Two new stories by me just hit the newsstands: one in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and the other in Alfred Hitchcock. If you’re a try-before-buying type you can read a lengthy excerpt from the Ellery Queen tale — a “Holmes on the Range” novella — on the magazine’s website. Check it out!
Interested in creating stories that combine skullduggery and the supernatural? (You know…like my tarot mysteries?) Join me at 2 p.m. on All Hallows Eve Eve (a.k.a. Oct. 30) for “Things That Go Bump on the Page: Writing the Paranormal Mystery,” a free Zoom discussion with fellow writers Margaret Dumas, Melissa Bourbon Ramirez, Nancy Cole Silverman, Margaret Lucke and Maggie Toussaint. Check it out!
The fine folks at the new book-focused website shepherd.com asked me to write about fave books in the genre of my choice. The result: “The Best Westerns That Will Transport You to the American Frontier.” Check it out!
July 23 through July 27 the ebooks of my mysteries The White Magic Five and Dime and Holmes on the Range are free on Amazon. And the Holmes on the Range Mysteries Box Set, which collects the first five novels in the series, has been marked down from $9.99 to $6.99. Act now while supplies last! (Don’t worry. Amazon never really runs out of ebooks.)
This was a ton of fun! I got to be a guest on a podcast I listen to regularly: the Western-themed "Six-Gun Justice." Get the scoop on the origin of the "Holmes on the Range" series as well as the new Western novel I'm this/close to finishing. Check it out!
Saturday, July 17, I’m moderating a panel on mysteries for kids with authors Pat Canterbury, Janae Marks and Beth McMuellen. It’s a Mystery Writers of America (MWA) event but free to all. The fun starts at 1. Check it out on the MWA NorCal Facebook page!
As a bonus for folks coming to my MWA Facebook chat about mystery short fiction June 12, I've made two of my story collections — Naughty and Blarney — free on Amazon from now through June 15. Get 'em while they're hot (and, more importantly, free)! Check out Naughty! And Blarney!
Saturday, June 12, at 1 p.m. PST I’ll be doing a Facebook Live talk about mystery short stories. Why write ’em, how to write ’em, where to sell ’em. Sponsored by Mystery Writers of America’s NorCal chapter but open to all. Come for the writing advice, stay for even more writing advice. Check it out (on June 12)!
My story “The Death and Carnage Boy” from the July/August 2020 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine is a finalist for the International Thriller Writers’ Thriller Award. I’m thrilled! Check it out!
Interested in writing mysteries but not sure how to begin? Well, now I can tell you: Start by buying the Mystery Writers of America’s new how-to handbook for would-be crime scribes. They even let me contribute a page. Check it out!
What’s the deal with the springtime jingle bells? “The Last Noel,” a Christmas crime story that first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine a few years ago, is now available for e-purchase under the “Barb Goffman Presents” banner on Amazon. Just plunk down your 99 cents and you’ll be feeling holly jolly all over again. Check it out!
Yo, Holmes on the Rangers! (That's my new nickname for Holmes on the Range fans. Think it'll stick?) The latest issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine features a new HotR story, "Curious Incidents." For a limited time you can read a nice and looooooong excerpt on the Ellery Queen website. Check it out!
Years ago, I wrote a zombie novella with a then-wacky set-up: What would a presidential campaign look like during an apocalypse? Wild, right? Well, here’s something wilder: An audio adaptation of “Cadaver in Chief” is now being presented free on Podbean. The first 20 chapters went live today. Check it out!
“From that headline there must be some books on sale,” you say. “What books AREN’T on sale?!?” I say. Or shout, really. Because this is a big, BIG ebook sale. The kind that calls for ALL CAPS!!! Holmes on the Range is FREE on Amazon. The White Magic Five and Dime is FREE. Lots of other books are, like, so cheap they’re PRACTICALLY free. (You don’t see “practically” in all caps often, do you?) Check ’em out!
Throughout October the ebook version of Super Puzzletastic Mysteries (which features my story “Possum-Man and Janet”) is just $1.99. That’s cheap, peeps! This anthology of mysteries for kids features work by a ton of talented writers. Check it out!
The July/August issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine features my story “The Death and Carnage Boy,” which was inspired by my high school paper route. Oh, you think a story about a paper route doesn’t sound very exciting? Hey, it’s in a mystery magazine! There’s, like, a missing teenager and a creepy shack in the woods and an ominous car following our hero every morning. The Ellery Queen crew liked it enough to excerpt it on their site. Check it out!
The Mystery Writers of America has put out a fun new anthology of solve-it-yourself mysteries for kids…and one of them is by yours truly. Know any Encyclopedia Browns in training? This is the book for them. Check it out!
If you want to hear me babble incoherently for a minute ("Ooo...ahhh...that's tough...man...wow...I don't know") ask me to assess my writing career. Or you can just download the latest episode of the fantabulous "Writer Types" podcast, because the hosts already asked me for you. Check it out!
My personal blog is long gone, but that won’t stop me from blogifying when the mood hits. The fine folks over at “The Six-Gun Justice Podcast” just put up a new post by me called “Dad’s in the Saddle Again.” It’s all about how I grew up with Westerns thanks to my grandfather and father. Check it out!
FREE FREE FREE!!! (I’m not much of a marketer, but I know what gets people’s attention.) For the next few days, the novel that started it all, Holmes on the Range, is FREE FREE FREE for your ereader! And a lot of my other books are CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP! Check it out!