WRITING NEWS
Books:
Earlier in this spot, I announced that The Mystery Company, which is reprinting the early adventures of my metaphysical detective Owen Keane, would publish a brand new Keane novel, EASTWARD IN EDEN, in the fall of 2012. The publication date is now June 2013. EASTWARD IN EDEN, the first new Keane novel in fourteen years, is set in Kenya in 1997, two years after the timeframe of Keane's last book-length outing, ORION RISING.
In 2011, The Mystery Company reprinted DEADSTICK, the novel that introduced Keane. This year, DEADSTICK will be joined by print-on-demand and eBook reprints of LIVE TO REGRET and THE LOST KEATS.
DEADSTICK can be ordered using the following links:
amazon.com - barnesandnoble.com - The Mystery Company (various eBook formats) - indiebound.com
In April 2011, Five Star released the first full-length novel featuring my Hollywood historical P.I., Scott Elliott, since RAISE THE DEVIL. DANCE IN THE DARK is set in 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War. In it, Elliott tangles with rock musicians, flower children, and motorcycle gangs while awaiting word of a son missing in action.
DANCE IN THE DARK can be ordered using the following links:
amazon.com - barnesandnoble.com - indiebound.com
In February 2011, Perfect Crime Books published Elliott's first collection of short stories. THE HOLLYWOOD OP brings together all the published Elliott tales and one new one, "Sleep Big," which lands Elliott in a mystery that baffled Philip Marlowe himself (or at least the screenwriters of Marlowe's The Big Sleep).
THE HOLLYWOOD OP can be ordered using the following links:
amazon.com - indiebound.com - barnesandnoble.com
Short Stories:
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine published a new Owen Keane story, "After Cana," in its September/October 2012 issue. Keane comes very close to being a true "armchair detective" in this one.
Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine included the first story in what I hope will be a new series in its January/February 2013 issue. "Margo and the Silver Cane" is set in the world of 1940s radio (and espionage).
Be on the lookout for "A Scandal in Bohemia," my first Sherlock Holmes parody, which will appear in the February 2013 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Based on a recently discovered notebook of Dr. John H. Watson, it offers a very different take on a famous tale. Also keep an eye out for "The Mayan Rite," a stand-alone story set in Cancun, Mexico. It was purchased by Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and should appear sometime in 2013.
I also have two stories in recent anthologies. BY HOOK AND BY CROOK, edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg for Tyrus Books, reprints a story of mine set in Jackson, Wyoming, "The Caretaker." It's as close as I've come to a western. My one and only horror story, "Uncanny," is currently available in an anthology called TWICE THE TERROR, edited by Jeani Rector and published by Bear Manor Media.
Nonfiction:
The Writers' Center of Indiana recently published "a basic guide to writing mystery fiction" called WRITING MURDER. It was edited by S.M. Harding and contains short essays on writing and marketing by seventeen working writers, including William Kent Krueger and Kit Ehrman. My contribution is "Notes on Plot," a brief guide to developing a mystery plot.