Words, Freedom, and the Stories We Share

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Reflections on Independence Day from AKALM

As fireworks light up the sky this week, I find myself thinking—not just about independence, but about expression. Because freedom, in this business, isn’t reserved for one day a year. It’s something we defend, nurture, and live every time we help a story find its place in the world.

It’s the quiet courage of a debut author daring to speak truth on the page.

It’s the thriller writer holding a mirror to power.

It’s the memoirist saying, This happened. This matters.

Publishing, at its best, is an act of freedom.

Not perfection. Not performance.

But presence.

We are fortunate to work in a space where words carry weight. Where stories cross borders. Where voices that once whispered now ring out in hardcover, paperback, and translation. That’s not something I take lightly.

Because freedom of expression—real freedom—comes with responsibility.

Responsibility to:

  • Lift each other up

  • Publish with care

  • Advocate for the voices that challenge and change us

  • Do the hard work of listening, even when it’s uncomfortable

  • And show up—page after page, draft after draft—so the right story reaches the right reader at the right time

So this Independence Day, I’m especially grateful for:

  • The authors who trust us with their words

  • The editors and publishers who champion meaningful books

  • The readers who lean into stories that illuminate and inspire

  • And the sacred freedom we hold—to tell the truth, and imagine more

Let’s keep telling the hard stories.

Let’s keep lifting voices that need to be heard.

Let’s keep building something that outlasts us.

Because freedom doesn’t just live in fireworks.

It lives in books.

And at AKA Literary, we’re proud to be part of that story.

Happy Fourth, friends.

See you on the next page,

— Terrie

Tammy Euliano Wins the 2025 Derringer Award for Heart of Darkness

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The Doctor Takes the Prize: Tammy Euliano Wins Big at the Derringers

Well, this is exactly the kind of news I love to wake up to. The 2025 Derringer Award winners came out yesterday, and Dr. Tammy Euliano just proved that sometimes the most interesting crime stories come from the most unexpected corners.

Her story “Heart of Darkness” took the Long Story category, and honestly? I’m doing a little victory dance over here. Remember that Waffle House anthology I wrote about a few weeks back? The one that seemed almost too quirky to be real? Yeah, it just won a major award.

The Whole List

Let me run through all the winners because this year’s crop is pretty fantastic:

Mike McHone grabbed Flash Fiction for “Kargin the Necromancer” in Mystery Tribune. A necromancer story winning a mystery award? I mean, why not. Genre boundaries are basically suggestions at this point anyway.

Josh Pachter took Short Story with “The Wind Phone” from Ellery Queen’s. No surprises there—Pachter’s been turning out solid work for years, and EQMM knows what they’re doing.

Euliano got Long Story, obviously, and I’m still grinning about it.

Stacy Woodson claimed Novelette for “The Cadillac Job” from Down & Out Books. And here’s where it gets interesting—that’s the same publisher that put out the Waffle House anthology. Someone over there has serious taste.

The anthology award went to “Murder, Neat” from the SleuthSayers crowd, edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman. If you know anything about mystery writing online, you know those folks have been keeping the community going for years. About time they got recognized for it.

Why This Matters

Look, I could write a whole dissertation on why Euliano’s win makes me happy, but let me break it down simply: this woman is an anesthesiologist. She spends her days keeping people alive during surgery. Then she goes home and writes award-winning crime fiction set in diners.

That’s not your typical writing bio, and that’s exactly why it works.

The medical background is obvious—doctors understand how bodies work, how they break, how close we all are to disaster at any given moment. But choosing to set her winning story in a Waffle House instead of a hospital? That takes real imagination. She could have gone the easy route, written about medical mysteries and drawn on her day job. Instead, she found the darkness in hash browns and late-night coffee.

And it paid off. The Derringer committee saw what I saw when I first heard about this anthology—that crime fiction works anywhere humans gather, especially in those liminal spaces where different worlds collide. Truck drivers, college kids pulling all-nighters, people getting off late shifts, travelers who’ve been driving too long—they all end up in the same fluorescent-lit booth at 2 AM. That’s fertile ground for stories.

What Strikes Me About This Year

Down & Out Books had a hell of a year. Two winners from one publisher doesn’t happen by accident. They’re clearly finding writers who understand that mystery fiction doesn’t have to be about drawing room murders or hard-boiled detectives walking mean streets. Sometimes it’s about finding the extraordinary in the completely ordinary.

The range this year is impressive too. You’ve got fantasy elements with the necromancer story, traditional magazine publishing with Pachter’s EQMM piece, anthology work from both the SleuthSayers collection and the Waffle House book, and serialized fiction with Woodson’s Chop Shop story. The field is healthier and weirder than ever.

Personal Victory

I have to admit, Euliano’s win feels personal. When I first wrote about her nomination, I was drawn to this idea of a doctor writing crime fiction, of someone taking their very serious, life-and-death professional skills and applying them to storytelling. But more than that, I loved the audacity of that anthology concept.

“Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked” could have been a throwaway gimmick. Instead, it produced award-winning fiction. That tells me editors Michael Bracken and the folks at Down & Out Books understood something important: the setting is never the story. The people are the story. The setting just gives them somewhere interesting to reveal themselves.

Euliano got that. She understood that a Waffle House at 3 AM is just as valid a location for exploring human darkness as any Victorian mansion or gritty urban alleyway. Maybe more so, because it’s a place most of us have been, a place that feels familiar until something goes wrong.

Anyway, congratulations to all the winners, but especially to Dr. Euliano. From the OR to the Derringer Award—that’s a career trajectory I never saw coming, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Rez Ball by Byron Graves Wins the Oklahoma Library Association Sequoyah Book Award

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Rez Ball2023

We are proud to announce that Rez Ball by Byron Graves has won the 2025 Oklahoma Library Association High School Sequoyah Book Award.

The Sequoyah Book Award is selected by Oklahoma students and honors the memory of Sequoyah, the Cherokee scholar who created the Cherokee syllabary. The High School category recognizes the year’s most outstanding young adult title as voted by Oklahoma high school readers — making this a reader’s choice award in the truest sense.

Rez Ball was named the 2025 High School winner alongside:

  • Children’s: Dogtown by Katherine Applegate & Gennifer Choldenko
  • Intermediate: Tie between The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh and Parachute Kids by Betty C. Tang

Congratulations to Byron on this well-deserved honor.

Rez Ball
Byron Graves | Heartdrum/HarperCollins Children’s Books
ISBN: 978-0-06-316038-5
Agent: Terrie Wolf, AKA Literary Management

2025 Derringer Award Finalists – “Heart of Darkness” by Tammy Euliano

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When Doctors Write Crime: Tammy Euliano’s Derringer Award Nomination

The 2025 Derringer Award finalists were announced recently, and I’m particularly intrigued by one nomination that caught my eye: Dr. Tammy Euliano’s “Heart of Darkness” in the Long Story category. There’s something fascinating about medical professionals who turn their precise, analytical minds to crafting mysteries—and Euliano’s story has an especially unique hook.

The Waffle House Chronicles

Euliano’s nominated story appears in what might be one of the most distinctive anthology concepts I’ve encountered: “Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House.” Published by Down & Out Books, this collection takes the iconic 24-hour diner chain as its muse for crime fiction. It’s the kind of premise that makes perfect sense once you think about it—what better setting for noir and mystery than a place that’s open all night, serves as a crossroads for travelers, and has witnessed countless human dramas unfold over hash browns and coffee?

The title “Heart of Darkness” suggests Euliano isn’t just playing with the Waffle House setting for laughs. There’s literary weight here, perhaps a nod to Conrad’s classic while exploring the darker corners of American roadside culture.

The Doctor-Writer

What makes Euliano’s nomination particularly interesting is her day job. As a practicing anesthesiologist and tenured professor at the University of Florida, she brings a unique perspective to crime writing. Medical professionals have always made compelling mystery writers—think of doctors like Robin Cook or Patricia Cornwell’s background in forensics—but there’s something especially appealing about an anesthesiologist writing crime fiction. After all, who better understands the thin line between consciousness and oblivion, between life and death?

Euliano isn’t new to award recognition either. Beyond her academic achievements, YouTube teaching videos, and numerous teaching awards, she’s been building a reputation for her short fiction. The combination of medical expertise and storytelling skill creates a potent mix for crime writing.

The Derringer Legacy

The Derringer Awards, named after that famous pocket pistol, have been recognizing excellence in short mystery fiction for years. What I appreciate about these awards is their commitment to celebrating the shorter forms that often get overlooked in the shadow of novels. The Short Mystery Fiction Society divides the field thoughtfully: Flash fiction for the quick hits, Short Stories for traditional length, Long Stories for extended narratives, and Novelettes for the longest form.

This year’s competition looks particularly strong across all categories. The Long Story category, where Euliano competes, includes heavy hitters like Elizabeth Elwood (published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine) and Andrew Welsh-Huggins. But there’s something to be said for the anthology route—collections like “Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked” often push writers to be more creative with their premises and settings.