Who am I?
Glad You Asked
I am a retired librarian living in the Pacific Northwest. (For an example of my work in the field, see my American Libraries article How Overdue Books Caused the Civil War.)
My first nonfiction book, WHEN WOMEN DIDN’T COUNT won the Margaret T. Lane / Virginia F. Saunders Memorial Research Award. The book was the result of years of research and reveals how women have been overlooked and misplaced in federal statistics.
My other publications are mysteries. Mostly funny. More than eighty of my short stories have been published, almost half of them in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. I have been a finalist for the Derringer Award five times, winning three, and have also picked up a Black Orchid Novella Award, an Anthony nomination, and more rejection slips than you can imagine.
Oh yes, also two novels, including GREENFELLAS, which was named one of the best mysteries of 2015 by Kings River Life Magazine.
My story “Street of the Dead House,” which appeared in the anthology nEvermore!, was reprinted in both BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2016 and in YEAR’S BEST DARK FANTASY & HORROR: 2016.
Freebie! I have been blogging for ten years. Recently I collected more than fifty of these essays into a free, informal, online textbook on writing short fiction. You can find A Textbook Case here.
