Sunday, March 17, 2024

Open for Submissions: DEADLY YELLOWSTONE: A COLLECTION OF MYSTERY SHORTS


Thalia Press announces an opportunity for your mystery short story to be included in our next anthology, Deadly Yellowstone: A Collection of Mystery Shorts.

Here is the description of the anthology:

Explore the treacherous and awe-inspiring landscape of America's first national park in this new anthology, “Deadly Yellowstone." With scalding geysers, stampeding buffalo, and ravenous grizzlies, danger lurks at every turn.
As a global tourist magnet, Yellowstone National Park attracts not only nature enthusiasts but also those with sinister intentions. Unravel the mysteries within the park's boundaries as ten gripping short stories delve into baffling events amidst the beauty and danger of Yellowstone.

Submissions guidelines include: *Note extended deadline—June 30.

·      Your story should be set within the borders of Yellowstone National Park. Use of the unique landscape and wildlife of Yellowstone is encouraged!
·       We’re looking for great stories and unique voices that entertain the reader. Your story can be serious or humorous, but it must be a mystery or crime fiction story. 
·       Your story should not exceed 10,000 words. Our sweet spot is 3,000 to 7,000 words. No flash or fan fiction, please.
·       Submit your story as a Word Doc attachment to thaliapress@gmail.com.
·       For the subject line of your submission: please start with the title of your story, followed by a dash and your full name. 
·       While we prefer original stories, we will consider reprint submissions so long as you have all rights back to your story. If your story is a reprint, please indicate this on the manuscript when submitting it.
·       Publication is projected for October 2024. The book will be printed in both eBook and paperback formats.
·       Ten short stories will be chosen for inclusion in this anthology. 
·       The deadline to submit your story is June 30, 2024. Authors of stories selected for inclusion will be notified by July 30, 2024. 
·       If your submission is selected for publication, you will be asked to provide a 150 word or less author bio. You may include information on where readers can purchase your other work in this bio.
·       Payment for accepted stories will be $25.
·       Authors accepted for publication will be able to order author copies of the anthology at cost.
·
       For questions please email Lise McClendon, Editor at thaliapress@gmail.com. 

Saturday, March 16, 2024

The Latent Joy of Writing: Guest Post by Peter Riva


There is something akin to an infection that firmly takes hold of spatial awareness, time, and any desire of possible rewards when you first sit down to write that a story – and like an infection that laid dormant until allowed free reign, once the fever rises, the blank page miraculously fills with squiggles forming into words, buried thoughts and knowledge manifest as signposts, and direction starts to unwind—all to expose purpose, plot, and characters. 

Characters come to life on their own just as purposefully intended, plot which laid dormant, latent in the psyche of the author, uses that precious time of creativity to reveal itself.

Creativity is not deliberate intent, it is a natural force from within. In every person that latency deserves to be manifest, not just harbored as a secret. Art is generosity – sharing with others. Without generosity there can be no impact, no sharing, no sense of accomplishment. That is why authors crave readership figures. Critics think creativity is ego or financial whim. It is not. At the root of every author’s desire to publish is an essential tenet of life as a human: to share, to impart, to give, to contribute.

In over 50 years as a licensing agent I have seen authors struggle, desperate to attain what the media calls recognition, but really what they craved was a wide sharing of their thoughts and words. I have witnessed the sorrow and joys of too many creative people fraught with the necessities and control of the financial structure of publishing – a structure controlled largely by Wall Street’s gambles. I have seen the highs and lows of authors who have achieved enormous success and recognition – many of whom still wonder if it really counted at all, if they actually achieved that creative sharing they were so intent upon.

In every case, authors (and indeed my own exploits as an author) who write for themselves to release that latency of creativity are the happiest, the most fulfilled. An author who feels the release of their own creativity and the catharsis that engenders – these author’s work is always the most interesting.

Take Steig Larson for example: a workaholic journalist – the investigative kind with a stellar press reputation. Between smoking and drinking and his long, long, days probing criminality and corruption, he let his inner self out and wrote – as one volume – a book, all one thousand five hundred pages, closely typed. In the elevator of his apartment building he asked Norstedts’ editor Per Faustino if Per would read “something I’ve written.” Per agreed. The next day Per was handed a plastic bag with all one thousand five hundred pages. Shocked, knowing such a tome would never fit publishing’s business model, Per nevertheless started to read. He could not put it down. As Per told me, asking me to help license it in the USA, the Millenium series was the hardest edit – into three volumes – he had ever accomplished. I asked Per why Steig had written it, “He told me it was burning inside him, he just had to.” The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo’s history is well known although sadly Steig would pass before he could realize its global reach and impact.

And then there is my mother who wanted to write her mother’s biography. Blessed with a remarkable (sometimes eidetic) memory, her mother (as she would later write) knew that Maria would be the only one capable of telling the truthful whole story. Her agent, Swifty Lazaar shopped the biography to Michael Korda at Simon & Schuster, providing there were co-authors. After three years working with them (nice people), Maria rejected their work correctly (as did several other editors at Simon & Schuster as well as Swifty Lazaar). I took over. Maria then allowed herself to release her inner voice on paper and after her sixty pages were submitted, Michael Korda and his boss Dick Snyder realized they were the wrong publishers for what Maria wanted to expose: real events, an in-depth history of a stellar career, and personalities. Vicky Wilson at Knopf snapped it up and urged Maria to “let every scrap of knowledge” flow in what became a truly great biography, revealing one of the greatest proponents of the pre-eminent artform of the twentieth century as well as a great American immigrant, war hero, and singer: Marlene Dietrich. Maria wrote the entire work on yellow legal pads all day and my father typed them after dinner while she slept, presenting the typed pages for editing over breakfast. In November 1990 the manuscript was finished, edited, and locked away at Knopf – a testament to Maria’s latency of creativity and accurate memory. 

Never once did Steig Larsson ask Per Faustino how much money he would make. Per told me all Steig ever wanted to know was how many languages his work would reach, how many people. Similarly, never once did Maria ever ask how much money the book would make in 13 languages but how many people would learn, understand, what made this life of a great performer possible. How many would heed the messages of that life? At a coffee bar at Hamburg airport a server refused to allow Maria to pay for her coffee before boarding a flight. The woman was crying, thanking Maria for sharing secrets that had affected her own life in a similar way, “If you can tell everyone of the rape, then I can too, and maybe people will understand.” Better than any “best seller” listing, such moments are what drove Maria’s inner desire and rewarded her effort.

Latent creativity always has a purpose, is always dying to get out. The very best of authors delve into their own psyche and experiences and share them with whoever is lucky enough to pick up the book. Allowing the escape of latent thoughts and experiences is always a satisfying luxury and often cathartic. Such output is simply generosity and that is a true manifest artform.

***
50+ years as an agent, Peter Riva created and produced of over 78 hours of primetime wildlife television, having spent a ton of time in East Africa and parts of North and Central Africa. Author of over nine books, five of them thrillers taking place in East Africa. Born and raised in New York City, London, and Switzerland, he moved some years ago to the wilds of Gila, New Mexico.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

SPUR AWARDS: WESTERN WRITERS OF AMERICA

Western Writers of America
announced the winners of the Spur Awards. 
Since 1953, Western Writers of America (WesternWriters.org) has promoted and honored the best in Western literature with the annual Spur Awards, selected by panels of judges. Awards, for material published during the previous year, are given for works whose inspiration, image and literary excellence best represent the reality and spirit of the American West.

Winners and finalists were announced Saturday, March 9, at the Tucson Festival of Books.

I've highlighted books of interest to mystery/crime fiction. Congratulations to all!

The Longmire Defense (Viking), Craig Johnson’s 19th installment of his Walt Longmire mystery series, won for Best Contemporary Western Novel. 

Dayton Duncan won for Burns’s The American Buffalo (PBS) as Best Western Documentary Script.

Other winners:

Biography: Sacajawea: Mystery, Myth, and Legend by Candy Moulton (South Dakota Historical Society Press).

Children’s Picture Book: Grandma’s Tipi: A Present-Day Lakota Story by author/illustrator S.D. Nelson (Abrams Books for Young Readers).

Contemporary Nonfiction Book: The Lost Cowboy by J.B. Zielke (independently published).

First Nonfiction Book: The Lost Cowboy by J.B. Zielke (independently published).

First Novel: The Last Man: A Novel of the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery by Thomas Goodman (Mainsail Media).

Historical Nonfiction Book: Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion by Elliott West (University of Nebraska Press).

Historical Novel: Death in Tall Grass: A Young Man’s Journey Through the Western Frontier by Donald Willerton (independently published).

Juvenile Nonfiction Book: Bass Reeves: Legendary Lawman of the Wild West by Billie Holladay Skelley (Crossing Time Press).

Juvenile Novel: A Sky Full of Song by Susan Lynn Meyer (Union Square Kids).

Original Mass-Market Paperback Novel: Gunmetal Mountain by John Shirley (Pinnacle Books/Kensington Publishing).

Poem: “Counting Cattle with the Fathers” by Shelley Armitage, published in A Habit of Landscape (Finishing Line Press).

Romance Novel: (Tie) The Heart Beneath the Badge by George T. Arnold (Speaking Volumes) and Love on Target by Shanna Hatfield (Wholesome Hearts Publishing).

Short Fiction: “Bad Choices: A Wyoming Chronicles Story” by W. Michael Gear, published in Ridin’ with the Pack: A Western Short Story Collection (Wolfpack Publishing).

Short Nonfiction: “‘Those invaluable but greatly abused members of the community’: Dogs and the Difference on the Great Plains in the Fur Trade Era” by David C. Beyreis, published in the Spring 2023 issue of South Dakota History.

Song: “High Country Trail” by Syd Masters, released on the CD Cabin Songs (Deer Pine).
Traditional Novel: Aesop’s Travels: A Crackerjack Tale of the Old West by Daniel Boyd (Montag Press).

Finalists:

Biography: Oracle of Lost Causes: John Newman Edwards and His Never-Ending Civil War by Matthew Christopher Hulbert (Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press); Unrepentant Dakota Woman: Angelique Renville and the Struggle for Indigenous Identity, 1845-1876 by Linda M. Clemmons (South Dakota Historical Society Press).

Children’s Picture Book: Romeo and Emilia: How One Brave Girl Rose Up from a Wheelchair onto the Back of a Horse by author Roni McFadden and image processor Melissa Fischbach (The Biscuit Press); Wild Bill and the Pirates! by author Thadd Turner and illustrator Jeanne Conway (Old West Alive! Publishing).

Contemporary Nonfiction Book: The Last Lookout on Dunn Peak: Fire Spotting in Idaho’s St. Joe National Forest by Nancy Sule Hammond (Basalt Books/Washington State University Press); This is Wildfire: How to Protect Yourself, Your Home, and Your Community in the Age of Heat by Nick Mott and Justin Angle (Bloomsbury Publishing).

Contemporary Novel: Calico by Lee Goldberg (Severn House); Standing Dead: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima (Crooked Lane Books).

Documentary Script: The Sad Life and Tragic End of Superstar Alan Ladd by Rob Word (A Word on Westerns, YouTube); On the California Trail: Preserving Gravelly Ford by Travis Boley, Kevin Marcus and Roy Wicks (Knowledge Tree Films/Nevada Gold Mines/Oregon-California Trails Association/Bureau of Land Management).

Historical Nonfiction Book: The First Migrants: How Black Homesteaders’ Quest for Land and Freedom Heralded America’s Great Migration by Richard Edwards and Jacob K. Friefeld (Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press); Fortune’s Frenzy: A California Gold Rush Odyssey by Eilene Lyon (TwoDot).

Historical Novel: The Redemption of Mattie Silks by Kimberly Burns (Thomas Bard Publishing); Golddigger: The Legendary Nellie Cashman by Kathleen Morris (Dunraven Press).

Juvenile Nonfiction Book: More Cat Tales of the Old West by Preston Lewis (Bariso Press).

Juvenile Novel: Tales of Tom Mix: The Wild West Christmas by Bob Madison, writing as Scott McCrea (DS Publishing); The Worst Enemy: Rebels Along the Rio Grande: Book 2 by Jennifer Bohnhoff (Kinkajou Press).

Original Mass-Market Paperback Novel: To Hell and Gone by Charles G. West (Pinnacle Books/Kensington Publishing); A Short Rope for a Tall Man by Victor Gischler, writing as Nate Morgan (Pinnacle Books/Kensington Publishing).

Poem: “Even the Birds” by Rod S. Miller, published in The Dog’s Pancake (High Plains Press); “La Jicarita Mountain” by Jenifer Fox, published in My West (Quillkeepers Press).

Romance Novel: Chase Cooper by Lynn Eldridge (Wolfpack Publishing); The Bundling Year by Anne Schroeder (CKN Christian Publishing/Wolfpack Publishing).

Short Fiction: “The Desert Jewel” by Leah Angstman, published in Shoot the Horses First (Kernpunkt Press); “Hair of the Dog” by Peter Brandvold, published in Ridin’ with the Pack: A Western Short Story Collection (Wolfpack Publishing).

Short Nonfiction: “‘A House-Party on an Old Frontier Ranch’: How Arizona Became the Dude Ranch Capital of the World” by Lynn Downey, published in the Winter 2023 issue of Journal of Arizona History; “Passenger Side: Lessons from riding along in Montana” by Eric Howard Heidle, published in the Fall 2023 issue of Montana Quarterly.

Song: “Cowboy Afterlife” by Syd Masters, released on the CD Cabin Songs (Deer Pine); “Born to Be a Cowgirl” by Aspen Black, released on the CD Born to Be a Cowgirl (Aspen Taylor Black Publishing).

Traditional Novel: Grizzly Moon by Patrick Dearen (Five Star Publishing); Jane Fury by James Robert Daniels (Cutting Edge Books). 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

ALFRED HITCHCOCK DAY: How to celebrate!

Today is National Hitchcock Day. No apparent reason for this date as he wasn't born on this day, nor did he die on this day. Not sure who sanctions these "Holiday" dates, but here goes. Lots of Hitchcock stuff to do today.

1. See a Hitchcock Movie on Netflix, Prime, Hulu, or another streaming service --or buy the DVD Collection: Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection (15).
2. Watch the TV series: Alfred Hitchcock Presents
3. Watch Sir Anthony Hopkins in Hitchcock.
4. Take a Train Trip. Be careful whom you talk to.
5. Try to Spot Alfred Hitchcock Cameos
6. Read a Book about Alfred Hitchcock: Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho; Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light

7. Visit the Alfred Hitchcock Museum in Bodega, CA. Then drive out to the Coast and visit Bodega Bay where there are lots of 'birds.'

Alfred Hitchcock on how to Master Suspense:




Alfred Hitchcock on The Birds:

 

 The Trailer for Notorious