Welcome to Black Cat Weekly #32.

This issue, we have more original stories than ever before. Editors Michael Bracken and Cynthia Ward have brought in new tales by Wil A. Emerson and the writing team of Jayme Lynn Blaschke and Don Webb, and I snagged magazine rights to Mel Gilden’s new novel, The Case by Case Casebook of Emily Silverwood. Mel’s story is a new and thoroughly modern take on the Mary Poppins theme. Wil Emerson has a study on the dynamics of detective partners. And Blachke and Webb’s story (as Cindy Ward put it) “reveals the connections between Nietszche’s abyss, Lovecraft’s god-monsters and non-Euclidean spaces, and Cordwainer Smith’s monsters of subspace.” Wow!

Not to be outdone, Barb Goffman acquired Stacy Woodson’s first story, which won the Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Reader’s Award. And, of course, we have a solve-it-yourself mystery from Hal Charles, a historical adventure novel from Edison Marshall, and a slew of great science fiction stories from such masters as Henry Slesar, and Edmond Hamilson. And a World War II fantasy from Malcolm Edwards.

Here’s the lineup:

Non-Fiction:

“Speaking with Robert Sheckley,” conducted by Darrell Schweitzer [interview]

Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure:

“Insieme,” by Wil A. Emerson [Michael Bracken Presents short story]

“An Eggcellent Equation,” by Hal Charles [solve-it-yourself mystery]

“Paper Caper,” by James Holding [short story]

“Duty, Honor, Hammett,” by Stacy Woodson [Barb Goffman Presents short story]

The Infinite Woman, by Edison Marshall [novel]

Science Fiction & Fantasy:

It Gazes Back,” by Jayme Lynn Blaschke and Don Webb [Cynthia Ward Presents short story]

The Case by Case Casebook of Emily Silverwood, by Mel Gilden [serialized novel]

“Vengeance in Her Bones,” by Malcolm Jameson [short story]

“The Man Who Liked Lions,” by John Bernard Daley [short story]

“A Message from Our Sponsor,” by Henry Slesar [short story]

Crashing Suns, by Edmond Hamilton [novel]

Holiday Hitman

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