Upcoming Stories

“Volunteer of the Year” will appear in Chesapeake Crimes: They Had it Comin', the fourth installment in the award-winning Chesapeake Crimes series. The anthology is scheduled for publication in April 2010 by Wildside Press. It is being edited by Donna Andrews, Marcia Talley, and me, with Erin Bush, Megan Plyler and Mary Augusta Thomas serving as the editorial panel. Chesapeake Crimes: They Had it Comin' will have 20 stories, including tales by Donna Andrews, who has won most major awards in the mystery field, including the short-story category; Carla Coupe, who has been twice-nominated for the Agatha Award in the short-story category, and G.M. Malliet, who has won the Agatha Award for best first novel.


Published Stories

"The Worst Noel" appears in The Gift of Murder, an anthology of winter-holiday-related crime stories published October 1, 2009 by Wolfmont Press. John Floyd is the editor. All authors in the book have donated their stories. All publisher profits will be donated to Toys for Tots! Which makes this book a wonderful holiday gift, both for yourself and others. You get a great book and you help kids at the same time.

The book is available from Mystery Loves Company (the wonderful indie bookstore in Oxford, Maryland -- Please support the indies!), the major online bookstores, and directly from the publisher at: The Gift of Murder. And if you like to read e-books, you can download the book from The Digital Bookshop. Amazon also has it available on Kindle.

The book has gotten great reviews, including:

"This is the perfect book for that harried, too-busy holiday season, when there's little time to devote to a novel but enough time between bouts of shopping, baking, and wrapping to devote to short crime fiction. And Barb Goffman's 'The Worst Noel' may even give you some criminal ideas about how to doctor that holiday baking so that this will be the last Christmas you have to deal with that one obnoxious relative...."

Corey Wilde,
The Drowning Machine book reviews

 

 “From Earl Staggs’ heartwarming story of second chances to Barb Goffman’s tale of holiday revenge gone wrong, this book is one present to buy for yourself. You won’t be able to make yourself give it away.”

Margaret Fenton,
author of Little Lamb Lost

 

More reviews are available on the publisher’s website: The Gift of Murder.

The other authors in the book are:

 

J.F. Benedetto

Stefanie Lazer

Stephen D. Rogers

Anita Page

Randy Rawls

Earl Staggs

Peg Herring

Deborah Elliott-Upton

Bill Crider

Carolyn J. Rose

Elizabeth Zelvin

Austin S. Camacho

Sandra Seamans

Steve Shrott

Gail Farrelly

Herschel Cozine

Kris Neri

Marian Allen

 

"Compulsive Bubba" appears in Chesapeake Crimes 3, the third installment in the award-winning Chesapeake Crimes series. Chesapeake Crimes 3 features 15 mystery short stories, all set in the Chesapeake Bay area. The book was published in April 2008 by Wildside Press. It was edited by award-winning authors Donna Andrews and Marcia Talley. The book features the following stories:

• Chimera, by Mary Ann Corrigan
• Dangerous Crossing, by Carla Coupe (Carla's story was nominated for the 2008 Agatha Award)
  
• It Tore the Laugh from My Throat, by Meriah Crawford
• Compulsive Bubba, by Barb Goffman (yes, that's me)
  
• Pretty Fraudulent, by Sasscer Hill
• The Serpent’s Tooth, by Mary Ellen Hughes
  
• Murder at Elk Neck, by K. B. Inglee
  
• Troubled Waters, by Peggy Jaegly
• Beede and the Barefoot Body, by Clyde Linsley
• Backseat, by C. Ellett Logan
• The Lockbox, by G. M. Malliet
• Crossing the Bridge, by Carolyn Mulford
• The Tide Also Rises, by Jayne Ormerod
• Inked to Death, by Shelley Shearer
• Two Sisters, by Marcia Talley
  

"Compulsive Bubba" tells the story of a woman who endures 30 years of abuse from her husband. But when he starts having an affair, she's not going to put up with that. If you've ever been in a relationship in which you should have been treated better (men from my past, you know who you are), this story is for you.

You can purchase signed copies of Chesapeake Crimes 3 from Mystery Loves Company, located in  Oxford, Maryland. Don't worry if you don't live near beautiful Oxford. Kathy and Tom are good at shipping!

You also can order Chesapeake Crimes 3 from Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com and Booksamillion.com, among with other online booksellers.

"Murder at Sleuthfest" appears in Chesapeake Crimes 2, the second installment in the Chesapeake Crimes series. Four of the stories in this book were nominated for the 2005 Agatha Award, including "Murder at Sleuthfest." Chesapeake Crimes 2 was co-edited by Donna Andrews and Maria Lima. It was published by Tidewater Press.

The book features stories by:

• Goodie Cantwell
• Nora Charles
• Leone Ciporin
• Carla Coupe (Carla's story was nominated for the 2005 Agatha Award)
• Elizabeth Foxwell
• Chris Freeburn
• Barb Goffman (My story was nominated for the 2005 Agatha Award - yay!)
• Peggy Hanson
• G. M. Malliet
• Sherriel Mattingly
• Valerie O. Patterson
• Judy Pomeranz
• Harriette I. Sackler (Harriette's story was nominated for the 2005 Agatha Award)
• Marcia Talley (Marcia's story won the 2005 Agatha Award)
• Sandi Wilson

"Murder at Sleuthfest" was inspired by the theft of one of my rings at the 2004 Sleuthfest mystery conference. I vowed to turn the bad experience into a good one, and it resulted in my first published mystery work.

You can purchase signed copies of Chesapeake Crimes 2 from Mystery Loves Company.

You also can order Chesapeake Crimes 2 from the major online booksellers.

Email me at barb at barbgoffman.com