Angel City Beat

 by Sybil Johnson

As many of you know I live in the Los Angeles area. We’ve been in the news lately because of the horrendous fires that have devastated parts of the area, Altadena and Pacific Palisade in particular. We live far enough away from these fires that it hasn’t been an issue for us. The only problem we had was one or two days of smoke in the air as it came down the coast. Then the winds changed and the air cleared for us. As I write this, the fires are slowly being contained, but they’re still going on. My heart goes out to everyone who has lost a home or family members in the fires.

It’s nice to be able to share some good news. My story, “Fatal Return,” is now out in Angel City Beat, a Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles anthology. Barb Goffman edited the anthology. She was really great to work with and helped me make the story better.

I’ve had other short stories published before, all online. This is the first one that’s been part of an anthology. Very excited about it.

My story takes place in a library so I had fun with the names I chose for the characters. I looked up the names of Library of Congress librarians and famous people who had some connection with libraries. Then I mixed and matched first and last names, added a few other names and it was done. Quite fun to name characters with a theme like that.

Here are the anthology details:

The City of Angels has a dark side. Hidden beneath its shiny surface are misdeeds, miscreants, and murderers. From Santa Monica’s sandy beaches to Hollywood’s glitzy streets, from Boyle Heights to Holmby Hills to the dirt trails of the San Gabriel Mountains, there are so many tales to tell. So many people on the beat. The police detectives seeking justice. The reporters seeking truth. Writers who build beats into their movies and TV shows. And people who choose violence to beat others and come out on top. Angel City Beat is an anthology of stories that show life behind the plastic smiles of the rich and famous, the desperate pleas of the overlooked, and the promises of dreams forgotten. Angel City Beat is the beat of a city told by those who love her.

Stories by: Gail Alexander, Paula Bernstein, Anne-Marie Campbell, Jenny Carless, Ken Funsten, CFA, Daryl Wood Gerber, Sybil Johnson, Norman Klein, Amy Kluck, Melinda Loomis, Kate Mooney, Nancy Cole Silverman, Meredith Taylor, and Jacquie Wilver 

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/AmAngelCity 

BN: https://tinyurl.com/BNAngelCity 

Kobo: https://tinyurl.com/KoboAngelCity 

I’ll be participating in some events around the L.A. area. I’ll have info about that as the details are confirmed.