Paul's latest story Three Strikes and Yer Out is a humorous, short baseball mystery inspired by Bobby Thompson's famous "shot heard 'round the world'."  It appears in the latest issue of Crimestalker Casebook, Volume IX, No. 2, just released in May '08.  The hardcopy magazine is available at http://www.crimestalkers.com .

"The Boise Spuds were down by one point.  Cap always knew the score, even if he wasn't directly watching the game. Their heavy hitter Casey Herman was at the plate, 3 and 2 the count.  He swung.  The crowd stood.  The roar deafened. Somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout.  But there is no joy in Spudville – mighty Casey has struck out."

 

Sometimes life is a like a David Goodis novel, Kit thought. And sometimes it's like a down and dirty blues rag. He used to listen to the blues. Now he knew what it was to live them. "Born Under a Bad Sign" Appearing now in Hardluck Fiction's anthology Noir Blues

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"51-50" appearing now in Hardluck Fiction's anthology Psycho Noir It was the smirk that blew me away. A half grin in the eyes and mouth, mocking, laughing. Maybe at me – maybe at the badge. They were leaning against a grimy cinder block wall under a sooty sky. Thumbs hooked into pockets of baggy lowrider pants, fingers, long and lean, twisting into coded signals. Eyes hollow. Eyes I don't even want to meet in the darkest dream. Hollow men. Hollow boys. Nothing behind those eyes. Nothing. They don't care. Don't give a damn. It was that smirk that blew them away.

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Sleepy Lagoon Nocturne (a Bobby Saxon story) appearing in the anthology LAndmarked for Murder available at -- Amazon Someone dropped a nickel in the jukebox. A song came on that Bobby hadn't heard in ages. Sleepy Lagoon, by Harry James, the bandleader who'd married Betty Grable, the GIs' favorite pinup gal of the war. Bobby and the Boom-Boom Orchestra had played that song a thousand times when it had been all over the radio and jukes.  Sleepy Lagoon had been famous in Los Angeles during the war years, not the song but the place - a lover's lane for the Mexican kids on the East side of L.A. Sleepy Lagoon was also the name given to a famous murder and trial. And Sleepy Lagoon was the place of another murder, not so famous.

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LAndmarked for Murder Edited by noted mystery authors Harley Jane Kozak, Michael Mallory, and Nathan Walpow, conceived by author and television writer/producer Susan Kosar Beery, and boasting a foreword by bestselling mystery author Taylor Smith. Featured authors: Gay Ann Degani, G. B. Pool, Darrell James, Dee Ann Palmer, Paul D. Marks, Kate Thornton, Jinx Beers, Pamela Samuels-Young, Arthur Coburn, and A. H. Ream. There is far more to the city of Los Angeles than can be discovered through the ordinary guide books, much of it dark, dangerous, even deadly. To find those hidden, shadowy corners of the L.A. , wherein reside the less-than-angelic denizens of the City of Angels , you need   LAndmarked for Murder, the new anthology by members of Sisters in Crime/ Los Angeles. LAndmarked for Murder is a fictional travelogue through some of L.A. most notable natural and manmade landmarks, each of which serves as the setting for ten tales of dark passions and murder.

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THE GOOD OLD DAYS (a Bobby Saxon story) -- appearing in the anthology MURDER ACROSS THE MAP In the good old days, the Club Alabam down on Central Avenue near downtown L.A. was the place to be. Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington jammed there when they were in town stayin' at the Dunbar Hotel, not too far away. You know the good old days I'm talking about, the days when the brothers and sisters couldn't stay at just any hotel. When, in some parts of the country, there were colored drinking fountains and white drinking fountains, colored entrances to restaurants, that's if they allowed colored folk in at all. The days when Billie Holiday sang about strange fruit hanging from Southern trees. Available at Amazon and your independent bookstores

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