Thursday, March 28, 2024

SMFS Members Publishing News: Motel: An Anthology


SMFS list members are published in the recently released book, Motel: An Anthology. Published by Cowboy Jamboree Press, the book is available at Amazon.

 

Nils Gilbertson with "The Morningstar."

 

M.E. Proctor with "A Redhead and a Green Car."

 

 

Amazon Description:

On lost, lonely highways, deep in the American heartlands and skirting the shady edges of cities, once ubiquitous motels have faded, some into ruin, others transformed from way station to permanent residence. MOTEL captures the heartbreak, desperation and indeed magic of motels.

Think 
Paris, TexasFool for LoveWild at Heart. Even Bonnie and Clyde. This anthology is full of stories that pay homage to the essence of motels in all their beauty and pathos. Characters and stories of grit and glory, the brutal and banal.

As motels fade from popularity and even existence, this volume attempts to capture them before they’re gone altogether...and all their stories with them. Of the twenty-eight stories in 
MOTEL, there’s no two stories that are similar. Like a motel, these stories are neighboring rooms. None in them are the same, but here they are, together.

Cowboy Jamboree Press
good grit lit.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

SMFS Members Published in Dark Yonder: Issue 5


The recently released Dark Yonder: Issue 5 contains short stories by two of our SMFS list members. Published by Thalia Press, the read is available at Amazon. The SMFS list members that reported being in the read are:

 

Tom Andes with "You Still There."

 

James D.F. Hannah with "Nothing More and Nothing Less."

 

BV Lawson with "Family Matters."

 

Amazon Description:

It's a Fine Line....

.... between love and hate.... loneliness and sex.... loyalty and revenge.... kinkiness and power.... grief and guilt.... and just about every other emotion driving the human condition. Explore those lines and the people who cross them through these ten provocative neo noir short stories:

 

You Still There by Tom Andes

Like a Good Irish Catholic by Colin Brightwell

The Return by K.A. Burks

Nothing More and Nothing Less by James DF Hannah

Family Matters by BV Lawson

Bartender Blues by Dana King

Rebirth by Nick Kolakowski

The Unfolding of Sam Lipton by Barbara Kumari

Pop by Ed Kurtz

The Playroom by Wolfgang Wright

Issue 5 also features a special cocktail recipe for The Hemingway Daiquiri, along with commentary by editors Katy Munger and Eryk Pruitt.


SMFS Members Published in Thrill Ride: The Magazine #5: Sisters-in-Arms


Several SMFS list members were recently published in Thrill Ride: The Magazine #5: Sisters-in-Arms. Published by Buchman Bookworks, Inc., you can pick up the issue at the publisher, Amazon, and other vendors. The SMFS members that reported being in the issue are:

 

Editor M. L. Buchman with "It Takes Three."

 

James Patrick Focarile with "The Fallen."

 

Teel James Glenn with “The Little Sureshot Affair.”

 

Annie Reed with "Bomb Busters."

 

Anne Swardson with "Parisian Woods."

 

Ed Teja with “Backpacker Incursion.”

 

Amazon Description:

Women who put it all on the line when the shit hits the fan. Military, family, or thrown together by chance doesn’t matter. They join, they cooperate, and, when they run out of options, they fight.

Tales from feudal Japan to modern day Angola. A slink through the Parisien woods and a strut along the Seattle streets. A Babylon that we never knew to a war-torn hell we should all fear.

A baker’s dozen of stories about women owning their place in the world.

 

SMFS Members Published in Mystery Readers Journal: Southern California Mysteries, Volume 40, No. 1, Spring 2024


Several SMFS list members have published essays in the Mystery Readers Journal: Southern California Mysteries, Volume 40, No. 1, Spring 2024 issue. Published earlier this week by Mystery Readers International, the read is available at the website. The SMFS list members that reported they were published in the issue are:

 

Curtis Ippolito with the author essay, "San Diego: Where Paradise and Crime Meet."

 

Sybil Johnson with the author essay, "Sand, Surf, Murder."

 

Gary Phillips with the author essay, "Through a Lens Brightly."

 

Jennifer Slee with the author essay, "If At First You Don't Succeed..."

 

Website Description:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ARTICLES

·         Vintage Hollywood Crime by Aubrey Ney Hamilton

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

·         Why I Love Writing About L.A. by Anne Louise Bannon

·         The Mysteries of True Crime by James T. Bartlett

·         California, the Origins of Reckoning, and the Ty Dawson Series by Baron Birtcher

·         The Lighter Side of SoCal Mysteries by Sally Carpenter

·         Where Rick Cahill Lives by Matt Coyle

·         Technology, AI and Murder Collide in L.A. by Art Chester

·         A Mystery in More Ways than One: A Fascination with Southern California by Elizabeth Crowens

·         Los Angeles Ninja Lily Wong by Tori Eldridge

·         San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter—Come for the History, Stay for the Mystery by Sara Driscoll

·         California in Black and White by Terence Faherty

·         A Different Perspective on Southern California by Earlene Fowler

·         Los Angeles: City of Dreams by Lee Goldberg

·         Kesey & Me by Chuck Greaves

·         The Monkey in Venice by Russell Hill

·         Wendy Stays Home by Wendy Hornsby

·         L.A.’s Mr. Goodbar by Georgia Jeffries

·         San Diego: Where Paradise and Crime Meet by Curtis Ippolito

·         Sand, Surf, Murder by Sybil Johnson

·         Changing Coast Changed My Life by John Lansing

·         The OC, Baby by D. P. Lyle

·         Like So Many Before Me by Larry Maness

·         Mysteries of Southern California by T. Jefferson Parker

·         You’re Right— That’s Exactly What Southern California is Like by Thomas Perry

·         Finding Your Place When You’re Writing About Place by Eugenia Parrish

·         Through a Lens Brightly by Gary Phillips

·         Beach Noir by James Preston

·         Beached by D. R. Ransdell

·         Don’t Give Up the Day Job by Clive Rosengren

·         That Screwy, Ballyhooey SoCal by Robert Rotstein

·         Los Angeles: Boundless, Disturbing, Inspiring by Elizabeth Sims

·         After-Hours by Lida Sideris

·         If At First You Don’t Succeed… by Jennifer Slee

·         Limitless Los Angeles by Patricia Smiley

·         Location, Location, Location by Elena E. Smith

·         Dwelling in the Southern Region of the Soul by David Unger

·         Hollywood, My Exuberant Muse by Halley Sutton

·         The Lair of the Bear by Duane Swierczynski

·         Making a Reader Feel the Character of a Setting by Carl Vonderau

·         What Do You Know? by Pamela Samuels Young

·         Safe, Hope, and Always by Mark Zubro

COLUMNS

·         Mystery in Retrospect: Reviews by Jay Gertzman, Aubrey Hamilton, Lesa Holstine, Dru Ann Love, Lucinda Surber, and Kristopher Zgorski

·         Children’s Hour: Southern California Mysteries by Gay Toltl Kinman

·         The Trunk Murderess by Cathy Pickens

·         Crime Seen: Southern California Noir by Kate Derie

·         From the Editor’s Desk by Janet A. Rudolph

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Thursday, March 21, 2024

SMFS Member Publishing News: Breaking News: Local Heiress Dead by Charlotte Morganti


Today is publication day for SMFS list member Charlotte Morganti’s new book, Breaking News: Local Heiress Dead. Published by Halfdan Press, the novel is available at Amazon and other vendors.

 

Amazon Description:

A woman betrayed. A marriage trashed. A body in the lake.
Less than two weeks before police slap handcuffs on Olivia Mercier’s wrists.

When divers discover Shauna Wylie’s body, encased in a barrel of concrete in Donner Lake, Olivia is of two minds. The death of her former best friend traumatizes her. At the same time however, Shauna is the reason Olivia’s husband is living in a bachelor pad. And now someone has dispatched Shauna from Earth. Is it wrong to feel vindicated?

When police discover a bag of cement in Olivia’s garage and learn she stands to inherit $17.5 million from Shauna, Olivia rockets to the front of the suspect line. Positive that the police won’t look for other suspects, especially when forensic results arrive, Olivia launches her own search for Shauna’s killer. Her investigation uncovers long-buried secrets and, unknown to her, earns Olivia top billing on the killer’s hit list.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

SMFS Member Publishing News: A Midnight Puzzle: A Secret Staircase Novel by Gigi Pandian

 

SMFS list member Gigi Pandian’s new book, A Midnight Puzzle: A Secret Staircase Novel, is now out. This is the third book in the series that began with Under Lock & Skeleton Key: A Secret Staircase Mystery and continued in The Raven Thief: A Secret Staircase Mystery. Published by Minotaur Books, the read is available in multiple formats at the publisherAmazon, and other vendors.

 

Publisher Description:

In heroine Tempest Raj, modern-day queen of the locked room mystery Gigi Pandian has created a brilliant homage to the greats of classic detective fiction.

Secret Staircase Construction is under attack, and Tempest Raj feels helpless. After former client Julian Rhodes tried to kill his wife, he blamed her "accident" on the home renovation company’s craftsmanship. Now the family business—known for bringing magic into homes through hidden doors, floating staircases, and architectural puzzle walls—is at a breaking point. No amount of Scottish and Indian meals from her grandfather can distract Tempest from the truth: they’re being framed.

When Tempest receives an urgent midnight phone call from Julian, she decides to meet him at the historic Whispering Creek Theater—only to find his dead body, a sword through his chest. After a blade appears from thin air to claim another victim, Tempest is certain they’re dealing with a booby trap… something Secret Staircase Construction could easily build. Tempest refuses to wait for the investigation to turn to her or her loved ones. She knows the pieces of the puzzle are right in front of her, she just has to put them together correctly before more disaster strikes.

Multiple award-winning author Gigi Pandian and her sleuth Tempest Raj return in A Midnight Puzzle, where an old theater reveals a deadly booby trap, secrets, and one puzzle of a mystery.