Nothing Good Happens After Midnight

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: So I was sitting on the train from New York to Boston. I love the train. Sadly, though, on this particular day I did not get a seat on my beloved quiet car, and yikes. The woman in front of me was a talker. A LOUD talker. On the phone. She was absolutely insufferable, and I could hear every nasty and pompous word. It drove me crazy, until I realized how fascinating and, well, sinister it was. I started taking notes like mad.

And I remember when an announcement came over the PA about arriving at some station, I was annoyed. I thought-- Be quiet! I need to hear this woman!


Here are just some of the actual notes I took in my little red notebook. Someday, I thought, this’ll be a story.

And now, indeed, it is the perfect germ of “All Aboard,” which takes place entirely on a train. The outcome is not the same as in real life--although, trust me, the outcome IS what I was tempted to do.

Sound interesting? Well, I am so thrilled to say it’s part of a spectacular collection of short stories from a terrific list of authors--including Rhys! And Jeffery Deaver (who edited) and John Lescroart and Linwood Barclay and Shannon Kirk and DP Lyle. And more! It’s fantastic, and the brainchild of Suspense Magazine's CEO and publisher.



It's called Nothing Good Happens After Midnight.

And we are so thrilled to get to talk with him today! And ooh, there’s a giveaway.

HANK: Where did you get the idea for the title and theme? Did that come first?

JOHN RAAB: Shannon (Shannon Raab, Suspense Magazine’s Creative Director) Rand I went to visit D.P. Lyle at his house. We were sitting around talking and the book came up. Shannon and I were struggling with different themes, etc and all of a sudden Doug said "Nothing Good Happens After Midnight" and that was it. We had our title and then started to work on the list of authors we wanted to contact. Sometimes sitting around watching football, having a cigar can make all the difference in the world.


HANK:. Wow, Jeffery Deaver as editor! How did that happen?

JOHN RAAB: That's sort of a funny story. We had a short list of three authors that we wanted to be the main editor of the book, based on the theme. I was sitting on the train in the morning heading to downtown LA, when I got the email back from Jeff asking some questions about the project. I answered them back and he responded right away and said "Let's do it, I love it." And that was that. I called Shannon first thing and told her. She was speechless for the first ten seconds or so and then just went "Are you F'ing kidding me?" I said, "Nope, unbelievable right?" and we had a moment with me on the train.

HANK: What was it like to open the short stories as they arrived and read them for the first time?

JOHN RAAB: That was really, really fun. What was really cool was seeing writers, like Rhys stepping outside their normal genre and doing something different. We were loving them all and just had to pinch ourselves that we were actually editing stories from thirteen of the top thriller / suspense writers out there. It was both a fun and scary experience, because now we had to edit the stories and didn't know how the authors would react, but all of them were so wonderful and so gracious, it was such a great experience, that have decided to do it all over again next year, with Catherine Coulter, more on that later! But we all must have done something right to get a starred review by Publishers Weekly.

HANK: So, Rhys, yeah. Your story is terrific. Where did the idea come from?

RHYS: When I heard ‘after midnight’ my first thought was Cinderella. What happened to her after the coach turned back into a pumpkin? How did she get home? Surely it was dangerous. So I took the story and twisted it. Then I moved Cinderella to the present. Lost girl trying to get home. And then I turned the whole thing upside down

HANK: This story is a little out of your element, as John says. How was that to write?

RHYS: What I love about short stories is that I can leave my comfort zone. I can go really dark because I know I won’t have to spend six months in darkness. I love being able to play with a reader’s emotions, make them believe something then twist it.

HANK: And John, you have to choose short stories for your wonderful Suspense Magazine all the time. Do you get a lot of submissions? What do you think makes a good one?

JOHN RAAB: Short stories can be very challenging, especially to authors that are used in writing stories of 80 - 100K words. Now we tell them, ok bring this story in under 10K. We get about a thousand short stories submitted to the magazine each year and the ones we pick are the ones that make you think you are reading a 100K story. They are clear, they have good complete characters, not a lot of characters, just complete ones. The plot is well structured and laid out, so the reader is still going on a journey. We have seen a lot of reviewers saying that certain stories need to be laid out in a whole book, and to me that's a huge compliment. That means that story has given the reader an emotional reaction, something every writer aspires to do to the reader, I believe.

HANK It feels like the perfect time for short stories--do you agree? Why do you think that is?

JOHN RAAB: I think because it's a snap shot of a time in the characters life. I think that's why reviewers want to see more from the stories, because they want to know more about them. When you bring a story down to a basic scene or instance you really have to pack in the power of the dialogue and amp up the action. Picking a theme like "Nothing Good Happens After Midnight," there are so many ways the author can go and that's why this is a great theme.

HANK: Reds and readers, this book is terrific. What’s the BEST short story you’ve ever read? Or, if you don't have one--tell us: do you think it was the Lady? Or the Tiger?

And a copy of Nothing Good Happens After Midnight to one very lucky commenter!


The book is available in HardCover, Paperback, Amazon Kindle Unlimited (means Ebook is on Amazon only) and audio book. The best place to purchase the book is here: https://amzn.to/2JTHs5h


There's also a webpage just for the book, so go to http://www.suspensemagazine.com

"Suspense Magazine was started in 2007 with the mission that every author should have a voice. In 2010 we started to publish Ebooks and have published over 150 books to date. We have a podcast called Suspense Radio, where we bring you the best author interviews. Suspense Magazine does what it can to cover the suspense / thriller / horror / mystery genre, with articles, reviews, interviews, short stories and much more."