The Far End of Bourbon Street, by Larry S. Evans II.

 "The Far End of Bourbon Street," by Larry S. Evans II, in Blood on the Bayou: Case Closed, edited by Don Bruns, Down and Out, 2025.

I have a story in this book.

Townsend is a bestselling author of thrillers.  Unfortunately he leads the life he thinks his readers expect which means a lot of drinking and other chicanery.

Allison, his publicist and long-suffering wife, is barely willing to suffer it anymore.  

But everything changes after an event at a New Orleans bookstore/speakeasy, when Town finds himself under arrest for murder.  Did he lose control in a drunken rage, or is he being framed?

The rest of the story appears in short flashes, the way I imagine waking up after a blackout might be.  It is cleverly written and satisfying.

All Big Men Are Dreamers, by Mary Anna Evans

"All Big Men Are Dreamers," by Mary Anna Evans, in The Faking of the President, edited by Peter Carlaftes, Three Rooms Press, 2020.

This book, subtitled "stories of White House noir," is alternative history and many of the tales are satiric. There's nothing wrong with that but this one is deadly serious.

It is a fact that Woodrow Wilson had  stroke in 1919 and a lot of his executive duties during the last year of his presidency were secretly carried out by his second wife, Edith Bolling. 

But in this story Wilson's romance with Edith is interrupted by the arrival of a charming lady named Clara.  Clara has some definite plans in mind, and they will change history.

Some stories, as I have written before, depend largely on finding the right viewpoint.  This one is told by Wilson's good friend and physician, who is also in love with Clara.  When he has to choose between two people he loves things get way complicated.  Very nice and very noir.