Stone’s Throw 2023 annual anthology
Published December 31, 2023
Click here to Purchase
Twelve months. 365 days. We’re not going to count the minutes – this isn’t Broadway.
31,536,000 seconds in a year. So many moments for that one fateful mistake that brings it all crumbling down . . .
Stone’s Throw is the annual companion of Rock and a Hard Place Magazine. Each month, we feature a new tale, spun by some of the best that the crime and mystery fiction scene has to offer, in response to a themed prompt generated by the RHP editorial squad. And the results were pure gold.
A year’s worth of bad decisions and desperate people. And we’re just getting started.
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
(In order of appearance of work)
JOSEPH S. WALKER lives in Indiana and teaches college literature and composition courses. His short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, Tough, and a number of other magazines and anthologies. He has been nominated for the Edgar Award and the Derringer Award and has won the Bill Crider Prize for Short Fiction. He also won the Al Blanchard Award in 2019 and 2021.
ASHLEY-RUTH M. BERNIER lives in Apex, NC. Originally from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, she is an emerging writer of contemporary Caribbean mysteries. The winner of the North Carolina Writers Network’s 2022 Jacobs/Jones Award for Black writers, Ashley-Ruth’s stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, and The Caribbean Writer. Ashley-Ruth is a first-grade teacher and mom of 4, so writing time is more valuable than gold in her house.
NIKKI DOLSON is the author of the novel All Things Violent and the story collection Love and Other Criminal Behavior. Her stories have appeared in Vautrin, TriQuarterly, Tough, ThugLit, and other publications. Her fiction has been nominated for a Derringer and selected for Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021. You can find her at nikkidolson.com.
FRANCELIA BELTON’s love of short stories came from watching old Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents television shows in her youth. She published a collection titled, Crime & Passion: Three Short Stories, and her fiction has appeared in various publications, including ““Dreaming of Ella”“ in Denver Noir and ““Red Riding in the Hood”“ in Bizarre Bazaar.
Her short story, “Knife Girl,” was a finalist in the 2020-2021 ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Competition and a semi-finalist in the 2021 Outstanding Screenplays Shorts Competition. Her short story, “The Brotherhood of Tricks and Tricks” was a quarterfinalist in the 2022 ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Competition.
She is an active member of Sisters in Crime and has served as President (2019-2021) and Vice President (2015-2018) for the Colorado chapter. She is also a member of Mystery Writers of America, Crime Writers of Color and Short Mystery Fiction Society.
You can read more of her stories at https://Francel.Be/Writing-Stories.
M.E. PROCTOR is currently writing a series of contemporary detective novels. The first book Street Song comes out from TouchPoint Press in 2023. Her short stories have been published in Vautrin, Bristol Noir, Pulp Modern, Mystery Tribune, Reckon Review, Shotgun Honey and others. She lives in Livingston, Texas. Twitter: @MEProctor3 – website: www.shawmystery.com
JONATHAN NEWMAN is an unpublished British writer and long-suffering English teacher. He spends most of his days attempting (unsuccessfully) to convince his students that reading Cormac McCarthy and Stephen King are more valuable interests than using TikTok and Snapchat.
SUZE KAY graduated from Yale with a degree in Art History. She currently works as a pastry chef in New Jersey and writes short fiction, horror, and fantasy. You can find more of her writing on Vocal Media.
MARY THORSON lives and writes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She received her BA in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her MFA from Pacific University in Oregon. Her stories have appeared in the Los Angeles Review, Milwaukee Noir, Worcester Review, Rock and a Hard Place, Tough, among others. Her work has been nominated for Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery, a Derringer, and a Pushcart Prize. She hangs out with her two daughters, husband, and dog when she isn’t teaching high school English, reading, or writing ghost stories.
TOM ANDES’ writing has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2012. He won the 2019 Gold Medal for Best Novel-in-Progress from the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society. He released his debut EP, “Static on Every Station” on Bandcamp in 2022.
PRESTON LANG is a small, honest writer based in Ontario. His short work has appeared in Thuglit, N+1, Rock and a Hard Place, and Betty Fedora.
AIDAN SHOUSKY was born and raised in North Philadelphia where he worked part-time as an art teacher and private investigator. He graduated from Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in English and Film. While at the university, he was a member of Philadelphia Young Playwrights. He currently lives in Saint Paul, MN and works as an editorial assistant.
LIBBY CUDMORE is the Shamus-winning author of Negative Girl (Datura 2024) and The Big Rewind (William Morrow 2016.) She is a frequent contributor to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and her stories have been published in Tough, The Dark, Monkeybicycle, Had, Reckon Review and others.