A Fun Fish Tales Quiz

As many of you know, I have a story in the short story anthology published by the Guppies chapter of Sisters in Crime that is titled Fish Tales The Guppy Anthology. All of the mystery stories selected for the anthology had to involve fish or water or both. It's been fun working with the other story authors on promotion events and ideas.

The latest promotion idea is a quiz that the group put together for Goodreads. Anyone who is a member of Goodreads can play and test their knowledge about the anthology--or just have fun guessing while learning some things about the stories. Here's the LINK to the book on Goodreads. Page down until you see "Quiz Question" and click on the "Take this quiz ..." prompt. Good luck and have fun!

Fish Tales Guppy Anthology Nears Publication

This is the cover art for the soon-to-be-released Fish Tales, The Guppy Anthology. It's a collection of short stories written by members of the Guppies chapter of Sisters in Crime, to which I belong. The stories all have a theme related to fish or water. My "Fatal Fish Flop" story was one of twenty-two that were selected to be included in the collection, and I must say I'm pretty pleased with it. The first line is:

"The guppies killed him."

I gave myself the challenge of writing a mystery story where guppies are wrongly accused of causing the death of a murder victim, and I had a lot of fun with it.

Fish Tales will be published by Wildside Press in time for copies to be available at the Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, MD April 29 - May 1. I and many of the other story authors will be at this conference to sign our short stories in the anthology. I've read them all, and I can tell you its a stellar collection, well worth diving into!

The anthology even has it's own Facebook page. Please go to, "Like" it, read the Info page, then leave a comment on the wall about what you think of it. :-)

A New Short Story Contract

I am a long-time member of the Sisters in Crime Guppies on-line chapter. While Guppies stands for "The Great Unpublished," many of us who have become published mystery authors remain in the group because of the close friendships we've made there. As such, I participated in the Guppies anthology project, submitting a short story to be judged and considered along with 39 other Guppies.

Twenty of the forty submitted short stories were selected, along with mine, and two more stories by published Guppies were added, to make a total of 22 stories. Those 22 stories were professionally edited, then we began the long process of querying publishers to publish the anthology for us. Recently the Guppies treasurer signed a contract with Wildside Press to publish the anthology sometime in the next twelve months. Needless to say, the chapter is celebrating!

The anthology, titled Fish Tales, has a theme of stories related to fish and/or bodies of water, and of course they all are mysteries. Mine, titled "Fatal Fish Flop" begins with the line, "The guppies killed him". How could I choose any other? ;-) The other stories to be featured in the anthology are listed below. I know many of these talented writers personally, and I can say that this is going to be a stellar collection!

“Thicker Than Blood” by Leslie Budewitz
“Secret of the Red Mullet” by Nancy Adams
“Accidents Happen” by Jim Jackson
“Identity Crisis” by Diane Vallere
“Sleeping with the Fish” by KB Inglee
“Feeding Frenzy” by Patricia Winton
“SASE” by Karen Pullen
“New Age Old Story” by Sarah Glenn
“Shadow of the River” by Gigi Pandian
“Turkey Hill” by Warren Bull
“Something Fishy” by Peggy Ehrhart
“Truck Contest” by Kaye George
“Amazing Grace” by Betsy Bitner
“A Murder Runs Through It” by Annette Dashofy
“Dead-Eye Gravy” by Krista Davis
“The Professor’s Books” by Gloria Alden
“Koi Palace” by Heidi Saunders
“Something Fishy This Way Comes” by Deborah Benoit
“Palace on the Lake” by Daryl Wood Gerber
“Fatal Fish Flop” by Beth Groundwater
“The Frain Legacy” by Darlene Ryan
“Critique Group” by Patricia Gulley

Congratulations to all of the Guppies writers whose short stories are included in the anthology, and I hope my blog readers will put Fish Tales on their to-read lists. I'll keep you posted on developments and let you know when the release date will be.