Authors on the Air host Pam Stack presents the writers who contributed to the anthology The Beat of Black Wings: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Joni Mitchell, edited by Josh Pachter.   

Twenty-eight contributors, twenty-six stories (two of them collaborations), one or two apiece inspired by songs on each of Joni's seventeen studio albums.   • One of the collaborations, "Both Sides, Now," is by Art Taylor and Tara Laskowski. They've both won major awards for their fiction, but this is their first-ever collaboration. The other one, "Talk to Me," is by Jackie Sherbow and Emily Hockaday; Jackie, managing editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and Emily, managing editor of Asimov's Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction & Fact; they've co-edited an anthology together.  Other contributors include Sherry Harris (the immediate past president of Sisters in Crime), Donna Andrews (multiple award winner), Barb Goffman (multiple award winner), Michael Bracken (Golden Derringer winner for lifetime achievement), John Floyd (Golden Derringer winner for lifetime achievement), and many more.

Tonight's guests are guest host Josh Pachter:  (Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, "The Beat of Black Wings"), David Dean:  (Ladies of the Canyon, "The Priest"), Edith Maxwell: (Hejira, "Blue Motel Room"), Barb Goffman:  (Wild Things Run Fast, "Man to Man"), Elaine Viets:  (Dog Eat Dog, "Dog Eat Dog"),Alison McMahan:  (Taming the Tiger, "Harlem in Havana"), Mindy Quigley  (Taming the Tiger, "Taming the Tiger")