The Maltese Tater Tot by Pat Dennis

by Barb Goffman

300/366

From Pat Dennis’ collection Hotdish To Die For (Penury Press, 2000).

A rich, older man marries a much-younger woman and treasures her with gifts (and an allowance). Suddenly, her jewelry starts going missing, one piece at a time. The husband suspects the wife is up to something and hires a P.I. to figure things out.

And this review marks my end of this challenge. 300 stories officially read in 2012. When it started I hoped to actually read a story a day for a year. That was the exact challenge. That morphed into: Could I read 366 stories in the year, knowing that some days I might not get to read any, but on other days, I could read several? My goal kept changing as I had more non-short-story days than expected: First, 350 stories. Then 325. And now, finally, 300, which I think is a respectable finish.

I should add that I probably read nearly 350 short stories this year, but I didn’t write about them all, which was part of the challenge. If I hated a story, I may not have written about it. If I didn’t finish a story, I didn’t write about it. If I read an unpublished story (I’m a co-editor of the Chesapeake Crimes anthology series), I didn’t write about it. Knowing this makes me feel even better about my 300.

Because of this challenge, I read a lot of authors this year I had never read before, some of whom I’m particularly excited about and will seek out more of their work. These authors include Steve Liskow, Pat Dennis (her Puck stories are so good), David Dean, and Lynne Heitman.

This challenge also gave me the opportunity to read a lot more stories by John Floyd, one of my favorite short-story authors. If you haven’t read him yet, you’re  missing out.

Finally, having read more short stories this year than ever before, especially in such a concentrated period, enabled me to better understand what works in a story and what doesn’t (at least for me). I hope my own writing has improved as a result.

I’ve enjoyed sharing these pages with my fellow readers, especially Katherine Tomlinson and Patti Abbott, who both are on track to hit 366 stories by December 31st. Way to go, ladies! A hat tip to Brian Lindenmuth of Spinetingler for setting up this challenge last December. It’s been a pleasure.

Awake by David Dean

by Barb Goffman

121/366

This story originally appeared in the July 2009 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. A podcast of the author reading the story can be heard here. This podcast has three stories being read. The Dean story starts at around eight minutes into the recording.

All houses make noises. In this tale, an old man listens to the noises his house makes as he drifts off to sleep. Noises we all tend to not notice after a while. The creaks. The clicks. And there’s the breathing of the dog. Until he awakens to a noise that’s not so normal at all …

Hat tip to Art Taylor for letting me know about this story, which has an open-ending in that you don’t know exactly what happens next, but the story is still satisfying because its beauty is in its detail and mood, and the frightening ending fits in so well. You don’t need to know exactly what will happen. You have an idea, which is enough.

Tomorrow’s Dead by David Dean

by Barb Goffman

From the July 2011 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

81/366

An out-of-state police chief with a dark past returns to his hometown, searching for his missing best friend. Soon he learns that a local serial killer is at work, and his friend might be involved. But is his friend the killer or another victim or something else? As the chief searches for the killer, he has to stare down his own phantoms and find a way to live with all that’s happened.

This story is a finalist for this year’s Derringer Award in the Novelette category.