Saturday, January 28, 2023

Recent reading: "Entertainment to Die For"

Edited by Gay Toltl Kinman, Meredith Taylor, Susan Rowland

Entertainment to Die For is the latest anthology from the Sisters in Crime Los Angeles. It includes my short story "As Seen on Television".

We weren't expecting it for a couple more months, but right before Christmas we were informed that it would be released on January 1. And here it is! Also, I love that cover art. The red is really striking. 

It's always fun to see how differently the theme is interpreted by different writers. My story involves an actor willing to murder for the leading role on a crappy sitcom. Other involve live theater in the park, long-simmering resentments dating back to the early days of television, life and death struggles for power, position, and onscreen credits, period stories, revenge being wreaked, and murder on location.

Taking my own story out of the mix because I can't really be objective about it (but I do love my story), my personal favorites out of this collection were "Murder in Xanadu" (how can you not love a story that starts with, "When I was murdered, it didn't hurt at all," and "Careful What You Wish For" (the aforementioned early days of TV story). 

From my story:
Joey had become a celebrity on some inane reality show, then parlayed that into the lead on an equally inane sitcom called Life with Newbie. Joey starred as a big-city guy newly arrived at a small-town college, and in each episode helped enlighten his hick peers, professors, and anyone else who crossed his path, dispersing meaningful lessons about diversity, inclusion, tolerance, and other socially relevant issues. These were all delivered with the condescending subtlety of a sledge-hammer on steroids...

Pick up a copy and enjoy!
 

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