“GIRLIE” in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine

AHMM-JANFEB-2016This month saw my second collaboration with the late Steven Utley hit stands in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. “GIRLIE” is a noir-ish Caribbean hooker novelette, started by Steven under the working title “Flying Dutchman” and sent to me as a very rough story kernel of a few hundred words. After Steven’s sudden passing in January of 2013, my sorrow over his loss inspired a scribbling frenzy to complete this story, which quickly blossomed into a novelette. What with the infamous hurry-up-and-wait pace of publishing, “GIRLIE” arrived in my mailbox nearly exactly three years after his death.

Here’s to you, Mr. Utley. You are missed in the world.