SANDY MURPHY, R.I.P. - posted on May 15, 2026

I wrote an earlier blog post about how my experience with the short story mystery world began, but here's the rest of the story. When I submitted my first short story to Sandra Murphy, the editor of Peace, Love, & Crime, I had little knowledge of mystery short stories, which I assumed were just shrunken versions of my full-length mystery manuscripts lying fallow in a filing cabinet. How hard could it be? I quickly learned that writing short is more difficult than writing long in many ways.

When Sandy rejected my story with a personal email, she said she wasn’t accepting the story because it needed too much work and she was on a tight schedule. She especially didn’t like the ending but went on to suggest an alternative. She told me that if I could rewrite the problem areas and have it back to her within two weeks, she’d consider it. As a short story novice, I had no idea at the time of how generous her offer was.

Since Sandy’s proposed ending was far better than my original one, I had no objection to trying it. When I later received my author's copy of the published anthology, I was thrilled. Thanks to Sandy, my lifelong dream of becoming a published writer became a reality. It was the start of a journey that now includes over 30 published stories.

Our friendship grew over the years. I only actually saw Sandy once when we FaceTimed early on. We both agreed that neither of us enjoyed looking at our own faces, even if they were postage stamp sized. After that, we turned to frequent, long emails that covered everything from our favorite snacks to her side jobs (pet sitting, house sitting with and without pets, freelance editing), our pets, writing, reading, politics…it ran the gamut.

Sandy was an amazing editor. I learned more from seeing all that red on the pages that she edited than from any webinar or writing book. Her editing was truly a master class. She had a dry, sometimes twisted sense of humor and a generosity with her knowledge and time that was rare. I don’t know if she realized how deep a mark she has left on those of us who were lucky to know her. More likely, she would wave off our gratitude and change the subject.

If you’re listening, Sandy, thank you for being my friend.