Author John Floyd is returning to Webster County to sign copies of his latest collection of mystery/suspense short stories, “The Barrens.”
He will visit the Webster County Public Library on Monday, Sept. 9, at 1:30 p.m. Released in 2018, this is Floyd’s seventh book-length collection, all of which have been published by Dogwood Press of Brandon.
“The ideas, as I always tell my students, come from anyplace and everyplace,” Floyd said of his fiction. “People you know, headlines you see in the newspaper. Things that happen to you or your friends and family. And if the situation doesn’t sound quite interesting enough, ask yourself, ‘What if such-and-such happened?’ and go from there.
“With ‘The Barrens,’ most of the fun in writing these was in creating plot twists and reversals that I hoped the reader wouldn’t see coming. That’s the kind of thing I myself like to run into when I’m reading a story.”
Floyd’s work has appeared in more than 250 different publications. He has written well over 1,000 published short stories and features since 1994, which can be found in nationally read publications like Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Woman’s World, The Strand Magazine and The Saturday Evening Post. His work has also appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and two editions of the Best American Mystery Stories.
Floyd, a Mississippi State University graduate and Attala County native, is a former Air Force captain and IBM systems engineer.
In 2018, he was named the winner of the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for lifetime achievement in the writing of short mystery fiction. Floyd is also an Edgar Award nominee, a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a recipient of the short mystery Fiction Society’s achievement award.
“John set the bar awfully high with ‘Rainbow’s End,’ his first story collection, but ‘The Barrens’ just might be his best,” said Joe Lee, editor-in-chief of Dogwood Press. “From the first page to the last keystroke, it’s remarkably visual writing that never once loses momentum from story to story, genre to genre. If you’ve never read short stories, this is the place to start.”
The Webster County Public Library is located at 445 W. Fox Ave. Autographed, first-edition copies of “The Barrens” are $24.95 plus tax. To reserve signed copies, call the library at 258-7515. For information about all Dogwood Press titles, visit www.dogwoodpress.com.
