Readers always romanticize train travel, even if it’s just a quick commute into the city.
Why?
Trains are packed full of people with their own agendas, their own stories, their own need for revenge or escape.
Frequently in these traveling conveyances, crime occurs. Either in the trains themselves, or on the tracks.
What sort of crimes?
The MCM Syndicate of writers answers this question with fascinating stories that are historic, semi-historic, as well as set in modern day.
Plus, we have the wonderful K.L. Abrahamson joining us as a special guest author for this issue.
Come enjoy new tales of mysteries that occur on or near trains.
So criminal, it's good.
About the Authors
Leah R Cutter
Leah Cutter writes page-turning, wildly imaginative fiction set in exotic locations, such as a magical New Orleans, the ancient Orient, rural Kentucky, Seattle, Minneapolis, and many others.
She writes fantasy, science fiction, mystery, literary, and horror fiction. Her short fiction has been published in magazines like "Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine" and "Talebones", anthologies like Fiction River, and on the web. Her long fiction has been published both by New York publishers as well as small presses.
Read more books by Leah Cutter at www.KnottedRoadPress.com.
Follow her blog at www.LeahCutter.com.
Kari Kilgore
Kari Kilgore started her first published novel Until Death in Transylvania, Romania, and finished it in Room 217 at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where a rather famous creepy tale about a hotel sparked into life. That’s just one example of how real world inspiration drives her fiction.
Until Death was included on the Preliminary Ballot for the Bram Stoker Award for Outstanding Achievement in a First Novel in 2016. Kari’s short myth The Spider Who Ate the Elephant placed 2nd in fiction in the 2019 Virginia Writers Club Golden Nib contest.
Her professional short story sales include several to Fiction River anthology magazine, and several holiday-themed anthology projects with WMG Publishing that range from mystery to contemporary to romance.
Kari writes first and figures out the story’s genre later. That results in mystery, fantasy, science fiction, romance, contemporary fiction, and everything in between. She’s happiest when she surprises herself. She lives at the end of a long dirt road in the middle of the woods with her husband Jason A. Adams, various house critters, and wildlife they’re better off not knowing more about.
Kari’s novels, novellas, collections, and short stories are available at www.karikilgore.com and www.spiralpublishing.net.
Michele Lang
Michele's Lady Lazarus WWII dark fantasy series was published by Tor Books, and her short fiction has been published by DAW, PM Press, Running Press, and WMG Press, among others. "Sucker's Game" was her contribution to Jewish Noir, which was nominated for an Anthony for best anthology. Her Victorian romantic suspense, An Honest Woman, released last year.
Michele is a recovering lawyer who has practiced the unholy craft of litigation in both New York and Connecticut. She returned to her native New York shortly before 9/11, and now lives in a small town on the North Shore of Long Island with her husband, her sons, and a rotating menagerie of cats, fighting fish, and butterflies.
Cate Martin
Cate Martin is mainly known for cozy witch mysteries set in her home state of Minnesota, including her recently completed series The Witches Three Cozy Mysteries and her new series The Viking Witch Cozy Mysteries.
She also writes science fiction and fantasy under the name Kate MacLeod and has had short fiction published in Analog, Strange Horizons, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies among other places. Under Kate MacLeod she is midway through the YA sci-fi series The Ritchie and Fitz Sci-Fi Murder Mysteries. You can learn more about Cate Martin at her website www.CateMartin.com.
David H. Hendrickson
David H. Hendrickson’s first novel, Cracking the Ice, was praised by Booklist as “a gripping account of a courageous young man rising above evil.” He has since published six additional novels, including Offside, which has been adopted for high school student required reading.
His short fiction has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2018, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and frequently in Heart's Kiss, Pulphouse, Fiction River, and other anthologies. He is a multi-finalist for the Derringer Award, and his story “Death in the Serengeti” was honored with the 2018 Derringer for Best Long Story. He has released two short story collections: Shimmers and Laughs: Eight Wildly Hilarious Tales and Death in the Serengeti and Other Stories: Ten Tales of Crime.
Hendrickson has published over fifteen hundred works of nonfiction, most notably his first book for writers, How to Get Your Book into Schools and Double Your Income with Volume Sales, and also Travis Roy: Quadriplegia and a Life of Purpose. He has been honored with the Joe Concannon Hockey East Media Award and the Murray Kramer Scarlet Quill Award.
Visit him online at www.hendricksonwriter.com. Sign up for his newsletter and get a free book! Also follow him on Facebook (facebook.com/davewrites), Twitter (@DHWriter), and Instagram (dhwriter7).
Diana Deverell
A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for “sharp storytelling” (Publishers Weekly), Diana Deverell’s short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Fiction River, Switchblade, Mystery Weekly Magazine, and other publications.
Before moving to rural Denmark to write fulltime, Diana earned her living as a long-haul trucker, beef farmer, youth worker, and hot/cold war diplomat. Those adventures took place in 48 states, two Canadian provinces, El Salvador, and Poland.
In addition to short stories, she writes legal, political, and international thrillers drawing on her colorful background and featuring women with humor and heart.
Sign up for her newsletter at www.dianadeverell.com
Joslyn Chase
Annie Reed
Award-winning author Annie Reed describes herself as a desert rat who longs to live by the ocean. Since she hasn’t yet convinced her family to relocate to a nice chunk of beachfront property, she’s done the next best thing—written a series of stories set in a contemporary Pacific Northwest city where magic and reality go hand in hand.
Private investigators Diz and Dee populate Annie’s more lighthearted stories, while denizens of a much rougher neighborhood lurk in her Tales From the Shadows.
A talented and versatile writer whose fantasy, science fiction, and mystery stories have sold to a wide variety of publications, including five of the first seven volumes of Fiction River’s inaugural year.
Christy Fifield
Christy Fifield writes the best-selling Haunted Souvenir Shop mystery series. As Christy Evans she also wrote the Lady Plumber mystery series. Under her real name of Christina F. York she writes romance, science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and nonfiction.
You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as through her website, YorkWriters.com.
Guest Author
From time to time, MCM will invite guest authors! Check out the individual issues to read more about that issue's guest.