Alloway, Steven — “The Man in the Mirror”
Bowker, John — “All the Many Ways We Burn”
Burgoine, Nathan — “Last Call”
Chapman, Steve — “The Trouble with Captain Justice”
Goudsward, Dave — “The Doom That Came to Al Capone”
Johnson, Erik T. — “Krug’s Pen”
Kimmel, Leigh — “Once a Chekist”
Roque, Rebecca — “Dead to Rights”
Rothman, Chuck — “The Art of Dancing Naked”
Sakaida, Allison — “The Lady in Fur”
Scalise, Michelle — “Patron Saint of Walking Ghosts”

There’s still time — send us your best paranormal criminal investigation!

Remember, we want crime investigation stories that involve the supernatural in some way — we’re looking for engaging characters, unusual modi operandi, and, preferably, clear resolution of the whodunnit/howdunnit questions by the end of the story.

As of today, we’ve accepted the following works, in alphabetical order by author:

Alloway, Steven — “The Man in the Mirror”
Burgoine, Nathan — “Last Call”
Chapman, Steve — “The Trouble with Captain Justice”
Goudsward, Dave — “The Doom That Came to Al Capone”
Johnson, Erik T. — “Krug’s Pen”
Kimmel, Leigh — “Once a Chekist”
Roque, Rebecca — “Dead to Rights”
Sakaida, Allison — “The Lady in Fur”

We’ve also started accepting stories. In alphabetical order by author, the stories we’ve accepted so far include the following:

Alloway, Steven — “The Man in the Mirror”
Chapman, Steve — “The Trouble with Captain Justice”
Goudsward, Dave — “The Doom That Came to Al Capone”
Kimmel, Leigh — “Once a Chekist”
Roque, Rebecca — “Dead to Rights”
Sakaida, Allison — “The Lady in Fur”

The stories include a variety of historical and cultural settings — not to mention crimes — which is exactly the sort of thing we enjoy here at The Harrow Press. We’re definitely still open for submissions, so send us your best supernatural criminal investigations!

Warning

(Image Source: Image shamelessly ripped off the ZombieMeter.Org website.)

(Special thanks to Jason Sizemore for lending us his e-formatting kung fu skills!)

Memory Drift by Skydancer

Kfir and I do our best to make decisions on stories in a timely fashion, but sometimes we receive stories that we need a little extra time to consider. So although we try to have a decision back to authors within about a month or so of submission, it’s quite possible that some of you are still waiting to hear from us. Don’t panic!  No news may not necessarily be good news, but it isn’t necessarily bad news, either.

And if you haven’t submitted to us yet — or if you received a rejection but have another story that might work — we look forward to seeing your work! The Mortis Operandi guidelines can be found on the “Submissions” page.

If you are a book reviewer interested in obtaining a copy for a future review column, please email me or my co-editor Kfir with your request.

At the moment the book is only available in hardcopy. I am investigating a Kindle version, but I can’t say with any assurance if or when it will appear.

Authors — you should have received your story payments by now. If for some reason you didn’t get a notification of payment, please contact me. Now I’m waiting on the shipment of books to arrive before I mail off your complimentary copies; I’m hoping I’ll be able to do that by the end of this week!

Authors, we’ll be sending out payments and your complimentary copy within the next few weeks; be sure you get in touch with Kfir to confirm your PayPal and mailing addresses.

Thanks to everyone for the hard work and great patience you put in through the revision, copyediting, and proofing stages of this project — it’s your careful attention that helps The Harrow Press deliver a high-quality publication.

Memory Drift by Skydancer

A couple of comments a month into reading submissions…

Approximately .06% of the stories we’ve received so far have been about any crime other than murder; so, if you want your submission to stand out, consider sending us an investigation that doesn’t involve a dead body. Of course in the end we’ll choose the most original, well-written stories we read, and if Mortis Operandi becomes an all-murder collection, so be it, but…. go ahead, make my day with an arson, a kidnapping, an illegal waste dump, a swindle….

Also, please keep in mind that we want supernatural stories that revolve around the investigation of a crime. Stories that describe only the commission of a crime or an attempt to avenge a crime are insufficient. It doesn’t matter whether the protagonist is the investigator, someone assisting or witnessing the investigation, or someone fleeing the investigation — there needs to be some kind of investigation involved, conducted via whichever methods work best for your story.

Thanks, and I hope to see your work in our emailbox!

Kfir and I look forward to reading your work!