Albert Tucher
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Something very different.
December 16th, 2010 15:52 by Albert Tucher
I just posted a link to my novella The Acting Librarian in my writing samples. This story appeared in the excellent online magazine Mysterical-e.
I work as a cataloger at the Newark Public Library, a place with an awesome span of institutional memory. One of my colleagues, who retired earlier this year, started his career in 1947, which was also the year that Beatrice Winser died. She, in turn, came to Newark in 1895 as Assistant Librarian (Assistant Director in today's terms.) She was a fascinating bundle of Victorian contradictions. Progressive on the rights of women and minorities, she was also a demented micromanager. Thousands of pages of her memos survive. When you have read her four single-spaced pages on pasting a label into a book, you know how to paste a label into a book. She also treated her staff with a paternalism that no one would tolerate today.
But In the end she abused her nearly total power over her subordinates less than most in her position would have done. She also laid a foundation that sustained the Newark Public Library through two generations of difficult times.
The hard times have never been worse than today. In 2011 the Library's budget will be down forty percent from 2009. Miss Winser's legacy will be tested as never before.
She deserves a fictional tribute, and I hope this story measures up.
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Diana story with a difference.
December 6th, 2010 17:36 by Albert Tucher
A new erotica zine called Temptation Magazine has just started publishing. I sent them a Diana story called Shoot Me, which is now up. It seems to be the first story they have published.
[http://temptationmag.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/shoot-me-by-albert-tucher/]
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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