Jim Fusilli

Sandra Murphy

Debra H. Goldstein

Lesley A. Diehl

Nikki Knight

Barry Ergang

Heidi Hunter

Shari Held

Daniel Sohn

Linda Kay Hardie

Lisa Lynn

A bad meal is a misdemeanor but going to bed hungry is the biggest crime of all. Ten short story authors have joined forces to write humorous crime stories containing some of their favorite Thanksgiving dishes. From murder to theft to bank heists, these authors have whipped up stories to tickle your funny bone, feed your urge for a good crime and make you a bit hungry in the process. Not to be outdone, Lisa Lynn provides the perfect accompaniment with recipes that people can make for the holidays using the basic staples found in nearly every home or from your local food bank. Thanks to the publisher’s “Misti Gives Back” program, 100% of the net proceeds of the sales of this title will be split evenly among each of the contributors’ local Second Harvest Food Bank (a member of Feeding America) to help raise money to feed those most in need and at risk. If a contributor does not have a Second Harvest in their area, their share will go directly to Feeding America. Your purchase(s) ensure that more people will have access to food this holiday season and beyond.

A Humorous Crime Anthology to Benefit Second Harvest Food Bank

The Perp Wore Pumpkin

How do you cope when your baby is born with a severe and life-limiting brain disorder? With huge amounts of love, compassion and bloody-mindedness, if this compelling true-life account is anything to go by!Little Amberlie Murphy was born with lissencephaly (a smooth brain). In her short life, however, filled as it was with relentless seizures and terrible feeding and breathing problems, if she knew nothing else, she knew she was greatly loved and wanted by her family - so much so that her dedicated mother, Sandra, has written this moving and often harrowing story commemorating Amberlie's seven years.Sandra pulls no punches - she was often angry at everyone and everything, and goes into detail about Amberlie's symptoms and how they were managed with an overwhelming cocktail of medications. But in the end the book is a testament not only to her undying love, but also to her gratitude to the medical profession for pulling out all the stops in an effort to help Amberlie. 'A Headbanger's Ball' is about unconditional love and acceptance - how a family coped, cried, laughed, celebrated and preserved their sanity - how they all joined Amberlie in her fight to stay alive, yet still functioned as a normal family.

Real Family Life with a Disabled Daughter

A Headbanger's Ball

Mary Ann Smith

This innovative resource provides teachers with a road map for designing a comprehensive writing curriculum that meets Common Core State Standards. The authors zero in on several big ideas that lead to and support effective practices in writing instruction, such as integrating reading, writing, speaking, and listening; teaching writing as a process; extending the range of the students' writing; spiraling and scaffolding a writing curriculum; and collaborating. These ideas are the cornerstone of best reseach-based practices as well as the CCSS for writing. The first chapter offers a complete lesson designed around teaching narrative writing and illustrates tried-and-true practices for teaching writing as a process. The remaining chapters explore a broad range of teaching approaches that help students tackle different kinds of narrative, informational, and argumentative writing as well as complexities like audience and purpose. Each chapter focuses on at least one of the uncommonly good ideas and illustrates how to create curricula around it. Uncommonly Good Ideas includes model lessons and assignments, mentor texts, teaching strategies, student writing, and practical guidance for moving the ideas from the page into the classroom.

Teaching Writing in the Common Core Era

Uncommonly Good Ideas

Through ideas and practices straight from the classrooms of outstanding teachers, this lively resource illustrates writing that makes an impact on a reader, a writer, or a cause—writing that everyone wants to read. The book is rich with student work that shows how writing can make things happen in the world. The authors provide ready-to-use lessons that include a full range of writing, including poetry, narrative, petitions, proposals, emails, self-reflections, long-term projects, and critical analyses. “Young people yearn to have an impact on the world but often lack the tools to make change. This book demonstrates how shifting the focus and purposes for writing can turn students' frustration with the status quo into action. There’s no time to waste. The need for change—both in school and in society—is urgent.” —Carol Jago, past president, National Council of Teachers of English and associate director, California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA “In true National Writing Project style, Sandy Murphy and Mary Ann Smith take us inside the classrooms of remarkable teachers to see how they create contexts for young writers to pursue writing they care about for purposes that matter. Readers will find lots to take back to their own settings to engage this remarkable generation of young people in our classrooms.” —Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, Executive Director, National Writing Project

Expanding the Vision of Writing in the Secondary Classroom

Writing to Make an Impact

Brendan DuBois

Robert J. Randisi

Donna Andrews

Joseph S. Walker

Barb Goffman

Frankie Y. Bailey

Robert Lopresti

Marilyn Todd

Terence Faherty

Joseph Goodrich

Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Duck Soup, Animal Crackers…over the two decades between 1929’s The Cocoanuts and 1949’s Love Happy, the Marx Brothers—Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and sometimes Zeppo—entertained movie-goers around the world with their madcap antics, rapid-fire dialogue, and prowess on the piano, the harp, and in song. Now, a Who’s Who of award-winning crime writers pays homage to the Marxes in fourteen short stories, each inspired by one of the brothers’ thirteen studio films. (Wait a second: fourteen stories inspired by thirteen films? How does that add up? You'll find the answer to that question…and so much more!...inside the covers of this book.) The authors? Donna Andrews, Frankie Y. Bailey, Jeff Cohen, Lesley A. Diehl, Brendan DuBois, Terence Faherty, Barb Goffman, Joseph Goodrich, Robert Lopresti, Sandra Murphy, Robert J. Randisi, Marilyn Todd, Joseph S. Walker, and editor Josh Pachter, who is a recent recipient of the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s Golden Derringer Award for Lifetime Achievement and the editor of two previous “inspired by” anthologies from Untreed Reads, The Beat of Black Wings: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Joni Mitchell and Only the Good Die Young: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Billy Joel. To paraphrase Groucho: Outside of a dog, this book will be your best friend. (Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.)

Crime Fiction Inspired by the Films of the Marx Brothers

Monkey Business

Charles Bazerman

Steve Graham

Arthur N. Applebee

Deborah Brandt

Paul Kei Matsuda

Virginia W. Berninger

Jill Jeffery

Deborah Wells Rowe

Mary Schleppegrell

Kristen Wilcox

The Lifespan Development of Writing

To the moon and back, here are ten tales with a twist. The unlikely characters have one thing in common--they're ready and willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals. As the old saying goes, you have to watch out for the quiet ones. From a quirky inventor, humored by his neighbors, to two old men out to dinner, to a more-than-meets the eye beverage maker, the stories will take you into the minds of the overlooked and unseen. Ignore them at your own risk.

Ten Devilish Tales of Crime and Deception

From Hay to Eternity

John Grant

Bev Vincent

Lavie Tidhar

Eric Brown

Martin Edwards

Jared Cade

Michael Bracken

L. C. Tyler

O'Neil De Noux

Amy Myers

Rhys Hughes

David Quantick

Deryn Lake

Jane Finnis

Keith Brooke

Ashley Lister

Paul Charles

Christine Poulson

This anthology draws together some of the best new stories of mystery and murder—compiled by the Anthony Award–winning crime fiction editor. This anthology collects the most original stories of murder by some of mystery fiction's most inventive talents from the United States and United Kingdom. With innovative new takes on locked-room mysteries and impossible crimes, these short stories are full of vexing conundrums and reality-defying puzzles. A murder has been committed—but how could it have happened? Curated by Maxim Jakubowski, one of the crime genre’s most renowned editors, this volume features never-before-seen stories by acclaimed authors—including British Science Fiction Award–winner Eric Brown, Derringer Award–winner O'Neil de Noux, and multiple CWA Dagger Award–winners and nominees.

The Best New Original Stories of the Genre

The Book of Extraordinary Impossible Crimes and Puzzling Deaths

Adults view kids as just so much background noise until something goes wrong--then they make life changing decisions without even asking the kid what she wants. It's all done in the name of "we know what's best." What's a kid to do? Well, if you're the kid, you think about it, view the options and figure out what you think is the best outcome. You make a plan and carry it out. If you're careful, you can even get away with it. A short work of crime from our Fingerprints line.

Sweet Tea and Deviled Eggs

Bobbi A. Chukran

BV Lawson

Judy Penz Sheluk

Earl Staggs

Albert Tucher

John M. Floyd

Andrew MacRae

JoAnne Lucas

Walter Soethoudt

Julie Tollefson

Laurie Stevens

Pamela A. De Voe

Suzanne Berube Rorhus

Su Kopil

Tim Wohlforth

Herschel Cozine

Nineteen authors spin yarns of murder, mayhem, clues, and confessions in this anthology of stories culled from the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Sometimes, crime has the sound of poison dripping or the whistle of a knife through the air. And, sometimes, it happens with a “flash and bang.” Collected here are some of the finest short mystery and crime stories to emerge from the Short Mystery Fiction Society, which boasts more than sixteen hundred members around the world. The diverse range of voices represented here takes readers from small-town diners and neighborhood pawn shops to Viking ships, ancient Chinese courts, and beyond. Full of dangerous secrets and violent crimes, seasoned gumshoes and amateur sleuths, Flash and Bang serves as a showcase of the incredible talent in the SMFS ranks. Flash and Bang includes contributions from Herschel Cozine, Bobbi A. Chukran, Su Kopil, P.A. De Voe, Laurie Stevens, Tim Wohlforth, Suzanne Berube Rorhus, Sandra Murphy, Julie Tollefson, O’Neil De Noux, John M. Floyd, JoAnne Lucas, Andrew MacRae, Judy Penz Sheluk, Albert Tucher, Earl Staggs, Barb Goffman, BV Lawson, and Walter Soethoudt.

A Short Mystery Fiction Group Anthology

Flash and Bang

Sandra Murphy

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