I’m incredibly proud that last year’s “The Cumberland Package” (AHMM, May 2016) has been named a finalist for the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s Derringer Awards. I mean, like busting-at-seams proud. Of being named, because the crime space these days is terrific in its voice and depth. The stuff that leaves me vibrating explores in stark terms human nature at core. Not much more human than…… Continue reading Derringer-ered!
Tag: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
Humor: In Which Vernon Stagg Self-Lawyers Up
March 24, 2016 By Certified Mail Mr. Robert Mangeot, Author of Shameless and Baseless Works of Fiction Dear Mr. Mangeot: The venerated and venerable law firm Vernon Stagg and Associates represents the selfsame Vernon Stagg, Esq., a noted figure of legal and civic stature in the greater metropolitan Nashville area. We mean none other…… Continue reading Humor: In Which Vernon Stagg Self-Lawyers Up
Born Under a Bad Sign: Behind “The Cumberland Package”
Vernon Stagg was born from a bad book. A manuscript actually, mine sadly, and fortunately for us all I abandoned it before the querying stage. This was 2011, early yet for me into This Whole Writing Thing. The manuscript was a sort of Westlake-ian, Hiaasen-ian lovechild romp, and no matter what I did, it came out low…… Continue reading Born Under a Bad Sign: Behind “The Cumberland Package”
Behind: “Two Bad Hamiltons and a Hirsute Jackson”
Violet Celucci is a better angel and an inner demon. A frigging genius is how Vi might describe herself, a bastion of sanity in a disorderly world, a process improvement-seeking missile. An over-obsessed stickler for efficiency is how she’d never describe herself. Sorry, Vi. The truth hurts, and so can life. Tough as you are, I see the breaks in your armor. I…… Continue reading Behind: “Two Bad Hamiltons and a Hirsute Jackson”