“Mysterious Ways” is Available Now

Photo mockup showing the front cover of the July/August 2026 Issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

It’s official. I have a new short story out in the latest edition of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. In “Mysterious Ways” a small town Presbyterian minister attempts to get to the bottom of the murder of one of his church’s parishioners. My story appears in the July/August 2026 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine alongside stories from a wonderful slate of talented writers.

The digital issue of the magazine is available now, though I understand the publisher has recently changed printers and there might be a slight delay with the availability of the print version. Rest assured, that it should hit newsstands (or your mailbox, if you’re a subscriber) soon.

I have to be honest, this is not the first time that I have submitted a story to AHMM. Going back to when I was a fledgling writer and the magazine had a different owner, I was submitting my stories to this fiction marketplace. This would have been around twenty years ago. Back then in order to submit to most magazines, snail mail was the only way.

Stories were printed out and along with a cover letter and a stamped, self-addressed envelope (aka an SASE) were placed in document sized mailer and shipped off to a magazine. (I’m not saying that aspiring writers kept the U.S. Postal Service alive, but I don’t think it’s entirely a coincidence that all submissions are now online and a single first class stamp costs a staggering 78 cents.) Months later that SASE would come back to us, and most of the time it would be a form rejection letter. Sometimes, if we were lucky, it would be a personalized rejection letter with some kind words that gave us hope.

In those days the community I lived in had a cluster box style mailbox about a quarter mile or so from my house. I can recall walking there and back with my cat Alci (if the weather was nice) and later with my dog Jack (no matter the weather) and Alci tagging along with us. Seeing one of those SASEs in my handwriting in my mailbox was always hopeful, even though they almost always contained disappointing news. One day, I recall walking home from the mailbox with my animals when I saw my handwriting on one of the envelopes in my hand. I opened it as we walked and read a letter stating that my story “Bear Season” was the first place winner of a short story competition sponsored by Central PA Magazine. I refrained from shouting out in joy because I didn’t want the neighbors to think I was crazy, but being the lady who took her cats for walks, I fear that ship had already sailed. That said, I was definitely doing a happy dance on the inside. There was prize money and publication in my future.

These days acceptance or rejection letters show up as emails in inboxes clogged with messages from stores we bought things from once two years ago and AI bots gushing about our books and wanting to help us promote it to their book club/offer representation/sell us some surefire marketing plan. Despite the cost of postage, I kind of preferred the old days of snail mail correspondence. That said, I received the same thrill opening that email from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine a few months back that I did all those years ago opening that SASE from Central PA Magazine. Sure, I may have sold a few novels in the meantime, but still acceptance feels pretty awesome.

— Alissa