I'm a member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, an informal association of writers, publishers, and fans that has kept mystery & crime short stories in the public eye since 1996. On April 4, the Society announced the finalists for its 2019 Derringer Awards. An April 15–30 vote of the membership determined the winners, announced May 1.
I still hope to interview any 2019 finalists I've missed. Email me your answers to the following questions.
Sylvia Maultash Warsh's Mystery Most Geograpical story "The Cabin in the Woods" was one of four Best Short Story Derringer finalists from the 2018 Malice Domestic anthology.
Describe your story in up to 20 words.
A woman stays in the cabin she inherited from her estranged mother and learns the painful truth about her father.
What were the most difficult and most enjoyable parts of writing the story?
I had a lot of backstory and had to decide whether to use narrative or “show” it in scenes. At first, I wrote scenes for some of it, but didn’t like them. I changed them to narration and surprisingly, it worked better. You often hear, “Show, don’t tell.” But scenes take up more time in a story and in this case, dragged down the momentum. One thing I really enjoyed was searching online for pictures of cabins that would help me describe the setting and get me in a cabin vibe.
Do you have a juicy story about how your story came to be published?
I wrote what I thought was my last draft at our cottage on Georgian Bay, part of Lake Huron. I gave the story to my husband, who was a captive audience in the evening – no escape outside with the mosquitoes. Usually he only reads my stuff after it’s published. I told him I was submitting to an anthology with a geographical theme. When he finished reading it, he said, “Where’s the geography?” So I added information about the land around the cabin, a moraine carved out by a glacier during the last ice age. We have a number of those in Ontario and it was satisfying to write about. I think it improved the story.
How does it feel to be a Derringer finalist?
I’m thrilled to be nominated. There are so many wonderful stories to choose from, it’s quite an honour to be picked.
I still hope to interview any 2019 finalists I've missed. Email me your answers to the following questions.
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| Sylvia Maultash Warsh |
Describe your story in up to 20 words.
A woman stays in the cabin she inherited from her estranged mother and learns the painful truth about her father.
What were the most difficult and most enjoyable parts of writing the story?
I had a lot of backstory and had to decide whether to use narrative or “show” it in scenes. At first, I wrote scenes for some of it, but didn’t like them. I changed them to narration and surprisingly, it worked better. You often hear, “Show, don’t tell.” But scenes take up more time in a story and in this case, dragged down the momentum. One thing I really enjoyed was searching online for pictures of cabins that would help me describe the setting and get me in a cabin vibe.
Do you have a juicy story about how your story came to be published?
I wrote what I thought was my last draft at our cottage on Georgian Bay, part of Lake Huron. I gave the story to my husband, who was a captive audience in the evening – no escape outside with the mosquitoes. Usually he only reads my stuff after it’s published. I told him I was submitting to an anthology with a geographical theme. When he finished reading it, he said, “Where’s the geography?” So I added information about the land around the cabin, a moraine carved out by a glacier during the last ice age. We have a number of those in Ontario and it was satisfying to write about. I think it improved the story.
How does it feel to be a Derringer finalist?
I’m thrilled to be nominated. There are so many wonderful stories to choose from, it’s quite an honour to be picked.
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