On Saturday, May 11, I’ll be presenting a talk and workshop for the Desert Sleuths Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Register here for the workshop, which takes place 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Mountain Time (East Coast: add 3 hours; Central, add 2; MT, add 1; Pacific, subtract 0); the cost is $25 Desert Sleuths and TSinC members, $35 all others. Here’s the description from the Desert Sleuths website: Four or Five Key Points on the Short Story A virtual workshop with Art Taylor Short stories must start quickly—middle of the action. The final lines need to wrap everything up—and offer a surprise plot twi ..read more

The Malice Domestic mystery conference is one of the highlights of our year, and usually my schedule is jam-packed with events throughout the weekend. This year is a little different in that I’m taking part in only one event—but what an event! I’m honored to be interviewing Kristopher Zgorski, recipient of this year’s Amelia Award, presented to “individuals the Board determined had contributed to the Malice Domestic community and exemplified what Malice Domestic represents.” Kris has already won the Raven Award from Mystery Writers of America, also honoring significant professional contributio ..read more

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here. I’m a fan of long titles for short stories, and today’s post by Joseph S. Walker begins with a great title: “And Now, An Inspiring Story of Tragedy Overcome.” I ..read more

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here. Robert Lopresti was the first guest at the First Two Pages when I took over curating this series in November 2017 after Bonnie Stevens’ death; Rob wrote about hi ..read more

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here. Stephen King has called Charles Ardai “a true renaissance man”—a quote I’m glad I found, since I started to use the same phrase myself in writing this introducti ..read more

I’ll be celebrating my birthday this year by interviewing my good friend Donna Andrews as the headline event at the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival—one of our favorite mystery events and such a thrill to be part of the program again in 2024! This year’s festival takes place Saturday, March 16, at the Suffolk Conference Center, adjacent to the Hilton Garden Inn on the beautiful Suffolk Riverfront, 100 East Constance Road, Suffolk, Virginia. And here’s the schedule for the day—though need to point out that the VIP Reception has already sold out! 11:30am-12:45pm VIP Reception (PRIVATE) Advance T ..read more

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here. For our fourth and final essay celebrating Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology, it’s a true honor to welcome one of the founding members of the SleuthSayers b ..read more

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here. The First Two Pages continues a celebration of the new anthology Murder, Neat with an essay below by David Edgerley Gates on his story “Shuffle Off to Buffalo”—f ..read more

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here. We’re continuing a series of First Two Pages essays by contributors to Murder, Neat, a new anthology edited by and featuring writers from the group blog SleuthSa ..read more

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here. February 13 is publication day for Murder, Neat, a new anthology edited by and featuring contributors to SleuthSayers, a group blog that’s home to some of the fi ..read more