Albert Tucher
-
Flash fiction.
November 24th, 2010 21:35 by Albert Tucher
I just added a story to my writing samples. The Most Beautiful Sight on Earth currently holds my record for shortest story ever--391 words, including the title. It's another story that first appeared in DZ Allen's Muzzle Flash.
I think it will hold the record for some time to come.
-
Crimebake conference
November 16th, 2010 23:42 by Albert Tucher
Last weekend I attended the annual Crimebake conference in Dedham, Mass. It was my fifth in a row, which gives a hint about my level of enjoyment. This year's highlights included hearing Dennis Lehane speak. He is, among other things, one of the funniest people on the planet in his dry, deadpan way.
I also met David Carkeet, whose 1984 comic novel The Greatest Slump of All Time is on my list of favorite books. Imagine a team made up of secret depression sufferers who keep winning games. The worse they feel, the more they win, and the more they win, the worse they feel. The scene in which they break through their manly silence and share their pain is hilarious. I won't give it away here.
By the way, the author is as engaging as his book.
One more thing: I won an honorable mention in the conference short story conference held in honor of the late Al Blanchard. The story is The Tango Queen, and I am searching for a home for it.
I'll let you know.
-
DZ Allen's Muzzle Flash
November 3rd, 2010 20:32 by Albert Tucher
In 2006 and 2007 I contributed a number of flash stories to DZ Allen's online magazine Muzzle Flash. I had never tried short short fiction, but I soon discovered that you can do a lot in 700 words if you don't try to do too much.
How profound is that?
A 700-word limit is one thing. 500 is another. Only one of my successful stories broke that barrier. A few others came close, including the first story I placed in Muzzle Flash I have just posted that first effort, The Fate Worse Than Death, in my writing samples.
DZ is now involved in the great pulp magazine Out of the Gutter and the new publisher Gutter Books, but I'm grateful to him for his support at a crucial point in my writing career.
-
The Best American Mystery Stories 2010
October 3rd, 2010 15:27 by Albert Tucher
What else would my first blogpost be about? This anthology appears every year. Otto Penzler and his staff at the Mysterious Bookshop read all the short crime fiction they can find and choose fifty stories to send to the guest editor. This year's editor was Lee Child of Jack Reacher fame. He chose the final twenty stories for publication. For my story Bismarck Rules to make it all the way through this process is an honor that I am still trying to grasp.
It's doubly gratifying, because placing this story took almost ten years, when the online Oregon Literary Review accepted it for publication in 2009.
Diana makes only a cameo appearance in the story. The focus is on her sidekick from my novels and several other stories, another prostitute named Mary Alice Mercier aka Crystal.
-
