Short Story News: Kathleen Marple Kalb

The Thanksgiving Ragamuffin (mystery)

Kathleen Marple Kalb

On Thanksgiving Day, 1899, opera star Ella Shane and her cousin Tommy Hurley help a poor newsboy who is wrongly accused of a crime because of anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic prejudice, and end up solving a second case as well.

The theme of this year’s NY/TriState Sisters in Crime anthology is social justice. In the Ella Shane books, nativist, religious, and class prejudice are key issues, so when I found out about the tradition of New York City’s “Thanksgiving Ragamuffins” begging for treats on the holiday, it was the perfect start for a short story.

 

  

Kathleen Marple Kalb also contributed this recent post about writing short stories during the pandemic.

Short Story News: D.M. Barr

 

A Trial for the Books (crime/satire)

D.M. Barr

 

Amid its bustling, diverse fabric, injustice is unfortunately as much a part of the New York City landscape as Times Square, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty. Such inequities are spotlighted in, Justice for All: Murder New York Style 5, collection of sixteen short and thought-provoking stories penned by some of the Sisters in Crime New York/Tri-State chapter’s most prolific authors. The crime committed may involve homophobia, xenophobia, child abandonment, sexual abuse, white privilege, ageism, or literary snobbery. Regardless, these tales are designed to both enlighten and delight readers of suspense who seek out a bit of fairness and integrity in the city that may never sleep but does often rectify its wrongs.

 

I wrote the story after a blog tour host gave me a low rating because I had profanity in a book I never marketed as a clean read.