Time for my monthly update! I’m taking a rare day off from work today—from the day job, at least. Catching up on writerly obligations. Number one among those was the signing of more than 1100 signature pages for the limited edition of Dissonant Harmonies, which will be out in early 2021. Since the book was motivated by music, I tweeted the names of the three albums I listened to while I sat at the kitchen table and wrote my name a hundred dozen times (while watching the birds and the squirrels fight each other at our birdfeeder on the front lawn). They were: “Metallic Spheres” by The Orb (featuring David Gilmour), “Heligoland” by Massive Attack (the album featuring the song that was used for the Luther theme song), and “Satellite” by Panic Room.
Next week is a big one for this country and, in fact, for the world. My wife and I voted early, two weeks ago tomorrow. We went an hour early, folding chairs and cups of tea in hand. There were about a hundred people ahead of us and, by the time the polls opened, the line stretched a long way behind us. Still, we were in the building within ten or fifteen minutes of opening and on our way back home by twenty after the hour. Not a hitch. We’d done our homework the night before (people in other countries don’t always realize that we’re not just casting one vote—there were two full pages of federal, state and local races to vote on), so it was just a matter of dialing up the right candidate in each race, double-checking (triple checking the presidential race to make sure nothing went wrong there), and punching the submit button.
The issue of Black Cat Mystery Magazine containing my story “The Fugitive with the Dragon Tattoo” is out now. I also sold a reprint of my King-inspired story “Special Delivery” to Unnerving Magazine for issue #14, which is out now. Then I was pleased to learn that my story “The Lobster Trap” had been accepted for Masthead: Best New England Crime Stories. This is my third appearance in a Level Best Books anthology. The story features the same befuddled crooks who first appeared in “The Bank Job,” which won the Al Blanchard Award and then in “Sticky Business.” They’re all caper stories, and “The Lobster Trap” has a COVID-19 spin. It will be out in late November.
I was also pleased to learn that some of my words will be appearing in the MWA handbook How to Write a Mystery, edited by Lee Child with Laurie R. King. I’m not exactly sure which words, as I submitted two essays, but it’s thrilling to be part of this project all the same. Due out in April from Scribner.
On the other hand, I just had one of my stories “unpublished,” so to speak. It was accepted for an anthology several months ago. After a bit of haggling about the way payment would be remitted, I was, indeed paid. Contract signed and all. The anthology appeared on Amazon this week. But then I saw a tweet from a contributor complaining about not being paid. And then today the editor emailed everyone and said the anthology was canceled, returning the stories to the authors as if it had never been published. At least one copy was sold, perhaps more, and it is still listed on Amazon, albeit with a 1-2 month shipping date. Those of us who’ve been around for a while feel that this brief appearance on Amazon does indeed mean the book has been published, so our stories would now be considered reprints should we wish to attempt to publish them again. Apparently several contributors weren’t paid, so what does that mean for them? A messy situation.
We’ll be leaving the lights off tomorrow for Halloween. Not sure there’ll be any ghouls and goblins wandering the neighborhood anyway. The temperature has dropped significantly in the last week or so (we’ve had to run the heat!), and, of course there’s this pesky pandemic thing going on. I also think we’re going to skip watching the returns on Tuesday evening as I’m not sure my nerves are up to the suspense. We’ll probably just have a nice dinner and a bottle (or a few) of wine to steel us against whatever we’re going to face on Wednesday morning.
Next weekend we’re also going to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. The actual date isn’t until the following week, but we both have to work that day. Back in 2019, we would occasionally ask each other what we wanted to do to celebrate this milestone. We had all sorts of fancy ideas, but that ground to a halt in March or April. We still ask each other what we want to do, but our options have become severely limited! Nevertheless, we’ll find some way to mark the occasion!
