Launched at Vroman's

We had our official launch event for Angel City Beat at Vroman's in Pasadena Monday and we had a blast. I'm already struggling to stay current with my three classes this semester in only the second week, so I'm just getting around to posting this. Local author and all-around rock star Naomi Hirahara did an amazing job of moderating and we got a pretty good crowd. Fun was had by all. Pics by The Brother.

 

Cover reveal!

We have an official cover reveal for Angel City Beat, the upcoming Sisters in Crime Los Angeles anthology that includes my story "Unbeatable", which involves an undefeated racehorse, a dead jockey, and a pet psychic.

 

 

 

We still don't have an exact release date, but it looks like officially it will be sometime in December.

Going to press

Very happy to announce that I received an acceptance email today for the short story I submitted to this year's Sisters in Crime Los Angeles anthology, Angel City Beat.

 

 

My story is called "Unbeatable" and involves an undefeated racehorse, a dead jockey, and a pet psychic. It takes place at Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia.

 

It's been a while since I got an acceptance email, and I was thrilled to see it. I'm usually confident when I submit that the story is solid and meets the theme, and therefore I'm usually surprised when my story isn't chosen. In this case, I doubled up on the theme (Angel City Beat...hoofbeats and an unbeaten racehorse) but I wasn't sure if the story would be thrilling, or read like a giant mess. I felt like what I was trying to write wasn't coming across on the page and that's always frustrating. In addition, since we only have one editor this time around (we usually have three, but the chapter scored genre legend Barb Goffman to edit this baby) we were capped at 12 stories as part of Barb's participation (we usually have 15-17 stories in our anthologies), so acceptance was even tougher. And yet...

And yet I got in. I'm so thrilled. I'm thrilled to be published again, to be in yet another anthology from SinC LA, and to work with Barb Goffman. And I hope everyone who reads my crazy story about a genuine pet psychic, a crooked jockey, and a big rugged horse who may or may not be a four-legged mindless himbo loves it as much as I do, and apparently as much as our judges/readers did.

I'm very grateful and can't wait to publicize the heck out of this anthology. SinC LA usually releases their anthologies in spring of odd-numbered years, but in order to make this available for Christmas and also eligible for awards next year, is fast-tracking this publication for December 2024.