NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
GOOD THINGS HAPPEN IN THE BACK ALLEY!
It's been a big year at The Back Alley Webzine. Things began just before we went to press--virtually, that is--with the last issue.
As I've mentioned before, it has been our goal at The Back Alley from our very first issue to become a Mystery Writers of America Approved Publisher. I've applied twice for that status, and both times I've received the same response: try again next year.
Back in July, I forwarded the MWA Affidavit required of all publishers, stating the basic requirements: we don't accept any money from authors, we pay the MWA short story minimum for stories, yadda yadda yadda.
By November I hadn't heard anything, so I contacted Margery Flax at MWA to check on things. Apparently, the application and affidavit had been misplaced. So, I forwarded it again, and almost instantly I heard back from Lee Goldberg, the current Approved Publishers chairman.
The verdict? Thumbs down. The reason? The MWA Approved Publishers' List was intended only for book publishers, not for periodicals. This, of course, was completely contrary to everything I had been told by R.T. Lawton, the previous Publishers Committee Chair, who--among other things--had not only told me twice before to keep applying, but also indicated that The Back Alley would be welcomed once it met the criterion for having been in business for the minimum two years. I wrote back to Lee (with whom, I should point out at the very beginning, I have become friendly since then), basically calling his attention to the fact that Dell Periodicals' Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine had been included ever since the Approved Publisher's List had been created. I think I used the word 'bullshit' once or twice.
I also pointed out that, up to that point, MWA had been very encouraging in its correspondence with me, especially since I had stated in an earlier Editor's Note that I considered its criteria for Approved Publisher status to 'suck balls' (if I recall the terminology correctly).
To his credit (and Lee deserves a lot of credit here), he agreed that there seemed to be contradictions, and he also noted that The Strand (another periodical) had also been included, meaning that a precedent had been set.
Lee agreed to bring it before the MWA Board, and to suggest forming a new listing called MWA Approved Periodicals, which would include AHMM and EQMM, The Strand, and The Back Alley Webzine.
Long story short (yeah, I know. Too late.), The MWA Board approved the motion, and The Back Alley Webzine become the very first all electronic medium to be listed on either the MWA Approved Publishers' list or the new MWA Approved Periodicals list.
The impact? Now, any story published in The Back Alley will be eligible for the MWA Edgar Allan Poe Award. Also, any author published in The Back Alley can apply that credit toward meeting the criteria to be an Active Member of MWA. Finally--and I think this is the most important benefit--inclusion in the Approved Periodicals list means that MWA has finally recognized the power and impact of the electronic publishing medium. Can an Edgar Awards category for Best Electronic Book be far behind?
Well, in all likelihood, yes. On the other hand, great changes tend to come in baby steps, and in approving The Back Alley, MWA just took a doozy. More to come!
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In our previous issue, which featured an entirely female lineup of hardboiled and noir fiction authors, we included a story entitled The Right To Remain Silent, by Maryland author Debbi Mack. I am extremely pleased and proud to report that Debbi's story was nominated for the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Derringer Award, in the Short Story Category. The awards will be presented around the first of May, 2010, and we are extremely hopeful that Debbi will win. In any case, Debbi's nomination means that The Back Alley Webzine has had at least one story nominated for the Derringer Award in each year since it the webzine went active in 2007. We've also won two of them to date, so we must be doing something right.
As I've said all along, The Back Alley Webzine publishes the very best in hardboiled and noir fiction. I think, after looking over the offerings in this current issue, you'll be in absolute agreement!
Rick Helms - Editor
What can you say about STEPHEN D. ROGERS that hasn't already been written in a dozen other major mystery zines? One of the most prolific mystery authors in the country, Stephen has been published in Alfred Hitchock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine, Mouth Full of Bullets, Mysterical-E, and Plots With Guns. He also has a new anthology of short stories out, entitled Shot To Death. He is a Derringer Award winner (2006), and has been nominated for the Derringer Award no less than six times, including a nomination this year for his short story Gutterball. This is Stephen's second appearance in The Back Alley, and we hope to see him here many more times.
Manhattan-based author ANGELA ZEMAN is the author of an extensive series of stories featuring Mrs. Risk, which includes her most recent novel, The Witch and the Borscht Pearl (Pendulum Press). She has been published numerous times in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and has had stories included in anthologies such as Adirondack Mysteries (North Country Books), On A Raven's Wing (edited by our good friend, the late Stuart Kaminsky), A Hot and Sultry Night for Crime (edited by Jeffery Deaver), Show Business is Murder (also edited by Mr. Kaminsky). and most recently in The Prosecution Rests, an MWA anthology edited by Linda Fairstein.
THOMAS LARSEN lives in Lambertville, New Jersey. He has worked as a freelance author for over ten years, with publishing credits in Newsday, New Millenium Writings, the Antietam Review, and Puerto del Sol. His short story Lids was included in Best American Mystery Stories-2004. This fall, his first novel (Flawed) is scheduled to be published by BeWrite Books. We're not completely sure whether his story is hardboiled or noir, but we do know that it was tres cool, so we decided to include it in this issue. It's great having Editor's Prerogative.
NIKKI DOLSON Nikki Dolson is a fiction major at Columbia College Chicago. Her fiction has appeared in Spinetingler Magazine, Story Week Reader, StoryGlossia #38. and the Red Rock Review. She has been the Derringer Awards Coordinator for the Short Mystery Fiction Society.
LINEUP FOR VOLUME III, NUMBER 2
RICHARD HELMS appears for only the second time--and only the first under his own name--in The Back Alley Webzine, which he also edits and publishes. He probably wouldn't be in this issue, except that another author got a little sluggish with sending in the publishing contract. A three-time Shamus Award nominee and two-time Derringer Award winner (the only author ever to win two Derringer Awards in the same year-2008), Helms recently had his tenth novel, and the first book in his new Judd Wheeler series (Six Mile Creek), published by Five Star/Cengage. In practically every other imaginable way, he is a thoroughly unremarkable individual.
FRANK NORRIS holds a very special place in the history of noir fiction. Despite his relative lack of renown today, around the turn of the twentieth century he was setting the world on fire with his naturalistic, dark stories of doomed people.
His greatest contribution, however, came with the first volume of his projected three-volume epic tracing the role of wheat in society, The Octopus. Sadly, his trilogy was left unfinished when he died of complications from appendix surgery in 1901.
Continuing in this issue, we present Part Six of McTeague.
