Links to Malice Domestic's Agatha Nominated Short Stories

Gigi Pandian's 2017 Agatha

One of the delightful aspects of mystery awards season is reading the nominated works. The 2019 Agatha short story nominees provide a range of time periods and characters to contemplate and savor. Here are the links to each story:

"All God's Sparrows" by Leslie Budewitz (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)
"A Postcard for the Dead" by Susanna Calkins in Florida Happens (Three Rooms Press)

"Bug Appetit" by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
"The Case of the Vanishing Professor" by Tara Laskowski (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)
"English 398: Fiction Workshop" by Art Taylor (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)

Please read and enjoy!

Malice Domestic 31

Malice Domestic, a conference for writers and readers of Christie-style mysteries, is scheduled for May 1 through 3, 2019, in Bethesda, Maryland. Donna Andrews is the Guest of Honor with Chris Grabenstein as the Toastmaster and Parnell Hall recognized for life achievement. The Agatha nominees (awarded at the Malice Domestic banquet to celebrate excellence in the traditional mystery) include many friends. In addition to Leslie Budewitz, Susanna Calkins, and Barb Goffman, Art Taylor and Tara Laskowski, husband and wife marvelous writers, find themselves competitors for best short story, a first in Agatha history. Art describes their “rivalry” in this article.

Art Taylor, son Dash, and Tara Laskowski

Bouchercon 2015, Part One

PGB and Barb Goffman (Photo by Gloria Alden)

As Riley Miller and I left for Raleigh, NC, my home was under an evacuation warning due to the previous weekend’s 1000 year flood event. Fortunately, the dam remained strong. We headed north on I-95 and avoided the area where it had been closed. On Wednesday, we attended the SinC into Great Writing presentation by James Scott Bell, who taught us how to write from the middle. The Guppies met for a Mexican buffet at Twisted Mango the next day. Barb Goffman and I discovered we had the same taste in Halloween attire. Thanks to Gloria Alden for the photo!

A Malice Domestic Panel

This May, I’ll be moderating a panel at Malice Domestic, a conference for fans of traditional, Agatha Christie-style mysteries. I’ve attended Malice for ten years, but this will be my first time participating on a panel. Called “Three Heads Are Better Than One: Sleuths Who Work Together,” it features authors Sally Goldenbaum, Liz Stauffer, B.K.(Bonnie) Stevens, and Wendy Tyson, and considers sleuths working in ensembles, some amateurs (Sally and Liz’s) and others private investigators (B.K. and Wendy’s). The panel takes place at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 3rd. Thanks to Barb Goffman, Malice’s program coordinator, for making this wonderful assignment!

Barb Goffman's Macavity

Congratulations to Barb Goffman, excellent mystery short story author and program coordinator for Malice Domestic, who won the 2013 Macavity Award, given by Mystery Readers International and Mystery Readers Journal at Bouchercon,  for “The Lord is my Shamus” published in the anthology Chesapeake Crimes: This Job Is Murder (Wildside Press 2012) and republished in her collection, Don't Get Mad, Get Even (Wildside Press 2013). Her newest stories are: "Dead and Buried Treasure," in All Hallows' Evil (Mystery and Horror, LLC) and "Operation: Knock Her Down A Peg," to appear in The Killer Wore Cranberry: Room For Thirds (Untreed Reads Publishing).