Stomping Mad

A Spade/Paladin Conundrum

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

When a dead body turns up at the first ever Dinocon, Secret Master of Fandom and Private Detective Spade knows just who might be behind it all: Lucinda Danielle Stanhope who calls herself the Martha Stewart of Science Fiction. Now he just has to prove it. “Stomping Mad” marks the first appearance of Spade, who along with his sidekick Paladin, is one of Rusch’s most popular characters.

“A masterful writer is at work.” —Orson Scott Card

22 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Kristine Kathryn Rusch is an award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy writer. She has written many novels under various names, including Kristine Grayson for romance, and Kris Nelscott for mystery. Her novels have made the bestseller lists –even in London– and have been published in 14 countries and 13 different languages.

Her awards range from the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award to the John W. Campbell Award. In the past year, she has been nominated for the Hugo, the Shamus, and the Anthony Award. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction.

In addition, she's written a number of nonfiction articles over the years, with her latest being the book "A Freelancer's Survival Guide".

She has also published as:
Sandy Schofield (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kristine Grayson - romances
Kathryn Wesley (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kris Nelscott - mysteries
Kris Rusch - historical fiction
Kris DeLake - romances

Reviews

[Giovanni Gelati · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been looking forward to getting this started, the digital short thing. I did some research on the subject, what little could be found, and scoured Amazon & Smashwords to see what piqued my interest and found way too much. I was taken aback by the whole process. I have been fortunate to make some new friends while doing the research and found their work fun to read.
I have tried to explain to my wife and kids my fascination with the digital short (I am going to run with that designation; novella, although it sounds like it is something an Italian guy may say, just doesn’t work for me. Besides Novella Saturday doesn’t roll off of my tongue the way Digital Short Saturday does). The whole idea of being able to purchase a story that has less than 25,000 words and is a nice smooth quick read makes me happy. It is a change of pace, satisfies my interests, and is awesome to have on whatever ereader you are using to just pull up and enjoy. For those that have ADD this is a Godsend, I have OCD so it really doesn’t matter to me. As long as I can separate my Mike&Ikes by color while it read, it is fine with me. It is incredible that a story can be purchased for anywhere from .99 to 2.99, read almost instantly and then put into your personal library. It opens up a whole new world for authors. I would love to read a digital short by Lee Child, Barry Eisler, Brad Thor, to name a few, that could put something out with our favorite heroes that satisfies our desires for their work on a regular basis. This rocks in ways I think most of us haven’t touched on yet. Let’s get to the digital short:
Stomping Mad was the first read I have had on a Kristine Kathyrn Rusch novel. She writes in many different genres and I have plans to check them all out. Stomping Mad is a detective series and it was a fun read. Her main character is engaging and the dialogue is witty, quick and pointed. I enjoyed the edge he (Detective Spade) had and the manner in which he brought the mystery to a conclusion. Her style and descriptive manner helped me to solve the mystery; I enjoyed feeling like I was part of team as we went along looking quickly for clues to solve the crime. I was sucked into it all the way and its conclusion it left me wanting to get the next installment.
I am planning on using Saturdays to promote this type of work. I am looking for suggestions from authors, directions to look in finding material, and most of all what your thoughts are on the whole process.
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[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kristine Rusch has done a better job than most of making a success of self-publishing science fiction and fantasy. She blogs regularly about the business of writing and publishing. She is prolific and knows how to market to a niche audience. The series that began with Diving the Wreck has kept me engaged for over a decade. The key to self-publishing short stories is to give them more than one life. Magazines are not what they were a few decades ago, but anthologies still sell. Short stories and novellas can be ganged into series and published electronically. Stomping Mad moved from Return of the Dinosaurs, a 1997 Mike Resnick-Martin H. Greenberg anthology, to buck-a-throw electronic versions. Spade is a computer nerd who solves crimes, this one a head-stomping at a science fiction convention with a dinosaur theme. Stories like this are worthy loss-leaders for Rusch’s longer works. Give it four stars because it achieves its modest goals.

[Howard Brazee]

A lesser story of a series I enjoy with a computer geek who solves crimes at science fiction conventions.