SilverFalchionAwardWinner_Web-300x300Killer Nashville International Writers Conference has announced the slate of nominees for its Silver Falchion Readers' Selection Award–and ii books by AMW members are on it!

Laura Oles' DAUGHTERS OF BAD MEN is nominated in the Best Thriller category.

11 2017 Laura Oles DOBM_Cover

*

Day OF THE Dark: Stories of Eclipse, edited past Kaye George, is nominated in the Best Fiction-Anthology/Collection category. Laura Oles' story "Ocean's Fifty," and Yard. K. Waller'south "I'll Be a Sunbeam" appear in the album.

Day of the Dark - cover

If y'all'd care to vote–and since this is a Readers' Choice Laurels, everyone is eligible to do so–go tohttps://killernashville.com/awards/killer-nashville-readers-choice-laurels/ and mark your ballot.

(The ballot lists Debra Goldstein as editor of DAY OF THE DARK, but that's a glitch. Kaye George is the editor. One of Debra's stories is in the book.)

###

Kaye George was a fellow member of Austin Mystery Writers until she moved out of country. At that fourth dimension, however, she was named Grand Pooh-Bah Emerita and nosotros therefore notwithstanding claim her as ours.

AMW member Helen Currie Foster discusses how Dorothy Fifty. Sayers handled bespeak of view in her Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries in

NEVER Mind THE VILLAIN!: DOROTHY SAYERS AND POINT OF VIEW

at Writing Wranglers and Warriors.

Click on the link and read her analysis–which is both informative and entertaining.

Laura Oles celebrates doubly this month–today her debut novel, DAUGHTERS OF BAD MEN, was released by Red Good Publishing, but a week after Austin Mystery Writers' Alone STAR LAWLESS, in which Laura's story "Acquit On But" appears, was released by Wildside Press. Hither's what I posted about these publications at Writing Wranglers and Warriors. Laura will be along presently to tell you more.

***

I turned on my Kindle today to discover Laura Oles'Daughters of Bad Men, had appeared in its library, overnight, as if past magic. That'southward a perk of pre-ordering. Laura is one of my critique partners in Austin Mystery Writers, andDaughters of Bad Men is her first novel.

I've been in AMW for vi or seven years–tin't remember exactly–but membership is one of the all-time things that's happened since I began writing for publication.  Examining others' work and hearing their comments on mine has made me a better author. Members accept get my friends. Together we've enjoyed workshops and lunches and weekend retreats.

And I've caused a new virtue: I'm genuinely happy when other members get their work published.

My skin turns Shrek green, but I'1000 happy.

Offsetting today's greenish tinge over Laura'due south debut, I'yard also happy to announce . . .

Read the rest of the mail service here.

LONE STAR LAWLESS:
14 Texas Tales of Crime

past

Austin Mystery Writers and Friends

Paperback and Kindle formats  available from Amazon.com

Proceeds to be donated to Ellis Memorial Library in Aransas Pass, Texas
 to aid replace collections destroyed in Hurricane Harvey

Wildside Printing, 2017

***

And picket for Laura Oles' offset mystery novel

DAUGHTERS OF BAD MEN

Nov 14, 2017

DAY OF THE Nighttime (Wildside, July 2017)

Interview for 24-hour interval of the Night

Are you excited virtually the upcoming eclipse on August 21rst? Well you lot aren't the simply one. And Austin Mystery Writer members, Kathy Waller and Laura Oles, contributed stories to an anthology titled, Twenty-four hour period of the Night. Every story takes place during the eclipse. The idea for the anthology came from the imagination of former AMW member, Kaye George.

Amazon says:A recipe for disaster: have one total solar eclipse, add two dozen spine-chilling mysteries, and shake the reader until the world ends in Day of the Nighttime!

So if you don't heed, I'd similar to go Kaye George, Laura Oles, and Kathy Waller to tell united states more about it.

VP Chandler- Kaye George, where did you get the idea for the album?

KG- I got the thought as before long as I heard nearly the eclipse and how rare they are in whatever i location. I wanted to write a story on it and thought others might, too.

VPC- Prissy! This question is for everyone. How did you choose the location of your story?

KW- I had the idea of using Marva Lu, the protagonist from a previous story. She lives in North Texas, so I had to set the story there. I knew the eclipse would darken the solar day enough for my purposes. The story hinged on her beingness on her home footing. Abroad from at that place, she would be a unlike person.

VPC- I recall Marva Lu. Wasn't she is that awesome and amazing anthology, Murder On Wheels? Pretty sure I'g right. 😉 What well-nigh your setting, Kaye?

KG- I chose my own neighborhood because I'm and so excited that nosotros'll encounter the full eclipse right in my dorsum m. And my forepart chiliad, too.

VPC- How heady! I'm jealous. What about your story, Laura?

LO- Our family has spent many long summer weekends in Port Aransas, and the island life–the slow pace, the mix of locals and tourists, the pull of the sea–is something I keep returning to. It has its own special magic.

VPC- Port A is special. The people are but as interesting every bit the setting.

At present for question #iii, in my experience I've worked on some projects that came to me right away and flowed hands, and some projects were painful to get onto the folio. Which was it for your story in this anthology?

KG- I'd call this one medium. Not too hard, only didn't flow similar a river.

KW- One time I finally started writing, it flowed. With the time I had, it had to.

LO- I knew immediately where the story would accept place and I knew the main graphic symbol. I needed some time to consider how his life would be turned upside down and what role the eclipse would play.

VPC- I know that writers know their characters much better than readers do and they often leave groundwork information out of their stories. Tell us something about your protagonists that the reader doesn't know.

KW- If the reader has read Hell on Wheels in Murder on Wheels, they probably know as much nigh the protagonist as I do. Until I wrote I'll Be a Sunbeam, I didn't know she sang duets at church, or that she taught Sunday school. I learn things about my characters every bit I write. I'k sure she likes dogs and cats, just she can't take a cat because she has a gerbil.

LO- There is more to the story of why he left his life in Denver and moved to the coast.

KG- My protagonist, she's older than the age she tells people. Her husband doesn't even know her exact age.

VPC- Here'southward a question I like to ask other authors.  How much of you is in your antagonist?

KW-  Probably a lot more than I want to admit. Our minds are e'er buzzing, we're always arguing with ourselves and with anybody else within our heads, we're always plotting. And those are the least objectionable qualities nosotros share.

KG- I'm not sure who the antagonist is. Either the young mother or the young begetter, I call up. They aren't very good parents, so I hope there isn't too much of me in them.

LO- Not much similarity between me and the adversary.

VPC- Well, you both like Port Aransas.

Another question, what practice you retrieve of the anthology equally a whole? Is there one    particular story that is your favorite? Is in that location a story that surprised you?

KG- As the compiler and editor, I can't play favorites, but I think there are stories here for a lot of varied tastes. I hope everyone finds a favorite!

KW- Cari Dubiel's Appointment Night is mind-boggling. Joseph S. Walker'south Pending the Hour is rather pitiful, touching. Debra H. Goldstein'south A Golden Eclipse surprised me–a clever interpretation of the theme. And Katherine Tomlinson's The Path of Totality is timely; I laughed until the very end, when alt-facts took a scary turn. If I'd read the other twenty-iii stories before submitting, I wouldn't have had the nerve to send Kaye mine.

LO- What I beloved almost this anthology is the variation. While they all take the eclipse every bit an important chemical element, each story is different from the others–I'm grateful to exist Included with and so many other talented authors.

VPC- How many of you are planning on seeing the eclipse?

LO- We have the eclipse on the calendar simply aren't sure where nosotros will be yet. The whole family plans on getting together to experience it.

KW- I'grand going to Blue Springs, Missouri, near Kansas Urban center, for the issue. I have family at that place. Information technology was my husband'southward thought. Fortunately, he bundled for airline and hotel months ago.

VPC- And I know Kaye will run across it from her domicile. Kaye, I recollect I heard that the profits volition exist donated to charity? What is the clemency?

KG- Fourteen of the 24 authors have picked personal charities. Mine is Earth and Sky. Four other authors, including Laura, are donating to that one, as well.

VPC- I dear Earth and Sky!

KW- Mine will go to Texas Museum of Science and Engineering (TXMOST) in Cedar Park.

VPC- That all sounds good to me. Thank you for your time. I can't wait to get my copy.

Available in ebook or paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Day-Dark-Stories-Harriette-Sackler-ebook/dp/B073YDGSL5

More than websites with data about Day of the Dark:

https://world wide web.criminalelement.com/blogs/2017/07/qaa-with-kaye-george-editor-of-the-anthology-solar day-of-the-nighttime

https://kayegeorge.wixsite.com/kaye-george/day-of-the-nighttime-anthology

http://thestilettogang.blogspot.com/2017/07/day-of-dark-anthology-debuts-past-debra-h.html

Browsing through the AMW blog, I came across the title, "Forenoon Pages: Don't Speak. Don't Guess. Don't Autumn Asleep." And I thought, What a cute title. I wonder who the writer is. A couple of clicks later on I discovered the writer was moi. I wrote it in 2014.Quelle surprise, every bit those of us who took i summer class in French just for fun say only can't call up how to spell. (I looked it up.) I also found I kind of liked it,* and since it'southward mine, I'one thousand giving myself permission to re-post.

***

Karleen Koen

The offset mean solar day of last summer'due south Author's League of Texas retreat, author-instructor Karleen Koen told students that every morning earlier course, we must practise Morning time Pages: Wake up, don't speak, take pen and newspaper–not computer–and, while all the same drowsy, write "three pages of anything." Don't guess. Go on the pen moving. In her course notebook, Karleen listed the following:

Stream of consciousness, complain, whine, just move your manus across the page writing whatsoever crosses your mind until y'all get to the end of page iii.

Karleen stressed that she didn't invent Morning Pages. The technique, minus the name, came from the bookBecoming a Writer past teacher Dorothea Brande, published in 1934 and reissued in 1981. Author John Gardner, in his foreword to the reprinted edition, states it was "astonishing" that the book had ever gone out of print.

Becoming a Author past Dorothea Brande

Ms Brande advises aspiring writers to "ascent half an hour, or a total hour, earlier you customarily ascent." She continues,

Write anything that comes into your head: concluding night'southward dream, if you are able to remember it; the activities of the day before; a chat, real or imaginary; an exam of conscience. Write any sort of early on morning reverie, rapidly and uncritically. (Brande, p. 72)

Julia Cameron, in her bestsellingThe Artist's Fashion, published in 1992, named the process Morn Pages and made them the cornerstone of her Artist's Way program. Cameron considers them a form of meditation.

Why nosotros do Morning time Pages? To quiet the internal critic; to tap into the subconscious; to discover what you know; to retrieve and to capture the present; to build fluency, the ability to "write smoothly and easily when the unconscious is in the ascendant." (Brande, p. 72) And, as Koen notes, to whine and complain.

When I exercise Morning Pages, I similar to focus on whining and complaining. Words of discontent well-nigh flow from my pen when I follow Brande'south educational activity to ascension early. To wit:

The morning subsequently Karleen assigned Morning time Pages, my roommate and I woke to my prison cell telephone alert at seven rather than the previous day'south eight. (I think that was the morning time the telephone flew from the nightstand and landed on the concrete floor.) I propped myself upwardly on a couple of pillows, gathered the pen and the notebook I'd placed on the nightstand before retiring the night before, and started to write.

While I wrote, my roommate sabbatum on the side of her bed. Instead of picking upwards her notebook, she spoke. I reminded her we weren't supposed to talk. She told me she didn't care what nosotros weren't supposed to practice. After violating the rules once or twice more, she started on her Morning Pages.

Roommate Gale Albright drinking tea and grin

In my usual all-or-zippo way (a tiny bit of OCD), I wrote through hand cramp and shifting pillows. Halfway through, I fell asleep. When I woke about a half-hour later, I resumed scribbling.

My roommate had already finished her Pages. She had dressed. She had sat on the porch and drunk a cup of hot tea. She was smiling.

Sometimes it is ameliorate to bend the rules.

At break fourth dimension, I quoted to Karleen the start judgement of my Forenoon Pages:I don't like Karleen any more. (I said it in bold font.) She laughed and asked if I knew howfunny I was. I didn't tell her I was dead serious. I knew that before the end of the day I would like her over again, and if I told the truth now, I would have to apologize later, and I just didn't have the energy.

Since I'grand confessing, I might as well admit that, while I was scribbling, I figured out a fool-proof mode to brand Morning Pages a positive experience:Use a notebook with fiddling tiny pages. They fill up up faster.

Looking back, I'yard ashamed of the thought, just at the time information technology seemed a darned good thought. Sometimes it still does.

Anyway. Having griped about that miserable experience, I'll also admit that Morning Pageswork. I've done them off and on since 1998, when I heard Julia Cameron speak at the Austin Whole Life Festival. A small group of immature men stood exterior Palmer Auditorium belongings placards and begging attendees to carelessness chakras and crystals and choose reason instead, while inside, Cameron shared the well-nigh reasonable ideas on stimulating creativity.

And then I readThe Artist's Mode and, although a 17-cent screw notebook would have sufficed, I bought a copy ofThe Artist's Style Journal. (ThePeriodical had enormous, narrow-ruled pages that took forever to embrace, merely having the proper tools is of import to us obsessive types.)

Then I wrote. And whined. And complained. Every bit I did, the garbage in my head oozed down my arm, through my hand, and onto the folio. By the time I got to page 3, my mood had lightened. When I turned to other writing, the garbage stayed trapped inside theJournal.

Once the brain has been cleared of debris, words can flow.

That's my experience. Others have their own reasons for writing those three pages per day. But those who engage in the practice swear past information technology.

Adequate sleep

Every bit I said, I'm not consistent. I've done Morning Pages for months at a time, then skipped one day and failed to resume the habit.** Nigh every time I've given up,  fatigue has been the cause. A long commute before and afterward an extra-long day makes early rising unpleasant if not impossible. The aforementioned affair goes for getting to bed too belatedly. Morning Pages require adequate sleep. But then does skillful health. So does good writing of any kind.***

Before leaving the retreat, I bought a special notebook for my return to Morning Pages. The signature on the embrace looked like Dickens but turned out to be Darwin. No thing. Darwin and I are friends, also, and I wanted the dark-green ane. I've not nevertheless made peace with going to bed at a decent hour. I'm trying. Only when I stay up into the wee hours working on a blog post, my morning time edges toward afternoon.

Oh–I've just remembered: A situationunrelated to fatigue once interfered with Morning Pages. It involved the repaving of twenty miles of FM20, a wintry-cold house, and a new box of cat litter.

Simply that's a story for some other post.

###

Charles Darwin's signature on elegant green notebook

* Re-reading sometime work and liking old work don't always occur together.

** Morning Pages is about the only habit I've e'er managed to pause.

*** I'm notcertain nigh slumber being necessary for skilful writing of all kinds. I suspect Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald might accept stayed up past bedtime. Merely I bet Willa Cather kept regular hours. And, as people with any discernment at all recognize, Cather is at the very superlative of the American novelist pecking society.

***

Chiliad. K. Waller

M. K. Waller (aka Kathy) blogs at  Telling the Truth, Mainly Write (http://kathywaller1.com) and at the grouping blog Writing Wranglers and Warriors. She has set aside her novel manuscript for a while to concentrate on writing short stories. She likes writing short stories so much, she may declare the novel officially defunct.

Her stories appear in Mysterical-E; AMW's starting time law-breaking fiction album, MURDER ON WHEELS;

DAY OF THE DARK (Wildside, July 2017)

and in the make new DAY OF THE DARK: Stories of the Eclipse, edited by Kaye George and released by Wildside Press on July 21, 2017.

A second AMW album is with the publisher and will be out shortly.

Please join u.s.a. at the DAY OF THE DARK launch party Friday, July 21, on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/199463997250907/

The following mail first appeared on Writing Wranglers and Warriors.

*****

Writing is a business.

That's what experienced writers tell the wannabes.

For a long time, I thoughtbusiness applied to activity alone: Write every day, nourish classes, network, become familiar with various routes to publication, acquire the market, read submission guidelines, stay in skillful concrete shape, and on and on… Items on a listing, they could be checked off at the end of each day.

Recently, I discovered another attribute of writing equally business concern that I can't quite fit onto a listing.

Concluding winter, Kaye George put out a call for submissions of stories for Twenty-four hour period OF THE DARK, an anthology to celebrate the total solar eclipse that will exist visible from parts of the United states this summer. Each story would contain an element of mystery and would exist related to an eclipse. Kaye would edit, and Wildside Press would have the book out before the August 21 eclipse.

I've known Kaye for a number of years, ever since I joined Austin Mystery Writers, which she was facilitating. I watched equally her career took off–a contract for 1 mystery series soon turned into contracts for three more series. At the same time, she wrote and published brusque stories and articles, and appeared on panels, and made it look easy.

Periodically, I said, "I don't knowhow she gets it all done."

And someone would respond, "Now, you mustn't compare yourself to Kaye."

And I would say, "I'mnon comparison myself to her. I only don't know how she gets it all done."

I knew, of course, that she did it by checking tasks off that list. What Iwanted to know was–where did she go thefree energy? (I still want to know.)

When I read her telephone call for submissions, I didn't consider sending a story. Every bit usual, my mind was blank. My mind is always bare–what could I write virtually an eclipse?–until the last minute. Every bit usual, at the last infinitesimal, I came up with an thought for a story.

Merely.

I don't like to piece of work for friends. I don't mix the personal and the professional. If I sent Kaye a story and she rejected it, I wouldn't be hurt, I wouldn't exist angry, I wouldn't exist devastated–merely Iwould be embarrassed, not past rejection, but by the knowledge that I'd had the audacity to submit an inferior product, a story I should have known wasn't worthy–

Here'due south where the epiphany comes in:

It dawned on me that–what a concept!–Kaye is a businesswoman. She intended to put out the all-time book possible. She would choose merely stories that fit her purpose.

And epiphany, part 2:

I was a businesswoman. I would submit a story. It it was accepted, I would be pleased. If information technology was rejected, I would accept that every bit part of doing business organization, set the story aside, tweak it, submit it elsewhere. Or, if I discovered it wasn't tweakable, I would set it aside and go out information technology there.

Write, submit, be accepted/rejected, get on with life.

So I wrote a story titled "I'll Be a Sunbeam," submitted, was accepted, and, after dancing

around the room for a while–dancing is also part of the writing business–I saw some other call for submissions, wrote, submitted…

Today, July 21, a month before the coming eclipse,  Twenty-four hours OF THE DARK is beingness released. It will be available in print and for Kindle.

I'thousand thrilled my story was accepted for DAY OF THE DARK. I'yard thrilled to exist in the company of the twenty-three other writers whose stories appear in that location.

And I'chiliad thrilled to finally understand that the writing business is really a state of mind.

*****

To read more almost stories in Twenty-four hours OF THE Night, see Debra Goldstein's Day of the Dark Anthology!!!! – Part I . Office Two will appear on July 31.

M. K. Waller, aka Kathy,
has published stories
in Austin Mystery Writers'
MURDER ON WHEELS
and inMysterical-E.
She blogs at
Telling the Truth, Mainly.

Today we get a expect at the encompass of 24-hour interval OF THE DARK, a criminal offense fiction anthology edited past Kaye George and due out from Wildside Printing on July 21.

Laura Oles' "Oceans Fifty" and M. K. Waller'southward "I'll Be a Sunbeam" are two of the twenty-four stories appearing in that location.

Posted by Grand. K. Waller

Posted past Chiliad. Thou. Waller

The Austin Mystery Writers blog has been quiet for several months, simply we're still living the Writing Life. Here'south what's been going on.

V. P. Chandler and Laura Oles at the AMW panel discussion, Wimberley Hamlet Library, November 2016

In Nov, AMW members, along withScott Montgomery,Crime Fiction Coordinator at MysteryPeoplein Austin, appeared on a console discussing AMW's crime fiction anthology, MURDER ON WHEELS (Wildside, 2015), at the Wimberley Village Library in Wimberley, TX.

Laura Oles is editing her novel,DAUGHTERS OF BAD MEN, to exist published byRed Adept in winter of 2017. Her story"Bounding main's Fifty" volition appear inMean solar day OF THE Night, an anthology compiled and edited pastKaye George . Mean solar day OF THE Nightwill bereleased byWildside Press on July 21, 2017, exactly i calendar month earlier the full solar eclipse that will occur on August 21. Kaye describes the album in "More Eclipse Glimpses " on her web log, Travels with Kaye. Laura also attended the mystery conference Malice Domestic 29in Bethesda, MD on Apr 28-thirty.

In November,V. P. Chandler's story"Kay Chart" appeared on theMysteryPeople blog. V. P. categorizes "Kay Chart" equally historical suspense and says it's "creepy." (Information technology is.) She'due south now revising Aureate RIDDEN,  a historical mystery set up in the Texas Hill Country. She details more of her activities on her blog.

@ the Writer Unboxed UnCon, Salem, MA, November 2016

V. P. as well attended the secondWriter Unboxed  UnConference inSalem, MA in November. She'southward a moderator of theWriter Unboxed website and a contributor to WU'sWriter In Progress: A No-Holds-Barred Guide to What It Really Takes to Go Published (Nov. 2017). The book comprises over l essays by professionals in all areas of the industry and covers the writing process from pre-writing to post-publication.

Patric Sanders

Patric Sanders is working on HOSTILE HARBORS, the third book in the Wolf Richter series, ready in New England and New York Metropolis, and on a thriller, LETHAL ENCOUNTERS, set in Germany, the Pacific Northwest, Italy and Hawaii. Patric'due south first novel, THE TREASURE OF THE Bulwark REEF, an chance story gear up in Commonwealth of australia, was published by Random House-Frg. Inspired by events of his life in Eastward Deutschland during the Cold War era–he witnessed the construction of the deadly Berlin Wall, served as a draftee at a surreptitious radar station in the People's Army, was harassed by the hugger-mugger constabulary Stasi, was fired because he 'fraternized' with British engineers, and planned an adventurous escape to breach theWall–he wrote the kickoff two volumes of the Wolf Richter-series:Chasing the Sunday: Action-Packed Cold War Thriller and Singed Past The Sun. To learn more than virtually Patric, read Five. P. Chandler'south interview with him hither.

The House of the 7 Gables, Salem, Massachusetts, Nov 2016

Kathy Waller'south story"I'll Be a Sunbeam" will exist included inDAY OF THE Night, along with Laura'south. Kathy's "The Snake" won theKnife Story Challenge presented to members ofSisters in Law-breaking Center of Texas chapter past member authorEugenia Parrish. Kathy too attended the Writer Unboxed Unconference in Salem, where she attended a session at theFirm of the Seven Gables, the inspiration forNathaniel Hawthorne's novel. Afterwards some online confusion with another author writing under the same name, Kathy now writes nether the name Thousand. Thousand. Waller.

And–[drum coil!]–the publication ofMURDER ON WHEELS (Wildside, 2015), winner of the Killer Nashville 2016 Silver Falchion Honor, was such an exhilarating experience that Austin Mystery Writers are now putting the finishing touches on a second manuscript: an anthology comprising stories by four AMW members and 8 of their writer friends, tentatively titled TEXAS TOUGH.

So scout this infinite! When TEXAS TOUGH is set for reading, you'll be the first to know.

How do you say cheerio to a friend?

dscn0896

Gale Albright

When I terminal saw Gale, just two days earlier she unexpectedly passed away, it was at the Wimberley Library where our group, Austin Mystery Writers, had given a program on writing short stories. The program went well, and nosotros went out to luncheon subsequently, enjoying the dazzler of a Hill Country restaurant and the company of friends.

When I said "bye," I meant "until adjacent fourth dimension," not realizing that in that location would be no next time.

I don't offer this to be dramatic, only to articulate the fact that I'm all the same trying to sort out the reality that we won't share company once more, that I won't go to hear nigh her projects, her short stories, her weekend plans. Gale had an free energy that was unique–pointed and directly but also funny and sarcastic in a way that I mean equally high compliment. She loved storytelling and storytellers, and occupying those spaces where storytellers gathered. A self-proclaimed workshop junkie, she was the offset to volunteer to coordinate an result. Her energy was infectious, and even when she nagged you about a deadline, you loved her for it.

My inbox still has emails from her. I can't brand myself delete them. I'm sure it's some grade of denial at work, but I'g okay with that. Maybe I'yard not ready to say bye just yet.

Austin Mystery Writers won't be the same without Gale's free energy and attention to particular. We take an empty chair at our table now, and we will, at some signal, figure out how to move forwards with our projects without her. But information technology will be different, unsettled.

Even so, I can hear her in my ear saying, "Laura, but become on with it."

Nosotros will miss you lot, Gale.

–Laura Oles

***

Gale Albright leaves such a large pigsty in the writing community. She was not only president of the Austin SinC chapter, Center of Texas, she was coordinating the 2nd Austin Mystery Writers anthology and, when she died, was in the process of leading a NaNoWriMo group at her local Hutto library. She has recently washed a agglomeration of promotion for the final AMW anthology, Murder on Wheels, and heaven only knows what else she was taking charge of and leading. She rose to the top, like cream. She was a true original, feisty and funny and so full of sparkle that I withal tin't believe she's gone.

I recall the day I met her. She and Kathy Waller wanted to join the AMW group. They both came to our meeting and read some of their writings. Nosotros were all blown abroad past how talented both of them were and we welcomed them into the grouping. Others brutal away and moved away and they've been cadre members, both of them, since that day. Gale leaves and then many gaping holes. I'll miss her then much for a long, long fourth dimension.

–Kaye George

***

What tin can I say almost Gale Albright?

Before I had met her in person, at my first coming together for Austin Mystery Writers, I had to critique a story she wrote. I laughed and guffawed and knew I had to amp up "my game" as a author to keep upwardly with her and the others in the group. I was eager to meet her the next day. Who was this crazy woman?

Over the next couple of years I had the privilege to know her. From her disregard of authority to her love of noir, she had me laughing everyday. I came to know that when she got a certain gleam in her eye, it meant the wheels in her head were turning and we would probably be doing a workshop or another anthology! She ever thought big.

I can hear her now, "Hey, let's take it stride further and practise a writers' convention!"
"Whoa, Gale, ho-hum down."
"As well much?"
"Yeah."

I loved her energy and excitement. And no one can write a mash-upwards of noir fairytales similar she could.
I miss you, Gale. Thank you for all yous gave the states. You were one absurd customer. The best kind of matriarch at that place is.

–Valerie Chandler

***

When I recollect of Gale I remember her not bad sense of humor and lovable personality. Her short stories were so crazy and funny and clever, and I'm glad ii of them were published in Murder on Wheels and another in the AMW upcoming anthology. I loved her middle course novel, Eva, also– that was my favorite, and I wish more people could read it. Gale was still polishing it last I heard, only it was already slap-up. She will be missed.

–Elizabeth Buhmann