Some
reading opportunities of interest this week.
The
news is starting to appear across social media. DEATH CAMAS: Best New
England Crime Stories 2026 is scheduled to be released in early October
from Crime Spell Books. As always, the anthology includes short stories from
numerous SMFS list members. Sone of those members are: Bruce Robert Coffin (Pump Number 2),
C. Dan Castro (The Mass Murderer and a
Little Disorder), Zakariah Johnson (Dangerous
Tastes in Literature) Nikki
Knight (Milk. Bread. Homicide.), Avram
Lavinsky (The Daughter of the King), Steve
Liskow (A Deed without a Name), Edith
Maxwell (Cough Lasagnas and Salty Memories), Ruth McCarty (I Hereby Bequeath), Ang Pompano (The Angel of
Sachem Creek), Susan Oleksiw (All’s
Well That Ends . . .), Eugenia Parrish
(Stopping by the Woods), Stephen D.
Rogers (A Scene of Salt and Sea), Bonnar
Spring (Safe?), and Leslie Wheeler
(The Wound Clinic). It can be preordered now at Amazon and elsewhere. (Big time thank you to fellow SMFS list member Nikita Costiuc who brought a number of our member's and their short stories to my attention.)
Also
coming in October is the latest book by Dallas area author Harry Hunsicker. I
have long been a fan over the decades and now doubt will enjoy the thriller, Mother
May I. You can learn more about the book, and where to preorder it, at
Mr. Hunsicker’s website.
If you are not already reading him, you should be and there is a lot of really
good stuff to read.
Just
a few minutes before I was setting up this post on Tuesday afternoon, fellow
SMFS list member Nikita Costiuc,
and welcomed frequent commenter here, announced that he is in the inaugural
issue of Betascape as is fellow SMFS list member A.L. Sirois. This is a free to read publication
aimed at, according to the website, “speculative, crime, and genre fiction” pieces
and readers. They also generate editorial comment on the stories by
highlighting certain segments. You click on that and you get information on
story structure, character development, pacing, etc. Nikita Costiuc’s short
story, A Narrative Concerning the Allocation of Assets, as well as A.L. Sirois’ short story, The Cage, can be
read here in this first issue.
SMFS
list member Aimee Kluck announced the
publication of her short story --Late, But Right on Time—was published ay
Shotgun Honey. You can read the tale online, for free, here.
Black
Cat Weekly #263 is out and includes the short story, The
Raven Messenger, by Teel
James Glenn of the SMFS. You can pick up the latest issue here.
And,
now for something completely different--- as they used to say on a certain show
when I was growing up. I have long been a fan of the science fiction and
fantasy works by author Terry W.
Ervin II. He has a lot of stuff out there and I am always behind. I just
found out that his latest book, Relic Shield: Book Three of the Crax War
Chronicles, is now out. You can pick it up on Amazon where it is also available through
the KindleUnlimited program.
I
now pause to remind you, that as we have discovered the hard way, the KindleUnlimited
program, in fact, is very limited. You are limited to no more than twenty
titles at a time. Makes as much sense as telling me the buffet is unlimited and
then I get one serving of three things and can do no more. If you share the deal, as I do with Scott, you are even more limited. Boo.
Coming
in early October is the anthology, The Speculative Detective Agency: Case
Files of the Supernatural and Fantastic. Published by Diversion
Books, the read is available to preorder at
Amazon and other vendors.
Back
to crime fiction and mystery reads…
Punk
Noir Press announced on Twitter that FAFO—A
Punk Noir series that the second installment of the new series is available to read. Four more stories are here. You can also still read, for free, the first
group here.
SMFS
list member, and editor, Michelle Kubitz recently announced that Shotgun Honey Books will be releasing the new anthology, Daydream
Believer: Crime Stories Inspired by the Songs of the Monkees!. The book
includes a short story by fellow SMFS list member Alan
S. Orloff as well as tales by numerus other
folks. Proceeds go to American Library Association. You can preorder the book
now at the publisher
or at Amazon. September 29th is the planned release date.
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 now out. Assuming everything with
Amazon and Kindle worked right. 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
now out is the latest read from fellow SMFS list member and 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 at Amazon.
Additionally,
now out 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 at the White City Press.
Back
last June, professor and author John
A. Tures did a guest post
here on the blog about his book, Branded, published by Huntsville Independent
Press. His next book, Independent Thought, is now out with the same
publisher. This sequel deals with the possibility of a third-party
presidential candidate and more.
Until next time….
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
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