I submitted some more stories to various markets. The Tucson chapter of Sisters in Crime is putting together an anthology of stories from members of the Arizona chapters, so I retooled two older stories and sent them in.

A new anthology called Sex and Synthesizers is seeking crime stories set in the 1980s that have to include a “steamy” sex scene. So I wrote one and sent it in. This was my first time trying something like that. Oddly enough, a few days later Sisters in Crime had a webinar on writing sex scenes, Without knowing it, I think I followed most of their recommendations.

And I will be sending the newly-revised version of “Two Graves,” the second Summer Cum Laude story out. Meanwhile, “Hunted,” the third in the series is almost ready to go, and I have a first draft of the stageplay version of “My Old School.”. Stay tuned!

At last night’s meeting I asked if anyone else had written a story based on the RV park ideas from last month’s meeting, and only one had, and that was not a mystery. So it looks like editors will not be inundated with dozens of similar stories.

The speaker last night was author James L’Etoile, who used to be a corrections officer. He told us what it was really like inside a prison. And, as he pointed out, learning did not require a felony conviction.

Since I am trying to be more active in the writing community, I have also sent in a membership application to the Mystery Writers of America. I had to register as an Associate member — to be a full member you have to have earned above a certain amount. For short stories the threshold is fairly low ($200), but I have not reached that yet. But getting there; if I can win the Mysterious Photograph Contest five more times, that would do it.

That’s all for now.

Over the next 90 minutes we came up with a setting (RV park in Arizona), heroine (Felicia, park manager), a villain (Pastor Bob), and a bunch of other characters. Plus a basic plot. When we were done I asked if it was OK for us to use all this in our own story, and they said that was fine. Even with the same basics, every author would produce a unique story.

So over the next few weeks I wrote a 7800-word story called “Angels Grove.” I changed the heroine’s name, but crammed almost everything else in. Personally, I think it came out great. Last week I sent it off to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. We’ll see if they take it. Oh, and next week is the next meeting, so we’ll see who else wrote something. Stay tuned.

We had a steady stream of people all evening. I was at the first table by the door, so people walked in, right past me, and only then started looking around! But that was OK, some of them came back eventually.

Before we opened to the public, I got a chance to meet some of the other exhibitors. There were other mystery writers, memoirists, and children’s authors. The youngest was a five-year-old kid who had written a book about his lemonade stand.

I shared the table with a guy who had written many books on a variety of topics: animation, Boston sports legends, baseball. He had a great patter, telling people about the books and how unique they were. He made a valiant effort, but nobody was buying.

I kept buttonholing people and asking, “Do you like murder mysteries?” Quite a few said no, but enough stopped that I had time to talk with them. I had printed out copies of some of my stories, but only a few people wanted to read them. The ones that did seemed to like them, though. I also passed out my business cards, which have the address of my web site, with examples of my stories. So, as I said, it was fun.

The only really bad thing was that there was ice cream for us and the guests. By the time the event had ended and we were free to get some, it had all melted from the heat. So we never got any. Oh well.

I did buy a copy of the lemonade stand book.

I can’t wait for next year!

Coming up: On June 25, 2025, 6:00-8:00 pm, I will be participating in the Local Authors Showcase at the Shrewsbury (MA) Public Library. The authors can set up tables where they can show their work and even sell things. Since I haven’t published any books, I won’t have them there to sell, although I may bring some spare copies of Crimeucopia: Great Googly Moo! in case someone wants to buy one rather than just borrowing it from the library.

What I will have is samples of my short stories. I printed out a few dozen of them, with an introduction for each, and put them in sheet protectors. I hope that will prevent people from walking away with them.

I will also have a sign and business cards. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Please bear with us as we try out different things.