Pleased to announce my short story, When I’m Famous, has made it into the quarterfinals of the ScreenCraft 2021 Cinematic Short Story Competition, selected from almost 1,500 submissions. It’s also wonderful that several of us in the same writer’s group (Royal Writers Secret Society) are quarterfinalists. What a wonderful surprise on this disturbing day in Washington, DC.
Kindle and Book Giveaway
Hello Readers! I’m participating in a Kindle giveaway promotion. One lucky winner also will get a print copy of my book, Angela Cray Gets Real. It’s easy to enter!
Story in Black Cat Mystery Magazine
Delighted that my story, “Emily and Elodie,” is in Issue #5 of Black Cat Mystery Magazine.
Huge thanks to Carla Coupe (former editor) and John Betancourt for selecting this piece.
Crime Fiction Writing in the #MeToo Era
At Left Coast Crime, I had the honor of moderating a panel, Writing in the #MeToo Era. We had a stellar line up: Ian Hamilton, author of the Ava Lee mystery series; Laurie Rockenbeck, author of Seattle-based thrillers; and Kelly Oliver, author of the Jessica James mystery series. Sam Wiebe, who writes Vancouver crime novels and short fiction, helped with the session. Sadly, writer Lono Waiwaiole, who was supposed to be a panelist, had to cancel his trip to the conference.
The panelists discussed how they’ve dealt with sexualized violence, consent, and other issues in their work. We had a thoughtful conversation about ways the Me Too movement could change mysteries, thrillers and suspense fiction. In some cases, it has already affected how characters written pre-movement are perceived, casting once acceptable behavior into a different light.
This conference was a joy to attend. I presented at the New Authors Breakfast and attended engaging panels. I also enjoyed eating at Lucky’s and visiting with relatives in Vancouver, one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Kudos to the LCC organizers for excellent work!
Author Talk at Shepherd Park Library March 5
Delighted to announce I’ll be doing an author talk at 6:30 PM on Tuesday, March 5 at the Shepherd Park (Juanita E. Thornton) Library in Washington, DC. It’s an honor to be the first crime fiction writer the library has featured in the series and to be highlighted during Women’s History Month.
Debut novel: a year later and a brush with fame
About a year ago, in January 2018, I published my first novel. At the time, as an indie author with an offbeat crime novel, I wondered how to define success. Reaching readers who thoroughly enjoyed the book? Yes. Maybe 500 sales? Yes again. I learned plenty in my publishing adventure. Some of the things I learned I already knew. It’s hard to be a publisher! Plenty of others had warned me but I still managed to be both surprised and overwhelmed at the demands, which came on top of my new writing and job in international development. Another thing I wasn’t prepared for were negative reviews. Again, I knew these were inevitable but didn’t truly understand how painful they would be. I’ve employed various coping strategies. One surprisingly effective (if not super constructive) tactic was to stop visiting Goodreads.
On the bright side, in late August 2018, my book briefly hit the best seller lists on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. During this period, I ran multiple promotions. But the big one, without question, was BookBub. I am immensely grateful to BookBub for accepting my book and helping catapult it up multiple lists, gaining me new readers and some lovely feedback.
This nearly gave me a heart attack but in the best possible way
I had no reviews on Kobo yet still saw substantial sales
The BookBub promo that put Angela over the top
Guest Author Interview on IndieReader
A short interview with IndieReader about my book, Angela Cray Gets Real. Many thanks to IndieReader!
Eat Local, Real Local
Happy to announce I’ll be at the “Eat Local, Read Local” book sale and festival on Saturday, Sept. 29. The event is taking place in Virginia at Cascades Library. A huge thanks to Erin Fishman, the adult services librarian, and her colleagues for organizing the event.
New story, “Emily and Elodie”
Happy to report the sale of my story, “Emily and Elodie,” to Black Cat Mystery Magazine. The idea for this story began in a DC soup place in the carry-out line. The restaurant mixed up the lunches of two very different women ahead of me. This minor slip-up led me to mull the possibilities of two people meeting who ordinarily wouldn’t encounter each other and what might transpire. I stowed the idea away for a while until I overheard, “As a lady with big knockers…” Boom, that was Elodie speaking. A noir story competition spurred me to put it all together into a story. The story wasn’t quite ready by the competition deadline, nor did it turn out to be especially noir, but I submitted anyway. It didn’t make the cut. After a little more tinkering I’m delighted it found a home. And such a great home! Stay tuned for the publication date.
Blog post “A Twisty Path to Publication”
My story, “Off-Off-Off Broadway,” took the long way to publication in the March/April 2018 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The wonderful editors invited me to blog about the twists and turns involved in writing the story. Check out my guest post, “A Twisty Path to Publication.”