If you’re thinking of getting any of my books for the holidays, it couldn’t be easier. I’ve got you covered, even for autographed books!
I’ve been recommending this essay for years to every writer I know. And it’s free to read online…
I compiled a list of fun facts about this brilliant mathematician after reading two biographies. The oddest little things stayed with me, and here they are…
Well, it happened again. I went to check out one of my books on Amazon, only to discover the image of the paperback cover had been replaced by a picture of mens workout pants. This has happened to me a lot in my years of selling books on Amazon. It’s always pants, for some reason. And no one can ever tell why it’s pants…
I’m a frustrated artist. I was into both painting and writing when I was a kid. When the time came to pick a college, I rolled the dice and went with a writing major. Guess it turned out okay, but I’m still strongly attracted to art of all kinds, especially illustrations. It’s a great form—often representational, but still demanding technical mastery.
A few months back, I did a post for SleuthSayers about how mystery writers can actually own a piece of art that once graced their stories in major mystery magazines. This is somewhat inside baseball, I admit, but it shakes down like this…
I received confirmation late yesterday that Amazon had finally resolved the issue in which one of my book covers went missing, and was replaced with the image of a stack of mens’ trousers. (See image below.)
I carefully clicked through to all of Amazon’s international stores to make sure that what the KDP rep was telling me was accurate. It was.
All told, the problem took from 9/8/23 to 9/24/23 to resolve. So I only had to look like an idiot—and lose potential sales—for 16 days!
I was naturally concerned when I saw the recent articles about the proliferation of crap books impersonating established authors. Jane Friedman did a great post on this. And Chris Fox revealed another twist on the scammer problem. Fox predicts that these kind of quality control issues will hurt Amazon in the long term.
I believe I have them all beat. What I’m reporting here is not a scam issue. At least, I don’t think it is. I do think it’s just an egregious example of nonexistent quality control.
I looked at one of my self-pubbed books the other day on Amazon, and discovered this. Yes! I am an author not of books, but PANTS!
The multiple award-winning writer Art Taylor runs a blog called “The First Two Pages,” in which various writers take turns discussing the craft decisions they made writing their short stories. I was honored to be invited by Art to talk about my latest story in Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.
Yes, this is the same historical mystery—centered on a flower shop in 1893 New York City—that I recently talked about at the mystery blog, Sleuthsayers.
But in this essay I’m drilling down into structure, word choices, and other decisions I had to make while using real-life people as fictional characters. If you’re into that kind of discussion, I hope you will stop by.
One of the beautiful things about short stories is that they’re often a quick, wonderful way to learn about a new writer. If you’re into mysteries, it’s definitely worth bookmarking Art’s blog.
You will absolutely discover countless new mystery writers that you ought to know about.
Art Taylor, for example, is married to the writer Tara Laskowski, author of the suspense novel One Night Gone and the upcoming The Mother Next Door.
See what I mean? That’s two writers right there!
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Flower shop image by Alisa Anton via Unsplash.
You’ll find a new short story of mine, “Mr. Tesla Likes to Watch,” in the May/June 2021 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (AHMM). The hard-copy issue hits newsstands today, April 20. Digital issues are already available.
“Mr. Tesla” is set in New York City in 1893. Mark Twain and Nicola Tesla—who were friends in real life—are presented with a strange mystery concerning a flower shop that they attempt to solve independently. The “winner,” i.e., the one who cracks the case, must buy the other dinner at Delmonico’s, a popular restaurant of the era. I’ve wanted to do something with these two real-life figures ever since I learned that they were unlikely friends.
You can buy digital issues via B&N, Kindle, Apple, Magzter, and Kobo. All the links are here at Hitchcock’s website. If you want to check out my story, make sure you are downloading the issue shown here.
Submission stats: I finished this story sometime in October 2018, but it did not find a home until Hitchcock’s bought it in February 2020. They took 309 days to say yes, and the story is appearing about 14 months from acceptance. Payment was $480.
Yes, I will someday release an e-book version of of the story, which I’ll offer free to readers on my list. If you’d rather wait for the free copy, please join my e-newsletter. (See bottom of this page.)
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Flower shop image by Alisa Anton on Unsplash
Today I’m participating in the 100-word #adventghosts2019 flash fiction event run by writer Loren Eaton. You'll find links to all the stories at his blog, I Saw Lightning Fall. Here’s my piece.
Town Square on a Midnight Clear
As the carolers sang, Betty considered just how little God cared. Long ago she had learned that she was irrelevant.
Summoning that power now, she pressed past the singers to the unlit balsam. No one saw her pull the paper bag from her purse. No one watched her hang her great-uncle’s shrunken head on a bough, the old sinner’s sand-filled eyes and mouth stitched tight with waxed green monofilament.
Claude had loved Christmas (and children) a little too much.
No one watched the stranger in the boring car coat drive away, leaving town for good. She was invisible.
Copyright 2019 Joseph D’Agnese
My previous contributions to the Advent Ghosts events are here: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016.
Photo by Seoyeon Choi via Unsplash
You’ll find a new short story of mine, “The Detective Who Stopped by Bedford Street,” in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The hard-copy issue hits newsstands today, December 17. Digital issues are already available.
"The Detective Who" is set in New York City during an unspecified decade. A detective uses an unconventional method to crack murder cases. It’s a story inspired in part by the old John Cheever short story, “The Enormous Radio.” Mine’s probably more a work of fantasy than mystery, but it was fun writing.
You can buy digital issues via B&N, Kindle, Google Play, Apple, Magzster, and Kobo. All the links are here at Hitchcock’s website. If you want to check out my story, make sure you are downloading the issue shown here.
Submissions stats: I finished this story sometime in Jan 2018, but it did not find a home until Hitchcock’s bought it in June 2018. They took 109 days to say yes, and the story is appearing about 17 months from acceptance. Payment was $350.
Yes, I will someday release an e-book version of of the story, which I’ll offer free to readers on my list. If you’d rather wait for the free copy, please join my e-newsletter.
Radio Photo by Felipe Belluco via Unsplash
I have a flash piece up at Shotgun Honey today. "Wood Man" is short, sweet, and unpleasant. I hope you'll check it out. My thanks to Ron and the other editors there.
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Unrelated:
I've been absent from here a bit. I'm sorry to say that my wife lost her grandmother over the Memorial Day weekend. On its own, that loss would would have been bearable, but coming two months to the day after her mom passed, Grandma's death seemed to carry on even more weight. I originally wanted to write more about her, but I find I just don't have the energy to go there. We are still mired in the world of wills and estate resolutions that the living must attend to, even in their grief. The double-death experience has already taught me a lot. Everyone needs a good, clear trust or will, like, yesterday. Writers especially need to figure out how they're going to dispose of their intellectual property after death. I'll write more about this when I've completed my own estate plan, but you might start here and here.
Tod Fisher, the detective in my book The Mesmerist, apparently has a fondness for old-fashioned chewing gum, specifically the three brands now produced by Cadbury Adams.
From what I understand, these gums aren’t hugely popular today, but they do sell enough for the manufacturers to justify making them in batch quantities every couple of years.
Clove gum tastes like, well, cloves, the spiky spice you’ve tasted in Christmas wassail concoctions or else in various holiday ham dishes. Black Jack tastes like licorice or, more formally, anise. And Beeman’s tastes like wintergreen, the flavoring in birch beer.
I got hooked on these gums back in the early nineties when, if I’m not mistaken, Black Jack was referenced in the David Lynch’s TV show Twin Peaks. (See the video here.)
I enjoy them but I don’t find them in stores that often; when I do I buy a handful of packs. Yes, you can order them bulk online, but somehow that feels like defeating the purpose. These are gums that ought to bought from a barrel in a quaint general store, or a modern store that’s ably faking that milieu.
When I was writing The Mesmerist, I gave Fisher an affinity for “nostalgic” gums, since so much of his personality is about squelching things from his past. But the novelty gums quickly worked their way into the plot. At one point, the flavor of Clove gum triggers one of the cop’s sense memories. At another, the gum plays a critical role in an escape.
If you spot them anywhere in the real world, you ought to try them. They’re just plain tasty.
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