has a secret, something he has to keep hidden because people aren’t ready for his truth. I can’t really say more without giving things away, but I think readers of this interview will enjoy the story.

 

Have you written longer? If so, which do you find harder to write?

 

My short stories have gone as long as nearly 15,000 words, which technically is a novelette. And I have one finished novel that has been in a drawer for fourteen years, so yes, I have written longer. I can’t say I find it harder to write novels versus novelettes versus short stories of other lengths. They require different skill sets, different approaches. In the end, I have decided to focus my career on short stories because I enjoy writing them more. They give me flexibility, and I can write a lot of them in the time it would take to complete a novel. 

 

What advice would you give to someone who would like to write short stories? 

 

Read them. Read a lot of them. In 2012, I participated in a project in which I tried to read a short story every day. I didn’t meet that goal, but I came close. Reading so many stories in a concentrated period helped me improve my craft because I could see what worked and what didn’t.

 

How does a writer find an anthology to submit to?

 

Join the Short Mystery Fiction Society. It is an online group and is free to join. There is a lot of discussion about craft, and you will see calls for stories listed there too. Go to https://groups.io.  Then search for the society.

 

What is the most valuable thing you have learned since you started writing?

 

You can’t guarantee anything you write will be published (unless you self-publish), and if something you wrote is published, you can’t guarantee anyone will read it or that you will get any feedback on it. And you certainly can’t count on making a living from writing. So make sure you enjoy the journey. Do it for the love of writing. Then everything else that comes, if and when it comes, is a wonderful bonus.

 

What are you working on at the moment? Do you plan to do another anthology? 

 

I am not in the middle of writing anything right now. But about three weeks ago an editor requested a flash story (1,000 words or fewer) that I wrote a couple of weeks ago. It’s called “Half-Topless” and has already been accepted, and it is scheduled to come out in December. I will share more about that publicly when I can.  

Anthology-wise, I am working on edits to stories that will appear next spring in Hooked on Urban Legends—and Murder, which I am editing with Donna Andrews and Marcia Talley. Donna, Marcia, and I will be doing at least one more anthology after this one, and we plan to put out our call for stories either later this summer or in the fall, with submissions limited (as usual for the ones we do together) to members of the Sisters in Crime Chesapeake Chapter. While these books are not chapter-run anthologies, we limit our submissions in this manner because we like to give back to the chapter that has helped us so much. We also donate all royalties to the chapter. 

Grace, thank you so much for inviting me to do this interview. I am thrilled to know that people are still reading Crime Travel five years after it was published, and I hope people continue to pick it up. I received an Anthony Award nomination for this book, and stories in the anthology were nominated for the Agatha, Anthony, Derringer, Macavity, and Shamus awards, so I feel confident telling mystery/crime readers that if you like time travel, this anthology will be well worth your time.  

Thank you, Barb. 

 

Bio: Barb Goffman (www.barbgoffman.com) has been a finalist for major crime-fiction short story awards forty-eight times, and sheʼs won the Agatha four times, the Macavity twice, and the Anthony, Derringer, and Ellery Queen Readers Award once each. She is a current Macavity Award finalist for her story “The Postman Always Flirts Twice,” which won the Agatha Award in April. And she is a current Anthony Award finalist for her story “A Matter of Trust,” as well as an Anthony Award finalist for the anthology Murder, Neat (along with co-editor Michael Bracken). That anthology won the Derringer Award in May. Barb was the 2024 recipient of the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s lifetime achievement award. Sheʼs a freelance editor, often working on traditional and cozy mysteries, and sheʼs an editor of Black Cat Weekly magazine. Her newest story, "Keep It Dark," is published in In Too Deep: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Genesis.

Paula Gail Benson's "Crossfire in the Crosshairs"

Assassins who are paid well, blackmailed, or are repaying debts as they hunt face more challenges than anticipated. The worst crime is growing attached to their target or sympathizing with their cause. Each assassin’s journey is entirely unique in these eleven dark tales.

Featuring stories from Victoria Azzi, L.N. Hunter, Charles Kyffhausen, Barend Nieuwstraten III, Fulvio Gatti, Edgar Mahaffey, Gray Stanback, Jennifer Strassel, Douglas Allen Gohl, Paula Gail Benson, and Frank Sawielijew.

Amazon.com

WWK’s Paula Gail Benson’s short story “Crossfire in the Crosshairs” is featured in Dragon Soul Press’s new anthology A Death in the Night, which releases today. It’s a noir compilation of eleven tales.

Paula’s main character answers to the name of Mommie, can be labeled a killer (Hessian bloodlines), and thinks her assignment smells funny. Her boss asks more personal questions about her ex and her daughter than she’d like. The mark’s death will line his nearest and dearest pockets, but that’s not a deterrent. Set during the pandemic, she uses her mask as part of her disguise. She’s been warned she’s isn’t the only assassin on the job. Surprises are anathema in her profession. Too bad she receives so many.

A Death in the Night can be ordered on Amazon. The Kindle version is $1.99, paperback $19.99.

Congratulations Paula!

 

The Editor’s Thrill When a Book Comes Together

by Linda Rodriguez

(Linda is once again editing an anthology. After she wraps it up, she'll be back. But I thought it appropriate to give you her thoughts on editing an anthology since that's what's keeping her busy these days---E. B. Davis)

I’m co-editing an incredible anthology of Native poetry, The World Is One Place: Native American Poets Visit the Middle East. The National Endowment for the Arts is funding its publication. My co-editor is my former mentor and lifelong friend, Diane Glancy (who’s won all kinds of awards for her writing in all the categories—novel, short fiction, essay, memoir, poetry, playwriting, screenwriting—she’s even made a couple of movies!). Working with Diane alone would make me happy.

This anthology came about from a spark of an idea I had (when another of my favorite Native writers underwent a firestorm online for agreeing to honor her commitment to perform in Israel) that combined with a group of poems Diane had written about Syria from her own visits to the Middle East. We began to talk about finding other poets who had visited that part of the world and written about it. The publisher wrote the grant to the NEA, and it was accepted.

When we put out the call for contributors, we set no limits on what they could send. We simply asked for poems informed by their experience and views of the Middle East in any way they chose to look at it. We wondered if we might not receive an overabundance of political screeds, the Middle East being such a sore point with many, if not most, Native writers, who see what’s happening over there as almost déjà vu of what happened to our ancestors. Happily, we received a wide variety of superb poems that focused on the people, the land, the culture, the spiritual feelings their visits brought to the poets. The overarching theme seemed to be the commonalities the poets shared with their Middle Eastern hosts. We chose a line from one of the poems as the title to exemplify this—“The world is one place.”

This is not the first anthology I’ve edited. I knew, going in, the grind of trying to gather promised work and requested forms from poets—herding the proverbial cats would be simpler. And as we’re now in the stage of typesetting, we’re still waiting for a couple of work notes and a couple of permission forms. It is always thus. This book has taken a lot of work, but it will be such a special book. And we have a cover, a beautiful cover which uses Indigenous bead art made by one of our poets, an image of Petra. (I wish I could post it here for you all, but the contributors haven’t seen it yet.) As soon as those last two work notes arrive, we’ll send the manuscript out for blurbs and move into the production stage of the game with copyediting, proofreading, and more and more of the same to ensure quality. We’re already starting to plan the book launch.

I just went over the manuscript once again and had the great good fortune that comes once in a while with something you’ve worked hard on where you read it again and say to yourself, “This is really good!” This is the time all editors live for—when the book is coming together, when all the grunt work is paying off, when you can take a step back to find that all those stubborn pieces fit together into a thing of beauty. I’ve learned it’s important at such times to step back and savor the moment. Soon enough, there will be stubborn typos that sneak in somewhere new after you eradicate them, the struggle with the printer to capture the colors just right on the cover, and reviews awaited with the hope that the reviewer isn’t in a bad mood on the day s/he reads the book. Soon enough, there will be delays in shipping when we’re trying to get books across the country in time for a reading and Amazon reviews that complain that it’s “too political”/”not political enough.” For now, I’m stepping back and resting for a moment in quiet enjoyment of this lovely book we’ve all created. I think chocolate is definitely called for here.

Linda Rodriguez’s three novels featuring Cherokee campus police chief, Skeet Bannion—Every Hidden Fear, Every Broken Trust, and Every Last Secret—have received critical recognition and awards, such as Latina Book Club Best Book of 2014, St. Martin’s Press/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Award, selections of Las Comadres National Latino Book Club, 2^nd Place in the International Latino Book Awards, finalist for the Premio Aztlán Award, 2014 ArtsKC Fund Inspiration Award, and Barnes & Noble mystery pick. Her short story, “The Good Neighbor,” published in the anthology, Kansas City Noir, has been optioned for film.

For her books of poetry, Skin Hunger and Heart’s Migration, Rodriguez received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Thorpe Menn Award for Literary Excellence, the Midwest Voices and Visions Award, the Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award, the 2011 ArtsKC Fund Inspiration Award, and Ragdale and Macondo fellowships. Rodriguez was 2015 chair of the AWP Indigenous/Aboriginal American Writer’s Caucus, past president of the Border Crimes chapter of Sisters in Crime, a founding board member of Latino Writers Collective and The Writers Place, and a member of International Thriller Writers, Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers, and Kansas City Cherokee Community. Find her at http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com.

Finding the Story You Have to Tell

by Paula Gail Benson

Earlier this month, KM Rockwood posted a message about her love for short stories and about writing “Burning Desire,” the first story in Heartbreaks and Half-truths, a new anthology edited and with a story by Judy Penz Sheluk (Superior Shores Press), available June 18, 2020. Yesterday, in the Stiletto Gang, I gave a short summary of each of the anthology’s stories, including my own, “Living One’s Own Truth.”

My journey in writing the story is different from my previous work. Usually, I start out with a clear idea of who the narrator is. I thought I’d discovered her when, in response to the call, I began with the image of a daughter raised by her embittered and abandoned mother to be a heartbreaker. I could hear the daughter’s voice explaining how her mother, a stern classics teacher at a 1931 boys’ school, tortured the students and encouraged the daughter to concentrate on using her looks rather than her brain. I sensed the daughter resented this manipulation and acquired limited knowledge to rebel. When a new teacher arrived, a handsome fencing instructor who appreciated both the daughter’s mind and body, she was ready to run away with him. However, his ultimate aim was to use her against her mother. I kept trying to determine how the daughter was going to turn the tables on this beau/betrayer.

Only, I couldn’t figure out how she would manage it. She was intelligent, but being so limited in focus and experience made her self-absorbed. She had known manipulation, but she had no capacity for reversing it except by using her beauty, which didn’t work. The story stopped moving forward.

I could still hear the daughter telling about her upbringing, but I realized that she needed someone to listen to her and perhaps consider her best interests. At that point, I discovered there was another teacher just waiting in the wings to hear the daughter out and show her some sympathy. That new teacher became the narrator of and a key player in the story.

Before Covid 19 redirected our lives, I had hoped to attend Louis Bayard’s class on writing historical fiction at Yale University this summer. In fact, I had submitted the opening scene of this story as my writing sample for admission.

In a way, writing this story and learning how to confirm and incorporate historical accuracies was a good substitute for the class (although, I still would like to take it, if it is offered again). Did you realize that the punctuation in Emily Dickinson’s poetry as she wrote it differs from that in the later published versions? Because my story took place in 1931, I had to use the punctuation in the earliest printing rather than the 1955 version that was greatly edited.

Part of my story involved the sport of fencing in the Olympics. I researched when women competed in fencing and learned about the spelling of the fencing gear. Judy and I had discussions about sabre vs. saber.

Judy Penz Sheluk

Some of my initial research about the Framingham Normal School in Boston introduced me to the institution’s founding president Cyrus Pierce. His quote, “live to the truth,” led to the story’s title.

Are you looking for a great summer read? Please let me recommend Heartbreaks and Half-truths. Each story interprets the theme quite differently. There are computers, science experiments, PIs, and just regular folks from different time periods experiencing and reacting to love and loss. And, in each story, part of the fun is uncovering what is hidden. The secret you think you know may be a different truth altogether.

Come and explore this anthology which includes the following contributors: Sharon Hart Addy, James Blakey, Gustavo Bondoni, Susan Daly, Buzz Dixon, Rhonda Eikamp, Christine Eskilson, Tracy Falenwolfe, Kate Flora, John M. Floyd, J.A. Henderson, Blair Keetch, Steve Liskow, Edward Lodi, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Peggy Rothschild, Joseph S. Walker, James Lincoln Warren, Chris Wheatley, Robb T. White, and me!

Do you enjoy reading short stories? I hope so.

Book Versus Anthology by Jennifer J. Chow

I just finished going through the first pass pages (a typeset manuscript resembling the finished product) for an upcoming anthology, Midnight Hour (Crooked Lane Books; September 7, 2021). 

I’ve also been polishing up Mimi Lee Cracks the Code, the third book in my Sassy Cat series at the same time. As I toggled between the two tasks, I was made aware of some differences between launching a novel and an anthology. Let me share some of my thoughts . . .

 

Cover:

For my books, the art department usually provides me with their vision, and then I offer suggestions on how to tweak it to match my plot.

 

In an anthology, the cover has to represent so much more than my single story. It has to tie together all the works and appeal to everyone’s tastes. This is no small feat, especially since there are twenty authors in this collection! (On the bright side, we’ve already started an informal discussion in the group about initial art concepts.)

 

Edits:

When I go through edits for my Sassy Cat Mysteries, I know the story inside out. This makes the revision process flow easily.

 

For the anthology, I looked over my own work. However, as requested by the editor, I also went over the other stories, concentrating on minor errors, like typos. It was interesting to see how a single theme resulted in so many unique written creations. It was definitely an honor to read such amazing stories.

 

Dedication and Acknowledgments:  

I enjoy creating the dedication and acknowledgments pages in my books. I’ll usually rotate the people I dedicate to and double-check my list of people to thank, making sure I don’t leave anyone out.

 

For a collaborative project, though, how will we divide this task? It’ll be interesting to see what we end up with.

 

Overall:

I, of course, love launching new Sassy Cat mysteries into the world. There’s a joy to revisiting a close-knit community and bringing my vision to life once more.

 

However, there is something special about a collective effort. I’m excited for the upcoming Midnight Hour because it features newer writers alongside more experienced authors. It also showcases a breadth of stories, in both plot and characters.

Writers: Have you ever been a part of an anthology, and what was your experience like?

Readers: What’s an anthology that has stuck in your mind, and what was its theme?

Day of The Dark Authors Part 2 By E. B. Davis

We are visiting a second week with Kaye George's Day of The Dark authors. The questions I posted to the authors in the first half of the anthology can be found here. This week I have posted questions to the authors in the last half of the anthology. 

When I contemplated the subject of the eclipse, my thoughts turned to SciFi, but the authors wrote in various genres--traditional/cozy/historical mystery, psychological thriller, romance, fantasy, and SciFi/horror. I hope you'll pick up a copy of Day of The Dark. It's highly entertaining and will provide the perfect short stories for summer reading fun.

Please welcome the authors to WWK.        E. B. Davis

______________________________________________

“Awaiting the Hour” by Joseph S. Walker

Loved your foreshadowing. Do you love to write stories in which you can “turn-the-tables” on the bad guy?

Thanks for the kind words!  I had a lot of fun writing this story.  I like writing stories where the tension builds until a final confrontation that takes what I hope is an unexpected turn.  The bad guy in this story is a desperate man, but he doesn’t realize that the hostage he’s taken is just as desperate, for entirely different reasons.  In a way a story like this is like the eclipse—the elements are all there, and it’s just a matter of lining them up right to see what is revealed.  Ultimately, doesn’t reality turn the tables on all of us?

“A Golden Eclipse” by Debra H. Goldstein

Did your MC, Agent Lana, learn from this con artist what tipped her hand? Is every event, man-made or natural, an opportunity for the con?

Yup – throughout time, con men, gamblers, and hustlers all have used different versions of “There’s a sucker born every minute” and “There’s a mark born every minute, and one to trim ‘em and one to knock ‘em.” A Golden Eclipse illustrates how in every situation, there is an opportunity to go after a little piece of the action, but the best know how to read others and when to put aside greed and fold. In this case, Agent Lana will never know what aspect of her naiveté tipped her hand, but it won’t matter. She’ll never be an innocent again.

“Picture Perfect” by LD Masterson

Will Sam get ousted from the photography club? In the long-run, Joe isn’t a loser is he?

Everyone loves Sam. And what's not to love? He's friendly, always ready to lend a hand, and just naturally good at whatever he does.  He's everybody's buddy. Isn't he? On the other hand, Joe seems like a total jerk, but he’s really just an average…er, Joe who lets his obsession with a hobby, and a rival, take over his life.  The truth and the future for each of them will be revealed through the lens of a camera.

“The Darkest Hour” by Kaye George

You betrayed your wonderful MC. Will you rewrite it using insulin instead?  What made you think of creating the eclipse anthology?

Oh no, no rewrites at this point! You really think she’s wonderful? She has her good points, but her intentions are not exactly pure.

Deciding to go off on a tangent and do my own anthology was a moment of temporary insanity. I’ve always been interested in stars, meteors, and things that happen in the sky. The upcoming eclipse captured my attention and, I guess, my brain. I’ve been astounded at the reaction, though. There are a LOT of people who are very interested in this eclipse, a lot more than I thought there would be. I had no trouble getting submissions or a publisher. I thought I might not get enough stories to make a whole book and also thought I might have to self-publish. I’ll admit, this has been a fun project from the very beginning.

“Baby Killer” by Margaret S. Hamilton

Traumatic events skew even the sharpest minds. Did finding the documents help Florence or not? Are these characters from your novel?

The documents and photo hidden in the fireplace cache reassure Florence that she did indeed have a son, who lived, but was taken from her and adopted by another family. The solar eclipse sparked her memories not only of childbirth, but the pregnant woman who disappeared into the woods and was never found. Florence hid the victim's necklace in the fireplace cache.

The story takes place in Jericho, a small Ohio college town that is the setting for my Kings River Life stories and my debut novel, Curtains for the Corpse. Mandy will probably appear in a future book in the series in her remodeled Craftsman bungalow.

“Flying Girl” by Toni Goodyear

Who is Flying Girl? Were you ever lost in the woods?

Who is Flying Girl?: She's a symbol of the need to go high, to reach for the
sky, the stars, to believe, to have hope and courage. Though she's a
children's book character in this story, it's a character that speaks to the
magical, mystical heart of all children.

Were you ever lost in the woods?: As a bit of anomaly -- someone who loves
hiking and camping but has trouble finding West even at sunset -- I've spent
my fair share of time, shall we say, respecting the woods! I've been
followed by a bear more than once. Um, really? Er, well, you don't always
see them, you know...

“To the Moon and Back” by Kristin Kisska

https://thehomeschoolscientist.com/total-eclipse-sun-2017/ 

Does everyone have phantoms? Does adversity make or break you?

I believe everyone has phantoms, though they may present themselves in different ways: regrets, grief, guilt, fear, denial, or even remorse. That said I suspect whether or not the phantom breaks a person depends on the magnitude and severity of the problem.

My short story, “To the Moon and Back,” was inspired by a sweet ten-year-old girl from our community who lost her battle to cancer less than six months after being diagnosed.  At the time, she was the same age and grade as my youngest child. Following her tragic journey and watching this beautiful child wither away broke my heart.  As an author, I’m always questioning, “What if…”  In this case, I asked myself, what if this had been my son? How would I have coped had he died? The answer wasn’t easy or pretty. But writing this story has helped me empathize with parents of these health-compromised little angels.

“Rays of Hope” by Harriette Sackler

Was it wise or hurtful that Julie wasn’t told the truth at a younger age? What were the rays of hope for Julie?

What a terrible decision it would be to share information with a young child that could result in trauma and possibly have lifelong repercussions.  For that reason I do think that Julie's grandparents made the best decision they could by waiting until Julie was a teenager to disclose the truth about her parents' absence from her life.  Although Julie, needless to say was shocked and traumatized, she was probably better able to understand

Julie's Ray of Hope was an ability to put closure on the circumstances that took her parents away from her.  Loving childhood memories of her father and his relationship with his wife allowed Julie to maintain her conviction of his innocence.

“Women’s Work” by KB Inglee

Were articles published on women’s rights as early as 1875? Writing articles about women’s rights or putting them into action, gaining respect—were both necessary or was one better than the other?

Fredrick Douglas published a moving article on the rights of women in support of the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. In 1872 Susan B. Anthony was arrested for trying to vote. Writing and action are inseparable and neither would work without the other.

“Open House” by Bridges DelPonte

Was your MC Catholic? Ukrainian curse, guilt, or both?

My main character Keefe’s faith is intentionally left open-ended.  Yet the Roman Catholic faith retains a strong influence in the Boston area--so burying a St. Joseph statue to quickly sell your home is a well-known practice.  I’ll let the reader decide the true cause of Keefe’s misery.  I have always greatly admired Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, so Keefe’s guilt over his stealing at open houses is definitely connected to his misfortunes.  Yet I don’t underestimate the power of Ukrainian curses and cursed religious objects to wreak havoc on ordinary lives.  

“Relatively Annoying” by John Clark

Why didn’t your MC report the problem immediately? Your story seems fantastic, and yet would you agree that the reality is: The ignorant cause problems and aren’t held accountable for their crimes?

As it was, he had difficulty being taken seriously until the game warden saw the photos of the desiccated animal carcasses. Given that, would anyone in authority have been concerned until the mutation happened? Up to that point, the issue was his loss of imported insects and his frustration with his cousin acting in a way that messed up his experiment. As for the ignorant causing problems and not being held accountable for their crimes, I give you one heck of a lot of elected officials who act in exactly this manner.

“Ascension into Darkness” by Christine Hammar

What plant did the women use? Is champagne the perfect accompaniment for murder?

The plant used was Hemerocallis fulva Daylily. Although they smell nice and quickly give an uninhabited house a fresh and lovely odor, they may be poisonous. The word "lily" seems to cover an astonishingly wide variety of plants, most of which are indeed poisonous.

Researching Daylilies I found that the Hemerocallis species are toxic to animals (cats, dogs & horses) and ingestion may be fatal. Humans do eat the flowers and the potato-like tubers found in the roots, but one should be certain to consult a professional to positively identify the plant before using it for nutrition.

I took literary liberties and made the Daylily poisonous from flowers to the potato-like tubers, because the word Lily raises a red flag in my mind. I would never, ever use any parts of any lilies in cooking. I'm sticking to potatoes and safe greens. If I wanted to murder someone, I'd use Lily of the Valley.

Champagne is the perfect accompaniment for anything and everything! Nibbles & snacks, luxurious baths, chocolate, hors d'oeuvres, picnics, murder and of course meatballs.

(The Evening Standard April 2016: Balls and bubbles: A Champagne and meatball restaurant is coming to London. http://searcys1847.co.uk/menus/ )

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