Short Stories
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Some History~
My earlier short stories were published in
Redbook the minnesota review The Greensboro Review Sou'wester Carolina Quarterly Colorado State Review Quarterly West the minnesota review (Pushcart Prize Honor Roll) West Branch The Pennsylvania Review & many more magazines. "Elvis Lives," published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine received the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Story, and was subsequently published in a number of Best of the Year collections and other anthologies, including in Japanese, Korean, and French translations. "To Go," first published in the Tampa Review, and "Beauty," which appeared first in Mondo Barbie, were presented on stage by the Shee Theatre Company. "To Go," has gone on to be reprinted in Miami Noir: The Classics, published in Fall 2020 by Akashic Books. My stories have received multiple Pushcart and O'Henry nominations, and have been nominated for Best of the Net, and other awards. A number of them have gone on to be republished in anthologies and textbooks. Short Stories in Anthologies, Textbooks, & More
"To Go" is among the pre-21st century stories selected for Miami Noir: The Classics, published November 2020 by Akashic Books.
My short story "Texaco on Biscayne," which appears in Magpies, was selected for inclusion in Florida International University's new Lit 1000 textbook: The FIU Introduction to Literature, a collaboration with W.W. Norton and Company that includes some works with a South Florida setting. The book's launch was celebrated at the Green Library on FIU's MMC Campus, with a book cover image on the cake. More details here.
"Morning Glories" is in Fifteen Views of Miami burrowpress.com/product/miami/, a collection of lightly linked stories, published by Burrow Press and edited by Jaquira Diaz. One of “the 7 best books about Miami.” –Miami New Times One of “our 10 favorite books set in South Florida.” –The New Tropic “15 Views of Miami offers a sprawling portrait of Miami-Dade … a complex web of stories keep the reader searching for clues and meaning around every corner. In 15 Views of Miami, we see our city for what it is — a place risen from the ashes by investment capital and developers, but defined by the stories of the people that ignited the flame… If the goal was to paint a literary portrait of Miami’s profound uniqueness and shifting cultural identity, than Díaz succeeded. Each story is its own world, told by characters filled with longing for a Miami past a reader can’t help but relate to.”–The New Tropic
Delta Blues
"Blues for Veneece" is included in the Tyrus Books anthology Delta Blues, edited by Carolyn Haines, with an introduction by Morgan Freeman, which was published in May 2010. A percentage of the receipts for this book go to assist the Rock River Foundation in its work for literacy in Mississippi. An e-book version of Delta Blues is available. Book Critis Oline Cogdill named Delta Blues one of the best mystery books of 2010. Great review of Delta Blues in the Mobile Press-Register, with attention to "Blues for Veneece." Emily Bingham of U. South Alabama interviewed me on writing and "Blues for Veneece." The interview is online. 
The Delta Blues' launch weekend included a reception hosted by the Delta Writers chapter of the Mississippi Writers Guild, and an awards ceremony for a writing competition for high school students where the winners were thrilled not only with their awards but with the presence of Morgan Freeman. I sang a couple of numbers with the authors' blues band, The Blues Muse, as well as being a Boomette backup singer for the launch of Delta Blues, March 27, 2010 at Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi. One number is now up on Youtube. Billy Howell's interview with me about my Delta Blues story and the anthology, as well as coverage of the launch events, can be read online at the Clarksdale Press Register. 
"Blue Vandas" appears in A Hell of a Woman, An Anthology of Female Noir, edited by Megan Abbott, published by Busted Flush Press in 2007 Reviewed in Crime Scene Scotland: "The problem with many anthologies is that certain stories feel like they're coasting. Usually, these stories come from the biggest names in the anthology. But here, everyone's on form from the names you know down to the names you don't. They're all on board and running with the idea of femininity as a concept, an actuality, a myth... something to embrace and something to be terrified of." Some nice words for "Blue Vandas" and A Hell of a Woman. More from Booklist Online. Blue Vandas went out of print when Busted Flush Press folded. I think it must be a collector's item by now because it has so many great writers in it. 
"Hush Money" appeared in Marilyn: Shades of Blonde, edited by Carole Nelson Douglas, which was published by Forge in 1997. It is included in my second collection, The Secret Names of Women. 
"Beauty" was first published in Mondo Barbie, edited by Lucinda Ebersole and Richard Peabody, St. Martin's Press. The book has pink paper and is shaped like a Barbie box. I first met Denise Duhamel, my friend and now longtime colleague, when we did a reading for Mondo Barbie at the Miami Book Fair. "Beauty" later appeared in Having a Wonderful Time: an Anthology of South Florida Writers, Simon & Schuster, edited by Cynthia Chinelly, John Dufresne, and Michael Hettich, 1997. 
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Short Stories in Magazines
The Autumn issue of 34 Orchard ("A literary journal that takes you to dark places"), just published, includes my short story, "Adultery in Modern Massachusetts," which takes you to a hotel that sits on the edge of the uncanny. Click on the photo, and you'll find it along with a bounty of stories, poems, and one piece of a ghost-hunter's creative nonfiction, beautifully edited and downloadable from the website as a pdf, with a modest request for a $1.99 donation.https://34orchard.com/issue-8/
"Bait & Tackle" was published in Issue 3 of Rivanna Review, in March 2022.
“Backyard Chair, Miami,” was published in 50-Word Stories in March 2021. You can read it online.
"The Old Broads of the Mermaid Beach Apartments" was published in the Summer 2020 issue of Orange Blossom Review. The magazine nominated it for Best of the Net 2020.
Illustration for "Mary Anne's Tan," Fort Lauderdale Magazine
"Mary Anne's Tan" was featured in Fort Lauderdale Magazine in 2014. Unfortunately sometime later the magazine changed owners and editor so that there is no link to get to read the story. However, in 2025, the story will be appearing in Real South/West Magazine. (Link to follow.)
"Quickstep" appeared in the Summer 2017 issue of The Miami Rail. Read the story here and you can follow links to explore the rest of the issue. The Miami Rail is available in print form at many venues around Miami-Dade County.
Thomas Carr, "The Path of Solitude" via The Miami Rail
"The Willows," magical realist flash fiction, was published online in the Summer 2016 issue of Rose Red Review. (The magazine vanished later.)
Audio Story Publication
My reading of "Macy is the Other Woman," which appears in The Secret Names of Women and was first published in Other Voices, is in the great audio literary magazine The Drum. 
"The Borges Cure" appeared in Night Train Magazine. Night Train is now inactive and the archives are incomplete, so the story is not online currently. Kristi Peterson Schoonover blogged about the story here. "The Borges Cure" was longlisted by Wigleaf. "Alchemy" was published in the online magazine Pig in a Poke,which sadly shut down after the death of its editor, the poet Harry Calhoun.
"Texaco on Biscayne"was first published in Saw Palm, a journal of Florida literature and art. It appears, in revised form, in my collection Magpies.
Gift Wrap" was first published in the Fort Lauderale Sun-Sentinel, as a special Christmas feature.
It went on to be included in A Dixie Christmas: Holiday Stories from the South's Best Writers, edited by Charline McCord and Judy Tucker, with an introduction by Fred Chappell, published by Algonquin Books in 2005. And it appears in Irrepressible Appetites, edited by Tracey Broussard, published by Rock Press. In this food-centric anthology my story is accompanied by my great-grandmother's recipe for Lebkuchen. "Gift Wrap" centers on a couple from very different places and backgrounds who are making a home in South Florida. With time, I kept going back to discover about them. Thinking about how they got together, I wrote "One Mississippi" which was published in Apalachee Review, which nominated it for a Pushcart. And later still, "Cave of the Winds" finds them tested by the tensions of one hurricane season. All three are included in Magpies. "Links" was published in the New Jersey Issue of Painted Bride Quarterly.
The many adventures of "Elvis Lives," winner of the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Short Story
"Elvis Lives" also appeared in:
Simply the Best Mysteries, edited by Janet Huchings, Carroll & Graf (1998)
Murder to Music, edited by Cynthia Manson & Kathleen Halligan, Carroll & Graf (1997).
From Kirkus Reviews: "As even the perfect Wagnerite knows, it's not easy to tell a compelling story while providing great music, and atmosphere prevails over mystery-mongering in most of these 15 stories (194793) chosen by Manson and Hallican (Murder Intercontinental, 1996). Six involve the opera, but except for James Yaffe's sprightly armchair matriarch ("Mom Sings an Aria"), the stories are more successful when they get down and dirty (Doug Allyn's "The Sultans of Soul" and John Lutz's "The Right to Sing the Blues") or hit the road (Lynne Barrett's droll trio of Elvis impersonators)."
And the first of all was: The Year's Best Mystery and Suspense Stories 1991, edited by Edward Hoch, published by Walker and Co.
From Publishers Weekly: "The winner, Lynne Barrett, scored with "Elvis Lives," in which a reluctant and increasingly alcoholic impersonator of the King stumbles on a foolproof method of dissolving his contract. . ." And from Kirkus Reviews: "Long-time anthologist Hoch this time includes all five Edgar-nominated stories in his "Best'' compilation, and Lynne Barrett's "Elvis Lives,'' the ultimate Edgar winner—a dark, garish look at the Presley-impersonator industry—is reason enough to own the book. . ." 
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