Murder on Wheels: 11 Tales of Crime on the Move

MURDER ON WHEELS, Austin Mystery Writers’ first crime fiction anthology, has been released by Wildside Press.

Since it appeared, the Writers have been difficult to live with. We’ll get over it, but only after a decent interval of frolicking.

The cover copy reads–

“The eleven stories in MURDER ON WHEELS put the pedal to the floor and never let up! Whether by bus, car, tractor, or bike, you’ll be carried along at a breakneck pace by the talented Austin Mystery Writers. These eight authors transport you from an eighteenth-century sailing ship to the open roads of modern Texas, from Alice’s Wonderland to a schoolbus yard in the suburbs of Dallas.”

For a sample of what’s between the covers, see below.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION, by Kaye George

A NICE SET OF WHEELS, by Kathy Waller

FAMILY BUSINESS, by Reavis Wortham

ROTA FORTUNA, by Valerie Chandler

MOME RATH, MY SWEET, by Gale Albright

THE WHEELS ON THE BUS GO ROUND AND ROUND, by Kaye George

BUON VIAGGIO, by Laura Oles

APORKALYPSE NOW, by Gale Albright

HAVE A NICE TRIP, by Kaye George

DEAD MAN ON A SCHOOL BUS, by Earl Staggs

HELL ON WHEELS, by Kathy Waller

RED’S WHITE F-150 BLUES, by Scott Montgomery

Reavis Wortham and Earl Staggs aren’t Austin Mystery Writers–they’re Texas authors who kindly contributed stories to the anthology. We’re pleased they joined us.

Kaye George, a former member, now lives in Tennessee, but she hasn’t managed to escape the AMW. Before she left, we named her Grand Pooh-Bah Emerita. Now we email every day. (See Kaye’s certificate, here.)

When Austin Mystery Writers was formed twelve years, members had no intention of publishing anything together. They (and we) simply wanted to improve their writing.

The idea for MURDER ON WHEELS came from banter via email late one night.

In the midst of our silliness, we began naming as many vehicles as we could think of. Then we switched to using them in titles for mystery novels:

Crime in a Convertible; Victim on a Velocipede; Garrotted in a Gas Guzzler; Whopped in a Wheelbarrow, Bumped Off in a Barouche-Landau…

Then Kaye said, “Let’s put together an anthology.”

So we did.

Ramona DeFelice Long edited the manuscript. Wildside Press published it.

Modified rapture! And now we frolic.

The moral–must be a moral!–of the story is this: Creativity begins in play.

This morning another group email arrived: When will we begin the next anthology?

Well, one thing does lead to another. . .

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