nice girl gone bad Libby Fischer Hellmann

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Dear Ed, "Short stories are the poetry of prose. They are precise, cut to the bone,  every word a necessity. Not many authors develop that control. Libby  Fischer Hellmann has the hand of a master. Take it from a guy  who knows her well: Libby is a nice girl. But she writes noir with a  savvy edge honed on the hard, dark knowledge of the evil possible  in us all." - William Kent Krueger While Kent's words are meant to be flattering, I do have to  confess something: I love writing short stories. I often say t hat a novel is like a marriage, but a short story is an affair: passionate,  all-consuming, wonderful, and brief. So I've written lots of short stories,  and continue to. I've collected fifteen of them in Nice Girl Does  Noir. Volume I includes  five Ellie Foreman and Georgia Davis stories; Volume II has  ten stand-alone stories that span different territories,  characters, and times. You'll find them all here. And if you'd like to know why I think writing short stories  are critically important for a writer's career, take a look at this article. Reviews "I don't usually like short stories, but these are terrific!  I roared through them. Hellmann had a good mix of Chicago  historicals and contemporaries. My highest recommendation here." - Molly Weston, Meritorious Mysteries "When Hellmann explores the less sunlit areas of Chicago,   her canvas becomes not only more universal but has greater  depth and emotional value. Aspiring short-story writers  would do well to pay attention." - Naomi Johnson, The Drowning Machine