Thursday Treats: 2/19/2026

Welcome back to “Thursday Treats.”  Thank you to everyone who commented here and elsewhere in support. Often times, it feels like anything I do does not matter. The support means a lot. So, thank you.

Enough jibber-jabber from me. On to the news….

 

 

The free to read e-zine, Yellow Mama, has been updated with issue #114. It includes works by Pam Ebel, Shari Held, Joan Leotta, J. M. Taylor, Ed Teja, John A. Tures, and Elizabeth Zelvin. The newly redesigned website has a new look as well. You can read the issue for free at their  website. And, if you are on Facebook, follow their Facebook page.  

 

Frank Vatel’s short story, The Macaw, appears online at Revolution John. You can read it for free at the website.

 

Kings River Life Magazine publishes a lot of free to read short stories. Last weekend, Just Desserts, by Gregory Meece went up. It features the Summer Olympics and is a mystery. You can read it on the website for free.

 

 

Also, last weekend, the new issue of Black Cat Weekly dropped. John M. Floyd’s short story, Mutiny in the County, is featured on the cover of Issue 233. You can get the issue at the website.

 

 

M. E. Proctor, who has been a guest before on this blog and always has stuff coming out, has a tale in the inaugural issue of Dog Named Dog Press Quarterly Review. With her story, The Museum Girl, she joins a slew of authors in DNDP Quarterly: Issue 01. You can get the paperback issue on Amazon.

 

Scott McKinnon announced that his tale, Hard Luck Penny, appears at The Yard: Crime Blog. You can read it for free here. After you do that, poke around the site for awhile and check out the other crime fiction reads. Year after year, they do good work.

 

I mentioned before that John A. Tures has a story up at the new issue of Yellow Mama. His story, The Detainees, appears online at Suddenly… And Without Warning. You can read it for free here.

 

Gary Phillips announced that his short story, The Man With the Golden Racket, appears in the recently released anthology, Tennis Noir: Crime Fiction Anthology. Published by Level Short, an imprint of Level Best Books, this appears to be the first book in a line of “Sports Noir” reads based on the Amazon listing for the book.

 

By the way, two other short stories in the book have been reviewed by Robert Lopresti at his Little Big Crimes blog in recent weeks. "The Summer Tournament," by Jason Starr was reviewed here and "The Right to Lose" by Wil Medearis was reviewed here.

 

Until next time….

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2026