Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine

05/12/2025

Check out this week's blog post to learn about the real-life inspiration behind Kevin Egan's latest story

Not long ago, on the Short Mystery Fiction Society blog, several writers weighed in on a simple question: Do you base fictional characters on real people? “Second Chance,” which appeare…

21/11/2025

In this week's blog post, learn about the bike trip and the murder that inspired Eric B. Ruark to write "Circumstantial Evidence," his story from our Nov/Dec issue

“Circumstantial Evidence” came about from two personal experiences of mine. In 1992, I bicycled solo across the United States. On August 12, 1992, I happened to cycle through Vega, Te…

14/11/2025

In this week's blog post, Nick Guthrie discusses some of the unexpected differences between reading fiction and writing it

There’s no getting away from it. Writing a novel or a short story is a strange thing to do.  You spend long periods of time inside your head, but that’s not claustrophobic, because inside your…

10/11/2025

Attention! If you submitted to us between October 12th and October 21st of this year, your manuscript may have been lost due to a technical error on our server. Please resubmit when you get the chance.

07/11/2025

Check out this week's blog post to learn how Catherine Dilts found inspiration for her latest story from one of her favorite authors, Dorothy Gilman

My mother was not much of a disciplinarian. Most of my childhood memories are of her seated in an easy chair with a cigarette and a cup of coffee, reading her newest find from the public library. M…

21/10/2025

This week's blog post is for dog and mystery lovers alike! Read on as Melissa Yi tells us about the dogs in her life that inspired "For Love and Bacon," from our Sept/Oct issue

Credit: Melissa Yi I love dogs. I love my first dog, Olo, who would wait up at 1 a.m. to greet me when I came home from my ER shift. I love my now-dog Roxy, whom I adored from the first moment she …

03/10/2025

In this week's blog post, learn how loving jazz as a teenager in 1970s New Zealand inspired Stephen Ross's latest story

Write what you know, they say. So, I did. I wrote about a schoolboy who rides his bicycle across town for his weekly piano lessons (as I did for several years in the early 1970s). One afternoon, en…

26/09/2025

Read this week's blog post to find out how Dave Zeltserman came up with Julius Katz, the popular detective character who appears in many of his stories

Readers of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine over the last 16 years are likely already aware of Julius Katz, but I’d like to introduce my Boston-based detective to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine…

15/09/2025

Check out this week's blog post, where T.M. Bradshaw discusses how different jobs over the years both helped and hindered her writing career

Many fiction writers find they need to hold down some other job to pay the bills. Writers are advised to make it as different as possible, such as waiting on tables, or as related as possible, work…

12/09/2025

Don't miss this week's blog post, where Robert Mangeot tells us how Nashville's prohibition-era speakeasies helped inspire his latest story from our Sept/Oct issue

The Kinley Hotel in Chattanooga operates a retro speakeasy tucked off its lobby, no sign, no door. You have to know where to look. Now, I had no idea about speakeasies when I checked in. I was only…

28/08/2025

Check out our latest blog post, where author Shauna Washington writes about how her grandmother's delicious sweet-potato pies helped inspire "Blackbottom Pies," her story from our Sept/Oct issue

My grandmother raised my sister and me, and we called her “Mutha.” As a child raised by her grandmother, I didn’t realize at the time how much a good home-cooked meal was for the soul. Especially M…

22/08/2025

Our September/October issue is on sale now! Pick up a copy for the latest mysteries and thrillers from Loren Estleman, Dave Zeltserman, Christopher Latragna, and more