Author Archives: Dayle

No Secrets Better Kept Has Funded!

Hello All!

The Kickstarter for No Secrets Better Kept has funded! That means I can pay the authors 1¢/word. Hurrah!

The next stretch goal is $2100, which will mean I can pay the authors 3¢/word.

I appreciate and love everyone who’s considered the campaign so far. I’ve set up a variety of rewards that hopefully appeal to individual backers.

If you haven’t backed it, is there a reward you’d like to see that’s not listed? Let me know! I can add things.

Most importantly, thank you. This is a project of my heart and my only wish to to pay the authors what they truly deserve.

Feel free to share this to anyone who loves to read!

Kickstarter for No Secrets Better Kept has prelaunced!

I’m thrilled to announce I’m launching my first Kickstarter! It’s for an anthology that I edited, No Secrets Better Kept, and I’m running the Kickstarter so I can pay my deserving authors a decent rate.

No Secrets Better Kept has a range of spectacular stories, from mystery and thriller, to science fiction and fantasy, and even romance. All the authors are ones to watch, because they’re fantastic writers.

The Kickstarter begins on Tuesday, January 24, but the prelaunch is live now so you can read all about the anthology, the rewards, and the stretch goals. If you like, you can click to be notified when it goes live (there are no other commitments other than getting a notification. No money, etc.).

Please check it out!

New story in Pulphouse Magazine!

I have a new story, “Locks and Keys and the Truth at the Heart of It,” in Pulphouse #17. I’m super-excited about this one because when the story came to me, it was in a different style than I’ve tried before. I trusted my subconscious and went for it. So happy to see this one get a home.

It falls on the literary side of things, perhaps magic realism? but I’m calling it fantasy for ease of filing.

Information about the issue

Order the issue

New Story: Women Who Love Dogs

Available Now

Women Who Love Dogs: A Page-Turning Crime Short Story

A rapist haunts the beaches of Southern California, but nobody can clearly identify him.

He always looks different, and he always has a different dog.

Then Vanessa’s dog, Merlin, provides a crucial clue….

A page-turning crime story from an award-nominated mystery author!

“Women Who Love Dogs” originally appeared in Me Too Short Stories(Level Best Books, 2019).


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Dayle Loves This: Psych (TV)

This post was funded by my wonderful supporters at Patreon.

Welcome to Dayle Loves This, wherein I recommend books, TV, and movies (and maybe other things) that rocked my world.

If they don’t rock your world, that’s okay. We all have reader/watcher cookies as well as triggers. If you have questions, go ahead and ask. And please make your own suggestions, and discuss!

When the pandemic drove us into our homes in 2020, one of the first shows I binge-watched wasPsych (2006–2014, plus three movies). I’d seen most of them, although I’d missed some of the earlier episodes when I was watching the show as it aired. (Remember doing that? How quaint.)

I watched Psych because I needed gentle and funny, cozy mysteries that kept me reasonably guessing, and an overall sense of the ridiculous. Plus I love the various relationships on the show.

The premise of Psych is that Shawn Spencer grew up with a police officer dad, who constantly drilled in him the need to pay attention to things—he’d quiz Shawn when they were in a diner, for example, asking him to close his eyes and then count all the hats in the room. Most episodes started with a flashback with Shawn, his father, and/or his best friend, Burton Guster (aka Gus).

In the present day, Shawn eschewed joining the police, and isn’t really holding down a job. He’s still best friends with Gus who, by comparison, is straight-laced and serious, wearing suits to his job as a pharmaceutical sales rep. Then Shawn discovers he can use his deductive abilities to convince people he’s psychic. At which point he promptly rents a storefront to start a new business, Psych, as a psychic detective, with Gus his somewhat unwilling partner.

Unsurprisingly, barely controlled mayhem ensues.

One of the things I love the most about the show is Shawn and Gus’s relationship. It’s the perfect example of a bromance. Shawn may tease Gus about being so serious (one of the running jokes is that every time he introduces Gus, he makes up a ridiculous name for him), Gus may be exasperated by Shawn’s antics. But in the end, they’ve always got each other’s backs.

Among the whimsical features is the pineapple. In the first episode, there’s a pineapple, and the actor playing Shawn ad libs a line about taking the pineapple with them. Thereafter, there’s a pineapple in every episode, and websites devoted to where it appears each time. The pattern on a shirt, slices in a fruit mix, a pineapple-shaped lamp…. (Ken and I still joke about finding the pineapple in other shows or in real life. Probably one a year I take a picture of one in the grocery store and text him.)

Then there are the regular recalls and jokes about the 1980s, whether it be guest stars (Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, etc.), episodes honoring the TV show Twin Peaks and the movie Clue, or Shawn’s devotion to the band Tears for Fears.

Now, the actual math of Shawn and Gus’s high school reunion having a 1980s theme doesn’t work. They would have graduated in mid-1990s, and not been so obsessed with the 1980s. But as a fan, I don’t care, and given the popularity of the show (eight seasons), other fans didn’t care either.

(It’s a good learning experience for me as a writer: You can get away with things like this if your project is solid and fans love it. I mean, look at James Bond movies—they stunts are completely unbelievable—but does anyone care? No.)

Warnings: The first few episodes aren’t quite in the same tone as later ones (Shawn is more of a womanizer early on, for example). The show finds its delightful groove fairly quickly, though. Also, the side character of police detective Carlton Lassiter makes a few jokes about wanting to go out and shoot criminals. In current times, this is cringy to the point of offensive. However, remember that the show started airing 16 years ago, and trust that jokes like those do fade away as the show goes on. It’s an unfortunate blip in an otherwise great show.

Dayle says if you need an escape from the current world, give Psych a try. She thinks you might love it, too.


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I’m able to continue writing and publishing thanks to my wonderful supporters on Patreon.

New Story: Zero Tolerance

Available Now

Zero Tolerance

Brittani Menchin, decidedly not popular high school student, gained a reputation when she rescued some popular kids from their own stupidity.

A reputation as the Fixer.

When a fellow band geek gets harassed for being gay, she intervenes, even though she’s not the type to wade into fights, despite being almost six feet of boobs and sarcasm.

Unfortunately for Brittani, her school has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to violence.

Unfortunately for her school, Brittani finds a way to fight back.

Fans of Veronica Mars will love this first story featuring justice-seeking Brittani Menchin, not-quite-six-feet-tall math nerd and high school Fixer.

“Zero Tolerance” originally appeared in Fiction River: Dark and Deadly Passions, 2021.

Dayle Loves This: The Inheritance Games/Truly Devious (novels)

This post was funded by my wonderful supporters at Patreon.

Welcome to Dayle Loves This, wherein I recommend books, TV, and movies (and maybe other things) that rocked my world.

If they don’t rock your world, that’s okay. We all have reader/watcher cookies as well as triggers. If you have questions, go ahead and ask. And please make your own suggestions, and discuss!

The title lies a little. The Inheritance Games is the first book in an eponymous trilogy (the third book isn’t out yet, argh!) and Truly Devious is the first book in an eponymous trilogy plus a standalone with the same main character.

But that was too long to put in the title.

(Also, “eponymous” is a really nifty word.)

I’m grouping these together because the books have similarities, I discovered them at about the same time, and I devoured the first in each series so quickly I had to reread them to catch all the things I missed, before I could go on to future books.

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes has been compared to the movie Knives Out, the book We Were Liars(previously recommended here), and the works of Maureen Johnson, who wrote…the Truly Devious books! The blurb:

Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why – or even who Tobias Hawthorne is.

 To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man’s touch and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a con-woman, and he’s determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather’s last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.

So many Dayle Reader Cookies: puzzles, riddles, and codes, oh my! Secret passageways! A smart, competent, kind, but flawed heroine! ::munches through the books like Cookie Monster::

That’s about all I can say without giving things away. Just writing about the book makes me want to read it a third time (and I first read it in November or December).

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson also contains the above Dayle Reader Cookies (unsurprisingly), but the setting is an isolated private school just outside Burlington, VT, an area I’ve been to numerous times, having grown up across Lake Champlain from Burlington. Here are the deets:

Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists.

 It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.”

 Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

 True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.

The only thing I’d argue with in the above blurb is the list of housemates. They can’t really be each summed up with one word. As the letter in The Breakfast Club says, “Each one of us is a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question?”

The novelist, for example, is an introvert with an aversion to being touched, which Stevie respects, always asking before she gets too close to him. He’s also screwed up because his first book, written when he was in his earlier teens, was an instant bestseller, and he hasn’t been able to write since. (Oh, I understand that pressure!)

Anyway. An important thing to mention is that the mystery/ies are not resolved until the end of the third book. I found the first two perfectly satisfying, but I got suspicious towards the end of Truly Devious when it became obvious there weren’t enough pages left to solve things. However, I was delighted there were more books! Just buy them all or get them all out of the library at the same time, so you don’t have to wait to read the next one.

By contrast, The Inheritance Games books each have a different mystery that builds on the previous ones (at least, the second book does. Did I mention the third book isn’t out yet? Argh!)

If you share the same reader cookies, Dayle says to get these books into your hot little hands and plan ahead for the time to read them voraciously.


Want to chat about this post? Join me on Facebook or Twitter.

I’m able to continue writing and publishing thanks to my wonderful supporters on Patreon.

New Story: An Ocean of Secrets in Her Eyes

Available Now

An Ocean of Secrets in Her Eyes

The 1940s. A time when Hollywood studios owned their talent.

Which included making sure the talent avoided scandal.

Shining star Tabitha St. Claire has a secret. PI Sam Belmont accepts the job to learn what that secret is.

To devastating results…

A standalone story in the popular Nikki Ashburne series, “An Ocean of Secrets in Her Eyes” originally appeared in Fiction River: Chances, 2021.

Dayle Loves This: Freaks & Geeks/The Goldbergs (TV)

This post was funded by my wonderful supporters at Patreon.

Welcome to Dayle Loves This, wherein I recommend books, TV, and movies (and maybe other things) that rocked my world.

If they don’t rock your world, that’s okay. We all have reader/watcher cookies as well as triggers. If you have questions, go ahead and ask. And please make your own suggestions, and discuss!

I’m a child of the 80s—or more accurately, a teen (and early 20s) of of the 80s. The MTV generation, even though our small way upstate New York town didn’t get the channel right away. At any rate, I obviously feel huge nostalgia for the time period.

MTV. The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire. Labyrinth. Cheesy sword-and-sorcery movies in which Richard Lynch was always the bad guy. Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson. Neon colors, big hair. Malls. Styx’s Kilroy Was Here album. (You didn’t think I’d forget to mention Styx, did you?!)

::fond sigh::

Two TV shows send me back to that time on a blissful nostalgia trip: Freaks & Geeks and The Goldbergs.

Freaks & Geeks (1999­–2000) is a highly acclaimed show from Jude Apatow, that lasted only one season (the network didn’t get why anyone wanted to watch “normal” teenagers) and launched the careers of Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Phillips, and more. It’s billed as a comedy, but it has a great deal of heart and truth.

It follows two siblings, Lindsay and Sam Weir. Teenage Lindsay was a smart, “good” girl until her beloved grandfather’s death (and some other incidents), and now wearing his oversized army-green military jacket, starts hanging out with the “freaks” (a group of slacker stoners). Meanwhile, her younger brother, Sam, is navigating middle school with a couple of fellow “geeks.”

We see that the freaks can’t be lumped together as losers and each one has their own, sometimes difficult, story. We learn (as if we didn’t know), that the geeks might not want to be geeky, but they’ve got each other’s backs. The storylines and people aren’t prettied up—this is no Beverly Hills 90120—and the sets feel real for the early 1980s. When I first watched the last episode, I felt bereft: I’d known these people, and kind of felt like I was losing friends. Definitely a show I rewatch every few years.

By contrast, The Goldbergs (2013–present) is a sitcom and the characters are often larger than life, but it’s seen through the lens of the youngest kid, Adam, so that makes a certain amount of sense. Plus, the creator/writer, Adam F. Goldberg), is basically telling his life story as he remembers it. Both real Adam and TV Adam were the first kid in their neighborhood to get a video camera, and many episodes end with a side-by-side of the TV snippet and the original video. The dads may look different, for example, but they have the same blustery voice.

In one episode, Adam and his older brother, Barry, recreate a New Kids on the Block video, and at the end, we see the original video along with the TV version. It was so perfect I was rolling on the floor laughing.

Rounding out the family is older sister Erica, who wears 80s fashions so well and perfectly that my nostalgiac heart aches; and Adam’s mom, a big-haired, ugly-sweater-wearing powerhouse who doesn’t want to admit her children are growing up.

I may have been closer in age to Erica back then, but Adam is a science-fiction-loving geek, and I relate strongly to that, too. (Remember, this was before being a geek was cool.)

I’m only on the second season of nine (so far), but it’s a great watch for me when the current world is feeling bleak.

If you’re not nostalgaic for the 80s, these shows might not resonate with you as strongly as they do with me. I’d say check out Freaks & Geeks anyway.

Either way, Dayle is an 80s girl at heart, and she recommends these shows.


Want to chat about this post? Join me on Facebook or Twitter.

I’m able to continue writing and publishing thanks to my wonderful supporters on Patreon.

New Story: Beautiful Soul

Available Now

Beautiful Soul

Jennet, scarred from a fire and with few prospects, accepts the position of companion to the veiled, enigmatic Lady Vesta.

But Lady Vesta’s secrets extend beyond what she hides behind her veil. From enquiring as to Jennet’s marriage plans (none) to allowing Jennet to dress without a corset or petticoats due to the house’s heat, she leaves Jennet intrigued.

Their time together rattles Jennet’s emotions.

The truth terrifies her—but it also might be her salvation.

Captivating short story “Beautiful Soul” originally appeared in Cutter’s Final Cut: Dragons, 2021.