Author: BECPlanning

Happy New Year!

BECPlanning

Happy New Year! I hope this message finds you happy and healthy. I think we can all agree that it’s nice to see 2020 in our collective rear view mirrors.

T-minus three months and counting until the April 6 release of my next novel, The Sacrifice of Lester Yates. Janice Kiaski, the community editor of the Steubenville, Ohio, Herald-Star recently did a very nice article about me and The Sacrifice. Here’s the link: https://www.heraldstaronline.com/news/local-news/2020/12/suspenseful-political-smart/

It you like my novels and fiction set in rural settings, check out the Bell Elkins series by my former Columbus Dispatch colleague, Julia Keller. Julia won a Pulitzer Prize as a reporter with the Chicago Tribune. She’s an incredible writer and has created an enduring character in Bell Elkins, who is a prosecutor in the fictional Acker’s Gap, West Virginia. (Julia grew up in Huntington, West Virginia.)

It’s been a rough six weeks for the Yocum family. My younger brother, Matthew, died Dec. 7 of cancer. He was only 61, and died just 10 days after being diagnosed. My brother had an amazing life. In August of 1983, Matt fell out of truck while working at the Cardinal electric generating plant in our hometown of Brilliant, Ohio. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and was life-flighted to Pittsburgh where doctors gave him a one-in-a-thousand chance of living through the night. He spent five weeks in a coma and six months in rehab, learning to walk and talk again. He survived and thrived. Was he a pain in my rump at times? You bet. He was my little brother, after all. That was his job. I will dearly miss our shared history, tossing back draft beers at Roosters, and sharing stories of our childhood and hometown. Rest in peace, my brother.

“The Last Hit” featured in Best American Mystery Stories 2020

BECPlanning

On Tuesday, the Best American Mystery Stories 2020 was released by Mariner/ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. My short story, The Last Hit, which originally appeared in The Strand Magazine, was one of 20 stories selected for the annual anthology. The legendary Otto Penzler once again served as general editor of the series, which Kirkus Reviews called, “highly regarded” and “a stellar collection.” C.J. Box, who creates the Joe Pickett series, made the final selection of stories. It’s humbling to have a story included alongside such great writers as Jeffery Deaver and James Lee Burke. Many thanks to Otto and C.J. for the honor.
Here’s a link to the Kirkus review: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/…/best-american-mystery…/

It is the second anthology in which one of my short stories appeared this year. The first was The Satin Fox, which appeared in Columbus Noir, which was released in March. If you’re a fan of short story mysteries, both anthologies are excellent reads.

Today is Nov. 6 – five months until the release of my next novel, The Sacrifice of Lester Yates.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A lost piece of West Virginia history found in Ohio

BECPlanning

Thanks to everyone who signed up for my email updates. I hesitate to call this a blog, because there is a certain expectation of regularity associated with a blog. I don’t know if I’m up to that challenge. If I have something that I think you’d be interested in hearing, I’ll pass it along. It might be book related, it might not.

Since those are standards, let me start off with a non-book story.

About 15 years ago, my friend Ken Farmwald and I started a company to buy, fix-up and sell houses. On a good day, we do it for a profit. As we were cleaning and doing the demolition at a house this summer, we found a nickel wrapped in a tiny piece of paper, on which was written, “This 5¢ piece was on the eye of Susan Heflin Cooper after death. Arlie has the other 5 cent piece.” After finding the note and 1901 coin, I did an internet search for Susan and located her grave at the Gnats Run Cemetery near Pennsboro, West Virginia.

Susan was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, in 1817. She lived to the age of 90 and died in Pennsboro on Christmas Eve, 1907. 

As a novelist, I am fascinated with the mystery of how this fell out of the hands of the family and ended up amid so much trash in a house in Columbus, Ohio. However, as a former newspaper reporter who liked his stories wrapped up tight, I find it maddening not to have those answers.

A friend did a little research on an ancestry site and believes that Arlie was her son.

I donated the items to the Ritchie County, West Virginia, Historical Society, which is located in Pennsboro. They operate the Old Stone House Museum, where hopefully the coin and note will find a new home.

Today is Oct. 6 – exactly six months until the release of my next novel, The Sacrifice of Lester Yates. Pre-order your copy through my new site here.