New Story: "Murder in A-Flat" at Black Cat Weekly

Without going back and looking at my records, I suspect it's been a while since I had two new stories released in the same month, but that's how 2026 is getting started!

My story "Murder in A-Flat" came out in issue 229 of Black Cat Weekly over the weekend. 

Pavel had nearly gotten the melody right for the opening moments of the Largo movement of his new quintet when the knock came at his door. He sighed and carefully put his violin away. Damn Novák and his eagerness to brag about Pavel to his fellow guardians of the law!  

Pavel opened the door to meet his visitor, Emil Hudec of the Pilsen police. Hudec’s jacket was wet from the chilly late-September rain, which pattered yet on Pavel’s window. 

The story features a composer and violinist as its main character with a pre-WWII setting in Prague. I'm fond of this story because it's one of the few stories I've written that I think fits firmly into the "mystery" genre. I've had a decent number of stories that I'd call "crime" stories published over the years, and maybe it's a subtle distinction, but it just has a different feel to me.

Cover art by Ron Miller

My COSine and ConFusion Schedules

I'll be attending two SF conventions in the next several weeks. First I'll be at COSine which is being held in Colorado Springs January 23-25 and the following weekend I'll be at Magical ConFusion in the Detroit area.

If you're attending either of those conventions, here's my schedule at each:

COSine:

• Friday 7 PM: "Dead Authors, Living Series" (moderator, Front Range Room)
• Saturday 10 AM: "Find the Time to Write" (Cripple Creek Room)
• Saturday 11 AM: "Prologues, Epilogues, Forewords, & Footnotes" (moderator, Front Range Room)
• Saturday 5:30 PM: Author Signing (Atrium)

ConFusion:

• Friday 4 PM: "The Art of the Short Story" panel (Leelanaw Room)
• Sunday 11 AM: Reading in a timeslot with Addie J. King (Manitou Room)
• Sunday 12 AM "Leveling Up Your Writing" (moderator, Leelanaw Room)

New Story: "Echoes of Your Father" at Every Day Fiction

I have a new story out this month! "Echoes of Your Father" was published in Every Day Fiction, my fourth appearance in that publication.

"They say the maze is haunted by echoes of its dead. You stand and watch the chitinous beast which waits patiently through every moment of every day at the maze’s entrance. No one has entered the maze today, so you still can. In your hand are the three coins the guard-beast demands — one copper, one silver, one gold."

I first wrote this story a little over thirteen years ago, for a flash-fiction writing competition in one of my writing groups. It's not the story of mine which went out on submission the most times before publications, but at a total of 48 submissions over the years, it's close. So perseverance definitely can pay off in the short fiction submission game! (In fact, I'll have a similar story to share later this year about another story once it's published...)

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database would list this as my 16th consecutive year of having fiction published, though their publication dates don't quite match mine for a few titles so I show a gap in 2019. Regardless, it's a nice way to start off 2026 from a writing perspective!