Most of the short stories featured in the forthcoming Bouchercon 2023 anthology, Killin’ Time in San Diego, are set in and around sunny (and, it turns out, often seedy) San Diego, California. But that’s where the similarities end. As editor of this collection, I was delighted with the range of subjects, characters, and, yes, crimes, I found in the nearly two hundred stories submitted for consideration. The only challenge was choosing which ones to include!

And oh, what a challenge that was. But I loved every minute of it. To celebrate the August 30 launch of Killin’ Time in San Diego, Dru Ann Love graciously invited us to contribute a feature on the anthology, so I asked three authors to write up a “day in the life” of their wonderful characters.

Enjoy this small sampling and be sure to get your copy of Killin’ Time in San Diego on August 30 so you can read their stories, along with fantastic works by seventeen other contributors, including C.J. Box, Ann Cleeves, and Naomi Hirahara.

Nicole Clark, “Buy the Farm”
By Kathleen L. Asay

I smile as I click on the photograph. There’s Jodie with a grin as big as his new sky-blue powered scooter. Behind him stands city Councilman Art Crenshaw smiling through his teeth, and me, Nicole Clark, columnist for The San Diegan newspaper, applauding. All it took was one eight-hundred-word storytelling readers how the councilman was in such a hurry to get to his lunch that he knocked over the homeless man outside chambers, and the man sprawled on the floor, unable to get up.

For a politician, shame is near to death. Within a day, Jodie, who has multiple sclerosis, was being measured for a scooter, courtesy of “ole Art.”

I love my job.

Ben, “Casualties of War”
By James Thorpe

You’re nothing but a piece of shit, Ben. Look at you. No wonder your girl back home didn’t wait for you. No, put her letter away. All it says is she’s real sorry, but she up and married that guy from the filling station. Jake. Or Jack. You can’t remember his name. You can’t remember a lot of things when that pain in your head gets bad. Point is, she’ll be singing “Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me,” to him. Not you, chump.

Hey! Stand up straight when I’m talking to you. You’re a soldier. Or at least you were. You’re coming home now. If you can call the San Diego Naval Hospital home. Just you and a few hundred other wounded, herded like cattle onto this train. This goddamned train with its wheels going clickety-clack… grinding, screeching. The pain’s so bad now you’re sweating.

You know, buddy, there is a way out. That Luger you smuggled back. It’s got one bullet in the chamber. Go on, pull it out of your duffel. Yeah, that’s the way. Feel it. The weight of it in your hands. Now raise it to your head. The barrel’s so cool against your temple. One quick pull on the trigger and you’re free. C’mon, man. You took so many lives over there. What’s one more here at home?

Aw, shit. Somebody’s knocking on the bathroom door. Put the gun back. This’ll be our little secret, Ben. Now turn away from the mirror and open the door.

Gloria Herrera, “President-Elect”
By Désirée Zamorano

I am very excited for this conference, I have to admit. Yes, I’ll power walk the peninsula, catch up with Patty, but this time in San Diego, I will realize one of my life’s ambitions: on Sunday at the award luncheon, I will be welcomed as President of Educational Leaders of California. Which means I am taking extra care in packing this morning. Presentation is so important. For the ceremony, the St. John’s knit or the burgundy Tahari?

Who am I kidding? Both, of course.

Patty and I are texting back and forth, making sure we’ve coordinated meetups, reservations in between the panels, my presentation, and, finally, the luncheon. Of course, nobody’s going to call me Madame President, but still, it’s thrilling. I haven’t been this giddy since I walked for my doctorate, and then, yes, my students did have to call me Dr. Herrera. It was delightful.
Modeling what little brown girls can become is my life’s work, my life’s joy.

Makeup bag, check. Jewelry bag, check. Whoops almost forgot the deodorant. I’m packed and ready to order my Lyft to the Fresno airport. Can’t wait to meet Patty at the hotel bar.

Killin’ Time in San Diego edited by Holly West
Genre: Short story anthology
Release: August 2023
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

Welcome to San Diego, where the perpetual sunshine blurs the line between good and evil, and sin and redemption are two sides of the same golden coin. Killin’ Time in San Diego is a gripping anthology edited by Holly West, featuring twenty of today’s best crime and mystery writers:

Every Day is a Good Day on the River by C.J. Box
The Canadians by Mary Keenan
Hard Rain on Beach Street by C.W. Blackwell
Dead Even by J.R. Sanders
Plymouth West by John M. Floyd
Wildfire by Kathy A. Norris
Buy the Farm by Kathleen L. Asay
To Hell and Back by L.H. Dillman
Shamu, World’s Greatest Detective by Richie Narvaez
Drowning by Ann Cleeves
29 Palms by Wesley Browne
President-Elect by Désirée Zamorano
Casualties of War by James Thorpe
Business of Death by Kim Keeline
Pearl of a Girl by Victoria Weisfeld
Palms-Up by Anne-Marie Campbell
A Bayside Murder by Jennifer Berg
Bidding War by Tim P. Walker
Girl of Gold by Emilya Naymark
The Celestial by Naomi Hirahara

About the featured authors
Kathleen L. Asay is a California native and a mystery writer and editor currently residing in Northern California. In her reading and writing, she particularly enjoys the beauty—and the quirks—of her home state. Sacramento inspired her first novel, Flint House; a sequel is in revisions.

James Thorpe’s father was a mortician, and his mother played the accordion, so even at a tender young age, he realized he was destined to become either a serial killer or a writer. Splitting the difference, he began his Emmy Award-winning career in advertising, eventually leading him to Hollywood, where he now writes and produces for film and television.

Désirée Zamorano is the author of the highly acclaimed literary novel, The Amado Women. Her novel Human Cargo was Latinidad’s mystery pick of the year. An award-winning and Pushcart prize nominee short story writer, her work often explores issues of invisibility, injustice, or inequity.

Holly West is the author of the Mistress of Fortune historical mystery series and the Anthony Award-nominated editor of Murder-a-Go-Go’s: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of the Go-Go’s. Her acclaimed short fiction has been featured online and in numerous anthologies, and her novella, The Money Block, is out now from Down & Out Books

All comments are welcomed.