We recently went to our local bookstore, and discovered something remarkable. Each fall, anthologies are released featuring the best short stories for a particular genre published the prior year. These series of books feature everything from mystery and suspense to food writing, and are put out by publishers like HarperCollins and the Mysterious Bookshop.

In addition to showcasing the top stories picked by a different guest editor, the anthologies contain an extra list of that year’s noteworthy honorable mention short stories. It’s a tremendous honor to be included, and most of the names you’ll find are deep into their careers. We had no expectations that we would see one of our names among the list, but imagine our surprise when we flipped to the back of the store’s only copy of The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024.

Jessica’s debut short story Woodpeckers, originally published in the charity anthology Shotgun Honey Presents: Thicker Than Water, was included among the list of ten “additional outstanding stories published in 2023” selected by Otto Penzler and guest editor Anthony Horowitz. Considering over three thousand stories were considered for the anthology, we could not be more proud.

The anthology can be found here at The Mysterious Bookshop or at Amazon.

Look out for more short fiction publication news to come in 2025!