Cash Anthony

Hi, and welcome to my author page!

A reader asked me recently, "Why do you write your stories about Jessie Carr?"

I thought about it ... It was clear to me that Jessie represents the importance to me of protecting the "little guy." In many cases, it's an older woman -- often the eccentric B&B proprietors that let her stay for free -- who has suffered an injustice. But sometimes it's a younger person who's been taken for a ride or bullied or misdirected. And there's usually a murder to be solved.

Jessie takes ACTION! She's not going to stand by and let a scumbag rob, intimidate, or hurt a friend. And she's unorthodox -- being a private eye is just a way to seem legitimate to people outside her circle -- because she comes up with ways to get even or make sure the villain is suitably punished that are, let's say, outside the legal system.

Writing these stories is deeply satisfying to me. Being trusted by my fellow writers to edit and format our books is also a source of great satisfaction.

And I'm grateful that I have a way to get them out to the world, even though I can't recommend that women follow Jessie's path (as if that were possible). :)

The Final Twist Writers Society has just published A LEGACY OF WHISPERS, its fifteenth anthology, with works related to "family secrets." Jessie's latest stories include "Now You See Me," set at the Texas Renaissance Festival; "Beyond Saving," the aftermath of an encounter between a Harley and a deer (can a brain-dead rider be murdered?); and "Marked for Death," a murder mystery where the deed has been cleverly concealed as an accident.

The previous anthology, IN THE SHADOWS, includes stories and poems inspired by the solar eclipse. A new Jessie Carr story is in this collection, as Jessie helps an old friend find a long-lost artifact that puts her in great danger from a Russian historian who wants to boost his reputation and his ego.

I have two other stories in IN THE SHADOWS as well. One offers a look at the thoughts of a woman who's facing death, and the other's a bit of historical fiction based on real events that took place just before the Civil War. The release of IN THE SHADOWS makes fourteen anthologies our group has created, and our writers are working hard on the next one, which has "family secrets" as its theme.

WE WERE WARNED also came out this year, and the stories in it are fascinating. They're all about superstitions and taboos. This anthology includes two new Jessie Carr stories -- "It Takes a Village" and "Invisible Evidence." I also ventured into writing poetry again, for the first time in ages. My poem "Inoculation" is in this collection, too. (I guess I can't help it -- the poem tells a brief story about a teenage girl who puts a boy who bullies her in his place in a very unusual way.)

Another story in my series about Jessie Carr, biker chick/avenging angel was released as a stand-alone book last year. The title is YES, SHE BITES.

And a science fiction novel about Jessie is on the way, in which she and Beau take on solving a murder that takes place at a moon colony. No motorcycling in it once they're there, but it involves some sleuthing as well as using Jessie's ability to get into the mind of a criminal. Its title is THE DEAD MAN IN DeLAMBRE CRATER.

The Final Twist Writers Society also released an anthology of short stories in 2023 on the theme of music. Its title is WITH MUSIC AS OUR MUSE. A Jessie Carr story appears in it, too -- called "Singing a Different Tune." She's confronted with one of the most terrifying threats to a motorcyclist: an out-of-control 18-wheeler coming at her, when she has no way to escape.

Two more of my stories appear in EVERY BEAST HAS A SECRET. Jessie and her partner Beau Marsberg, retired Texas Ranger, come to the aid of an old friend who's lost a very unusual asset -- a giant Pacific octopus headed for the Texas State Aquarium. EVERY BEAST HAS A SECRET, an anthology of short stories on the theme of animals, won Best Anthology of 2022 at the New York Book Festival.

The adventures of Jessie Carr ("High mileage, as you can see") are based on both real and imagined events. For more than 30 years I rode motorcycles, usually as lead bike, choosing the routes and destinations for cross-country tours. With Jim -- James R. Davis, my riding buddy -- I traveled from Houston across large stretches of the U.S. several times, from Texas east to the Atlantic Ocean; north to Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri; and west to New Mexico and Colorado.

So far, Jessie has stuck to Texas, but in THE DEAD MAN IN DeLAMBRE CRATER, she goes about as far away from the Lone Star State as a person can get.