I’m so excited to announce that my story “Hotelin'” won a Derringer Award for Best Long Story from the Short Mystery Fiction Society!
It’s an honor I’ve wanted since I started writing crime fiction short stories back in 2007! I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Ron Earl Phillips of Shotgun Honey for accepting my story and publishing it in Shotgun Honey, Volume 4: RECOIL.
It’s especially exciting to be a winner along with my friend and writer group buddy, Travis Richardson. Yay!
My story “Hotelin” is about a teenage girl struggling to take care of her little sister while her single mother works two jobs and moves them from hotel to hotel. It’s a tale of revenge and community.
I was humbled when Ron Earl Phillips asked me to contribute a story for an anthology honoring the late great William E. Wallace or “Bill” to those who knew him well. He was an investigate reporter, crime fiction writer, devoted fan of the genre, and ardent supporter of all of us in the crime fiction community.
I met Bill only once. It was at Left Coast Crime in Portland. Travis Richardson, Stephen Buehler, and I hosted an Author / Reader connection where we discussed short story writing with anyone who wanted to sign up (and hey, we offered free books and drinks!). Bill signed up and I knew Travis had met him before. Travis had nothing but praise for Bill and I immediately agreed when I met him. Extremely intelligent, kind, and witty. After that we became friends on social media and I found myself looking forward to reading his thoughtful posts. They were encouraging, humorous (often times with a dark twinge to it), and introspective. A true gentleman and talented writer who is missed by all of us in the crime fiction community.
All proceeds of this anthology go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
Here is a lovely post that Ron Earl Phillips, editor of Shotgun Honey, posted: DEADLINES
Today is a big day – both for the much-anticipated “novel-in-stories” that’s out with Down & Out Books that I co-edited with E.A. Aymar as well as my little flash fiction piece over at Shotgun Honey. So here it goes…
HAPPY PUB DAY!!
It’s finally here – THE NIGHT OF THE FLOOD – is available to read, buy, touch, swipe, whatever format you prefer.
“Each of the 14 varied and fitfully amusing stories in this solid anthology takes as its starting point the destruction of a dam and the subsequent flooding of Everton, PA. Aymar and Chen deserve kudos for putting together a distinctive anthology.” —Publishers Weekly
“Night of the Flood edited by E. A. Aymar and Sarah M. Chen is an unusual book. The stories by a variety of authors share a setting, plot events and characters. They represent different perspectives on an unnatural disaster engineered by a group of women who call themselves The Daughters. I found The Night of the Flood unexpected. Some stories moved me while others made me think. I recommend it to readers who have an appetite for a book that’s very different.”
Today a few of us are over at Crimespree Magazine talking about the anthology and our approach to writing our stories.
And lastly – and one I’m very excited about – is my return to Shotgun Honey, a flash fiction site that I’ve enjoyed for many years. I haven’t been published there since A High Ridge Homecoming back in 2015. I was thrilled to be back and so I give you The Last Second Chance. Hope you like it!
It’s here! A new episode of the awesome crime fiction podcast WriterTypes hosted by the always entertaining Eric Beetner and S.W. Lauden.
Guests for this episode include Catriona McPherson, Tom Pitts, David Zeltserman, Eddie Muller, Shaun Harris, Scott Montgomery, Mike McCrary, and Gabino Iglesias. Wow, what a lineup, right? Plus reviews by Dan and Kate Malmon from Crimespree Magazine. And wait, there’s even a reading of my short story “A High Ridge Homecoming” published over at Shotgun Honey.
So get to listening already and become a WriterTypes follower!
