Cover Reveal: Hooked on Urban Legends—and Murder!

What a joy to host the cover reveal for Hooked on Urban Legends—and Murder! The latest anthology from editors Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley celebrates short stories by members of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime—and what a line-up of authors! Contributors include Donna Andrews, Ellen Byerrum, Ginny Fite, Barb Goffman, Shari Held, Kathryn Holland, Smita Harish Jain, Meghan Lewis, Jane Limprecht, Alan Orloff, Pat Remick, KM Rockwood, Daphne Silver, Shannon Taft, Marcia Talley, Robin Templeton, and Joseph S. Walker.

But you’re here for the cover, of course, so without further ado…

Contributors were prompted to write “crime stories that either read like an urban legend or that involve an urban legend,” which the call for submissions described as “the type of story you hear happened to a friend of a friend of a friend. Something someone swears really happened, but it’s hard to believe.” Examples included The Hook (see the cover again!) as well as “The Stolen Kidney, The Vanishing Hitchhiker, Bigfoot, Slender Man, the 1947 UFO landing in Roswell, N.M., the Flashing Headlights Gang Initiation, the Stranger Secretly Living in an Attic, and Alligators in the Sewers.” (Wait. That’s not true?)

Here’s the list of stories that made the final cut:

• “The Things We Remember” – Joseph S. Walker
• “They Lurk In The Lake” – KM Rockwood
• “Every Dog Has Her Day” – Jane Limprecht
• “Face to Face” – Alan Orloff
• “Poison Maidens” – Smita Harish Jain
• “The House of Blue Lights Revisited” – Shari Held
• “Dead Man’s Chest” – Marcia Talley
• “The Legend of Samuel Savage” – Robin Templeton
• “Screaming Jenny” – Pat Remick
• “A Curse to Remember” – Daphne Silver
• “The Lady of Witchell Manor” – Meghan Lewis
• “The Cave Man” – Shannon Taft
• “A Knocking at Fairweather Hall” – Kathryn Holland
• “The Landing” – Ginny Fite
• “At The Cemetery” – Donna Andrews
• “The Portuguese Sailor” – Ellen Byerrum
• “Into the Woods” – Barb Goffman

And hey, so nice that those names get shouted out on the back cover—let’s share that too!

All submissions—even those by the editors—were judged anonymously (with author names hidden) by Austin S. Camacho, Michael Thomas Ford, and Julie Hyzy. The introduction to the book was written by Catriona McPherson. And the book is now available for preorder—thanks to publisher Wildside Press. It will be released on September 8.

Hooked on Urban Legends—and Murder! isn’t a Sisters in Crime chapter anthology, but the submissions were limited to members of SinC’s Chesapeake Chapter, and royalties will be donated to the chapter.

Though I didn’t submit to the anthology myself, I’m a proud member of the Chesapeake Chapter and specifically proud here of Jane Limprecht, who wrote the first drafts of her selected story in one of my courses at George Mason University—hooray!

I’m also thrilled to be hosting four of the contributors for First Two Pages essays in upcoming weeks, beginning this Tuesday, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, congratulations to the contributors and editors for what promises to be a spine-tingling anthology. Get your copy today!