Thursday Treats: 9/03/2026

Some reading opportunities of interest this week.

 

SMFS list member Pam Ebel announced that her short story, Happy Hour at the Holy Grail Bar, was published online at The Yard: Crime Blog. You can read it for free here.

 

Pistol Jim Press has announced their published short stories for their most recent call. “Doors, Gates, & Portals” was edited by M. E. Proctor of the SMFS. You can read, for free, the ten stories as well as vote on them at the Substack.

 

SMFS list member David Hendrickson announced that his short story, If Only I Were Pretty, appears in the recently released Mystery, Crime, and Mayhem: Spring Break. Published by Knotted Road Press, you can pick it up at the publisher and Amazon.

 

Black Cat Weekly #261 is out and focuses more on short stories this week. You can pick up the latest issue here. The cover made me snicker as I think somebody was thinking fire ants on steroids. The only good thing I can see here that the drought has done has it has seemingly killed off a lot of the hideous fire ants in the yard here at Casa Tipple and Home Eatery Library.

 

 
SMFS list member by Liz Filleul announced that her new book, Sentenced Beyond the Seas, is now available for preorder. The read features her signature character, convict constable Will Grafton investigating crimes in 1830s Van Diemen's Land. Published by Clan Destine Press, it is available in paperback and digital formats at the publisher.

 

 

Quite a few SMFS list members are in the new anthology, Hooked on Urban Legends—and Murder! The members are Editor Barb Goffman (Into the Woods), Shari Held (The House of Blue Lights Revisited), Alan Orloff (Face to Face), KM Rockwood (They Lurk In The Lake), Shannon Taft (The Cave Man), and Joseph S. Walker (The Things We Remember). Published by Wildside Press, the read is available in digital format now at Amazon with the print version coming out on September 8^th.

 
As I mentioned last week, also coming out on September 8^th is the new anthology, Crimeucopia presents Canadian Chronicles. Published by Murderous Ink Press, edited by John Connor, the anthology features stories written by Canadian authors. That also means the read includes several short stories by SMFS list members. They are Susan Daly (Borderline Illegal), Abe Margel (A Passion for Mining), Rosemary McCracken (The Millennium Project), donalee Moulton (Étoile Rouge), and Judy Penz Sheluk (Murder in the Marsh). The read is available through Amazon and other vendors.

 

I have been a fan of author Frank Zafiro for quite a few decades now. His latest read in his River City police procedural series, The Quick of the Night, is coming out on September 15^th. Published by Code 4 Press, the read is available now for preorder at Amazon and will be part of the Kindle Unlimited program at time of publication.

 

Also out on September 15^th is the latest read from author C. W. Blackwell. The Cold Dark Forever: A Novel, published by Shotgun Honey Books, is a crime fiction read set in 1942. The read is now available for preorder at Amazon.

 

Also out on the 15^th is the young adult read, It Should Have Been You: A Novel by Lynn Slaughter. Now published by Picarones Press, an imprint of Misti Media Publishing, the book is available for preorder at the White City Press.

 

 

 

Until next time….

  

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2026

The recent lunar eclipse photographed by another Dallas area resident. I could not see it at all in my part of NE Dallas.