"Free Fallin'"

This is my hundred and thirtieth published story, but it took quite a while for it to appear in print. Around the middle of 2023, Jay Hartman -- who'd left Untreed Reads (when it was sold to a new owner who had no interest in short fiction) and started a new publishing company of his own, Misti Media -- invited about a dozen writers to contribute to a proposed anthology of crime stories inspired by songs of the 1980s. I selected a favorite Tom Petty tune and had a lot of fun writing "Free Fallin'." I don't want to include any spoilers here, so I'll just say that the story is about a guy who regularly visits an LA bar called the Hidden Agenda looking for one-night stands and was a departure for me, and you'll have to read it to find out more....

Anyway, I sent Jay the story on July 21, he accepted it on August 26 ... and there things sat for almost two years. On May 27, 2025 -- my daughter Becca's thirty-ninth birthday! -- the contributors got an email from Jay in which he reported that "the extremely cursed anthology known as Gag Me With a Spoon (and oh geez frickin’ HECK is this thing cursed) ... WILL be released in June."

As it turned out, pre-orders went live on June 18, with a street date of not June but July 8. The book is available from all the usual places, but the best place to get it is from Misti Media's White City Press imprint at this link. Both the trade paperback and the ebook are cheaper when ordered directly from the publisher, and White City will ship print copies anywhere in the world for free.

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