Submitting short stories to markets and getting the right story in the hands of the right editor at the right publisher to fit with other stories in a given anthology or magazine is like tossing dice. Or maybe I’m throwing proverbial spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. No …
My father is the family genealogist. He did extensive research into both his family and my mother’s family. Dad’s family is rather straightforward—all arriving in Texas in the 1870s and 1880s from what is now the Czech Republic. My mother’s mother was Irish American. Her parents arrived in the US …
The fact that the victim in my upcoming story entitled “Merry Library Murder” is a librarian is not a sign of hidden hostility or wishful thinking. Rather, the opposite is true. I set the story in a library because I spend a lot of time in libraries. Most of my …
By N.M. Cedeño People like to ask writers, do you ever use details from your life in your writing? Answer: Sometimes. It depends on what I’m writing. If I’m writing science fiction or noir, nothing in the story may be evocative of my life. Other times, details from my life …
“Serenity, Courage, Wisdom” is a crime fiction short story set in New Orleans. The title is inspired by a prayer that my parents had on the wall in their kitchen. The story features a medical student named Flor faced with the loss of her best friend, Viva. Viva’s spirit was …
In 2020, I came across a call for submissions for mystery short stories to be included in an anthology. The anthology was to be called Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties. The editor, Michael Bracken, wanted stories set in the 1960s featuring private detectives, with bonus points given …
I have a story in Crimeucopia: Say What Now? entitled “Reaching for the Moon.” What’s it about? An anonymous astronaut in the Apollo program wanders from Houston to Galveston and gets himself into trouble. He hires a private detective to resolve a little matter of blackmail. And from the Publisher: …
I had fun discussing Creating Characters with a panel of mystery authors for the the Pflugerville library. After talking about how we create characters, we played “Two Truths and A Lie.” Click Here to watch the panel. My two truths and a lie are below. Can you guess which is …
My short crime story set in the future entitled “The Wrong Side of History” came out in the October 2021 issue of After Dinner Conversation. After Dinner Conversation is a magazine that prints short stories that provoke deeper ethical and philosophical discussions. The magazine will provide discussion questions to help promote …
The team from Bad Vibes Removal Services is back in six new short paranormal mysteries featuring murder, theft, arson, and ghosts in towns across Texas! Quirky historian Lea, who loves to try hairstyles from ancient civilizations and has always been able to see ghosts, enjoys working with her friend and …
