A Fatal Error Released on Amazon

It's been almost a year since I published "Write Every Day" and during that time I haven't released anything new for the Kindle. As of yesterday, that changed with the release of the first of my Chip Rawley baseball mysteries, "A Fatal Error." This is a novelette, just under 9000 words or about 30 pages if you prefer to think of lengths in those terms.

Chip Rawley is a former professional baseball player who never quite made it to the big leagues. Staying close to the game, he became a trusted confidant of Branson Waters, the owner of a major league team. In "A Fatal Error" Rawley investigates the death of Mark Feist, whose botched catch kept his team out of the World Series.

If you read "A Fatal Error", I hope that you enjoy it!

"Three Times a Killer" Available Free at Plan B Magazine

My crime story "Three Times a Killer" is live at Plan B Magazine and available to be read for free. This story features the same main character, South African criminal Lawrence Thomas, as my Amazon/Kindle eBook short story "Levels of Trust."

Here's a little preview of the story which is up at Plan B:

I was sitting at a bar, drinking another Black Label, when the man came up to me. I should have known he was bad news, a fellow like that with his nice suit, in a low-rent bar like the one I was in that day. Maybe it was the beer, maybe it was that I was still basically a kid, only twenty years old, but I didn’t twig to it.

“I hear you’re looking for work, Lawrence,” he said, lowering himself gently onto the stool next to mine.

I took another swallow, cool-like, before answering. “If the pay’s right, sure.”

The suit nodded and pulled an envelope from his pocket. “I’ve got a problem, see. Girl trouble.”

He grinned at me like we understood each other. I would have just as soon punched that smarmy grin off his face, but I needed money and there wasn’t no use biting the hand. I grinned back at him.

And, for the heck of it, a little preview of "Levels of Trust."

"There's some stuff you should know before you go in there," Ian said, meeting me at the nondescript front door of the complex. I came inside, leaving the heat, stench and noise of the slum streets behind. My eyes were slow to adjust from the noontime sun to the comparative dark indoors.

"Hit me," I told him.

Ian had arranged things so he'd be the one letting me into the complex. I was on unfriendly ground, and any intelligence I could get would raise my odds of success.

"One, no weapons. If you're packing, turn it over to the guy at the door. They'll still pat you down, but this is gonna go a lot easier for you if they don't find anything when they do. Get me?" I nodded.

"Two." He pressed a button and waited briefly until he heard the click of a latch opening. We passed through a door. "Inside, the man you meet will appear to be in charge. But he won't be the person deciding what happens next."

"So who will be?"

Ian's mouth twitched. "I shouldn't answer that."

"You shouldn't be telling me what you've told me already, should you?"

"Just remember, everyone's got to answer to someone. Three, and this is most important, whatever answer you're given will be final. There's no appeal, no debate." He stopped me, put a hand on my arm. "You hear me?"

"Fine."

"No, Lawrence. Not 'fine.' I'm serious, do not try to get cute. You'll get a yes or a no. You say thank you. You leave." He caught my eye and repeated "You hear me?"

Me and Ian, we go back. Having bumped into him a few months ago, not long after I arrived in Johannesburg, had seemed like just a happy accident. With recent developments, that chance encounter might be a lifesaver. I'd saved Ian's ass a couple of times years back, now I was cashing in all that goodwill. So I didn't deck him for grabbing me.

But I still yanked my arm away hard.

First Sale of 2013: "Three Times a Killer" to Plan B Magazine

I got word today that my short story "Three Times a Killer" has been accepted for publication by Plan B Magazine. Plan B is a new crime/mystery semi-pro ezine. As I've discussed before, there's a real dearth of good markets for mystery short fiction and I hope to see Plan B have a long and healthy lifetime. I'm very pleased to have had a story selected for publication by them.

This story relates to another story of mine. The protagonist of both this and "Levels of Trust" is Lawrence Thomas; the two stories are set at very different points of the man's life. "Three Times a Killer" is from when Lawrence was just barely an adult while "Levels of Trust" is set when he is a widower with a young child. I like the character and suspect I'll write a few more stories about him over time.

I've been a bit less-than-industrious about having stories circulating the past few months which has led to a slowdown in sales. I've been trying to be better about that this month and I'm quite happy that it paid off with the sale of "Three Times a Killer."

I'll be sure to let everyone know as soon as it's available to read.

"Present Company" is live at Every Day Fiction

My mystery short story "Present Company" is live today at Every Day Fiction. I'm as much of a fan of mystery and crime short fiction as I am of science fiction and fantasy, so having a mystery story published for the first time is a treat for me.

This story was inspired by a passing comment from a coworker at lunch one day late last year. I hope that you enjoy reading it.

Short Story Sale: "Present Company" to Every Day Fiction

I just received word that my mystery flash fiction "Present Company" will be published by Every Day Fiction. This will be my first story for EDF and I'm very much looking forward to this story being published there.

"Present Company" arose from a stray comment a coworker made during a lunch conversation one day. It began as a slightly-longer story, about 1600 words. Over time I trimmed a bit here and a bit there and the last set of cuts made it just short enough for EDF.

I'll update everyone when it's live and ready to read on their site.

Sunday Links: February 5, 2012 Edition

Before getting to the rest of the links, I wanted to call out Rachael Harrie's post from a couple of weeks back announcing a mini-Campaign for writers starting tomorrow, February 6th. Her Fall 2011 Campaign was a big part of my own success as a writer last year, providing me with a lot of new friends in the writing/blogging world and giving me a lot of encouragement. I plan to sign up for this month's activities and I hope they're as much fun as last fall's.

Now for this week's links...

"Scene and Structure: Make Something Happen" AND "Find Your Writing Tribe" (Daniel Swensen at Surly Muse) - Normally, I only link to one post per blogger per week. But Daniel hit it out of the park with both of these, and I couldn't decide which one to pick, so I'm breaking my "rule." In the first link, Daniel reminds us to make sure that each scene has meaning and keeps the story moving forward. In the second, he talks about the importance of having fellow writers to learn from, celebrate with and, when necessary, commiserate with. Two excellent posts from a fine blogger.

"Tips for Writing a Traditional Murder Mystery" (Elizabeth Craig guest-posting on Nicole Basaraba's Uni-Verse-City) - I thought that this post made for a nice primer on writing mysteries for those who've never tackled the genre and it also provides good reminders for those who have worked with mysteries in the past.

"Craft Thursday: Stupid Writer Tricks" (Jaye Wells) - Jaye talks about several different tricks that she uses to make sentences and paragraphs keep pulling the reader along. A nice set of tips for when you're fine-tuning your prose.

"Kind is Sometimes Cruel" (KT Hanna) - KT talks about the fact that giving a writer "kind" or "pleasant" feedback not only isn't helpful, but is actively harmful. It keeps the writer from hearing what they have to hear to move forward. And it's so easy for a writer to hear someone saying "You're doing great" and believe it, even when it isn't true. (Of course, it's also easy for a writer to hear someone saying "You're doing lousy" and believe it, even when it isn't true.) The best thing you can do is find people who will give you honest (but tactful) feedback. KT talks about some of the techniques that go into this.

"The PEST Method" (Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction) - Alex talks about the four elements he takes into account when deciding where to submit his short fiction: Prestige, Exposure, Speed, and Terms. Well worth reading, especially if you're looking to submit short stories for the first time or haven't ever given much thought to how you pick where to send your stories.

Additionally, here's a recap of the posts from this week on my blog:

"Final January #writemotivation wrapup" - The #writemotivation activity for January wrapped up this week and I posted a final review of where I stood with my goals for the month. I ended things on a high note by adding 2000 words to a short story in the final two days of January.

"Using a Routine" - Inspired by a blog post by Eric J. Krause I talked about writing routines and what they can do for you.

I appreciate you stopping by to check out the links. Are there any writing-related articles/blog posts you've read this week which really inspired you?

Sunday Links: December 11, 2011 Edition

I got the second of my "Write 1/Sub 1" stories for the month out earlier this week. It was a short one, an entry into Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine's monthly "Mysterious Photograph" contest. I've been working on a couple of other stories this week, too, though so I've gotten quite a few new words written. I also went back and took a final pass through one of the stories I'd done preliminary drafts on pre-NaNo and got it out on submission.

A quick blog announcement, I'm planning to take a brief hiatus from posting over the Christmas weekend. So that will mean no Dissecting the Short Story post on 12/23, no Sunday Links on 12/25, and no Monday post on 12/26. I'll have Wednesday posts on both 12/21 (though it won't be a DtSS preview, naturally) and 12/28. And, of course, if I have a burning desire to share something between the 21st and 28th, I may pop on long enough to put up a quick post.

And now, on to the links...

Dissecting the Short Story: "Calculus for Blondes" by John H. Dirckx

This week's entry in my Dissecting the Short Story series is, unless I'm mistaken, the first I've covered from Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. As with all entries in this series, my intention here is to look at a story which was sold to a pro-rate fiction market, generally one of the large digest magazines, and see what we -- as writers -- can learn from it.

As always, I won't be shy about including spoiler material in this analysis, so if you have a copy of this magazine, it might be worth your time to read it first.

Story:
"Calculus for Blondes" by John H. Dirckx
Published in:
January/February, 2012 Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
Approximate Length:
3200 words
Presentation:
Third Person with Multiple POV Characters, Chronological
Summary [WARNING: Spoilers Included!]:

Why So Few Short Mystery Fiction Markets?

Yesterday I mentioned that I had ended up doing a bit of freewriting to start my "Write 1/Sub 1" story for last week. The path that led me there actually involved realizing I had a bit of a roadblock on the "Sub 1" side of things for the story I had started earlier in the week. That roadblock was that it was a mystery short story and, while there are literally dozens of markets which pay Pro or Semi-Pro rates for speculative fiction short stories, there is a relative dearth of markets for mystery short fiction. And the places I'd submit that particular story first all have one of my stories under consideration already. So, I set that aside for the moment, started on my freewriting, and came up with a new story. All's well that ends well.

But, darn... I like writing mystery fiction and this was a reminder of the difference in the market for fiction in the two genres. The discrepancy can be illustrated by looking at the lists of approved short fiction markets for the Mystery Writers of America and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. Not only is the SFWA list nearly twice as long, but it includes a much healthier representation of open genre-specific publications while the MWA list includes a couple of closed markets and quite a few general-fiction listings. You can get a similar sense by querying the Duotrope writer's market website. Search for "Fantasy", "Pro" rate publications for "Short Stories" (excluding closed markets) and you get back 28 selections. Change "Fantasy" to "Mystery/Crime" and you get back 9. Ouch!

So, why is there this big gap between the two?

Dissecting the Short Story: "Beach Girl" by P. N. Elrod

This is the fourth in a series of posts (introduced here) which will appear every other Friday on my blog. In this series, a short story from a recent major fiction digest magazine will be analyzed in detail, to see what we can learn about how the author approached creating the story.

Story:
"Beach Girl" by P. N. Elrod
Published in:
November 2011 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
Approximate Length:
5500 words
Presentation:
Third Person, Large Chunks in Flashback
Summary [WARNING: Spoilers Included!]:

Sunday Links : August 28, 2011 Edition

Another week has gone by and it's felt like a really good writing week. I've gotten some work done with new stories that I feel very pleased with. I wish there were more hours in the day, though...

Sunday is the day that I go through articles and blog posts I've read on the internet and link to ones that I found especially fun or interesting.

Today, I have one special link to present first. Rachael Harrie has kicked off her third Writers' Platform-Building Campaign. For those of us who are working to build our networks as writers this looks like a fantastic opportunity to reach out to those who share our interests and connect with them.

Now, on to the rest of the links!

Six Mystery Writers You Should Be Reading

One of my favorite genres for reading is the mystery genre. I especially like private investigator stories, but read a wide variety of other types of mysteries as well. Most of my writing has been in science fiction, fantasy, and horror but recently I've been adding some mystery stories, too.

Writers almost always benefit from being well-versed in the work created by others in their genres of interest. To that end, I've put together a list of six mystery writers whose fiction I believe is of use to people who are new to writing mysteries. Even beyond that, since many of the attributes of these writers' works I discuss aren't specific to mystery fiction, they could be good examples for writers of all genres.

Dissecting the Short Story: "Hostage Situation" by Dave Zeltserman

This is the first of a series of posts (introduced here) which will appear once every two weeks on the blog. In this series, a short story from a recent major digest will be analyzed in detail, to see what we can learn about how the author approached creating the story.

Story:
"Hostage Situation" by Dave Zeltserman
Published in: 
September/October 2011 Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Approximate Length:
2000 words
Presentation:
Chronological Narrative, Third-Person Limited
Summary [WARNING: Spoilers Included!]:
A bank patron, Lawrence Talbot, is present when a robbery occurs is distressed at the timing of the event. There's somewhere he needs to be, and when the robbery turns into a hostage situation, his worry only increases.