The twenty-seven stories in Dead Calm represent every kind of crime story– mysteries, suspense, thrillers, horror, humor and more. And the authors are as varied as their tales. Meet some of them here and learn more about how they came to be Dead Calm.
A gathering at the New England Crime Bake of many of the authors whose stories appear in Best New England Crime Stories 2012: Dead Calm
C. A. Johmann, Ph.D., is a research biologist turned science reporter turned pharmaceutical R&D manager turned children’s author of seven non-fiction books, among them the award-winning The Lewis & Clark Expedition. This is her first short story, her first mystery, and her first fiction for adults. A former director of the Rochester (NY) Children’s Book Festival, Carol lives in Connecticut. Visit her website at http://www.caroljohmann.com
In “Death by Deletion” you tell an entire story in 504 words. You describe “Death by Deletion” as your first short story, your first mystery and your first fiction for adults. What drew you to flash fiction?
I had not heard of flash fiction before attending a panel discussion by several Level Best authors at my local library in Cheshire last spring. During the discussion, one of the panelists (I think it was Leslie Wheeler) mentioned this very short style and I immediately saw the benefit of trying it. For me, writing too short has never been a problem. Going on and on, explaining ad nauseam, has. I figured telling a story in 500 words or less would be a good way to practice paring down my writing, editing it before making an editor groan. The same panelists provided the inspiration for my mystery when they spoke about editors making them groan over requests to cut word count, plot lines and even characters. Within minutes my mind was spinning a tale of a writer having to “terminate” a favorite character on orders from up high, the Editor.
One reviewer called “Death by Deletion” his favorite story in the entire collection. How does that feel?
That was a real “wow” moment. Very nice, very gratifying. Then I started to hear the same from writing buddies and began to wonder if the reader who wasn’t also a writer would think as highly of the story. Being a scientist by training, I experimented, though in the end in a not-so-scientific way. After a few so-so comments, including one from my own mother (“Well, that wasn’t much,” she said after reading the two-page story.), I decided against going for statistical significance and to listen only to fellow writers!
By profession, you’re a science writer and an author of children’s non-fiction. What are you working on now? Any plans to write more short stories for adults?
I’ve got too many things going right now – a proposal for a series of activity-based biographies on American entrepreneurs for kids 8-12, four picture books that need paring down before I can submit them again, a fictionalized family memoir that’s begging for a middle, an idea for a mystery series for children that focuses on the science of forensics, and a full-length mystery for adults. Among all that, around the edges of my brain, an idea for another Level Best mystery short is creeping about. I may need to attend another panel discussion to get it to gel.
Daniel Moses Luft has written numerous reviews for Mystery Scene Magazine and mostlyfiction.com, and was formerly a copy editor for sovlit.com. Excluding a few quotations he made up for his college newspaper, “Boxed” is his first published fiction.
Your story in Dead Calm, “Boxed,” is about a man named Skinner who is trapped literally and figuratively. How did you come up with this idea?
Men’s adventure paperbacks from the 70s and 80s all had tough guy names like The Penetrator or The Executioner. I’d like to use my character again and wondered what name could be used and re-used in titles that might feature puns. I will eventually write one called “Skinner Alive.” The story in Dead Calm takes place in a small room with the character reacting to his conditions, so here he’s “Skinner Boxed.” I dropped his name out of the title because I thought it was just too goofy.
“Boxed” is your first published short story. Congratulations! How long have you been writing? Submitting? Tell us a little about your journey.
I have been writing since I got out of college 20 years ago but mostly I’ve been noodling in my spare time. I wasn’t sending out. About three years ago I decided to write some book reviews and that worked out so last year, after my first Crime Bake 2010, I decided to write some short stories. I’ve had two other stories accepted since Dead Calm came out and they will be published online at PowderBurn Flash, and Beat to a Pulp.
What are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on a longer story about a middle-aged guy who moves out of the suburbs back to Allston while he’s getting divorced. Of course horrible things happen—it’s Allston and he’s middle aged.
Cheryl Marceau is a human resources executive at a technology company near Boston. Her first short story, “Unleashed” appeared in Thin Ice: Crime Stories by New England Writers. She is also working on her first novel, a historical mystery. When not exploring the back roads and ice cream stands of New England, she and her husband live in Arlington, Massachusetts.
Your story in Dead Calm, “Nameless” is about a desperate woman traveling north. The editors loved it’s great atmospherics and strong, very real New Enlgand setting. How did you come up with the idea for this story?
I read a short news item in the Boston Globe about a mysterious woman found dead in a Vermont motel room. All of the tags had been cut out of her clothes. She had died in a way that seemed really gruesome. The death was ruled a suicide, but the local police were skeptical that it could have been self inflicted. I started thinking about what might have driven this woman to such lengths. How fearful or desperate (or both) would she have been? The town in the story is fictional, but it is based on a real town in northern New Hampshire, near the Canadian border. For me, setting becomes like another character in the story. I want the reader to feel as if he or she is there in that place along with the character.
Though it’s a relatively short story, “Nameless” is written in a narrative structure where two stories told from two different points of view move forward in two close, but different time frames. How did you come up with the structure for this story?
It was trial and error, to be honest. I wanted the story to open with the discovery of the body, and to build the tension as the victim was driven inexorably to her fate. I also wanted the victim to come alive and to have the reader care about what happened to her. In order to have the emotional impact I wanted, the story had to start and end with the woman’s death. The police were important for the story, as a way to underscore the desperation and horror of the victim’s situation. The only way I could make it all come together was to cut between the present and the past.
Your long form work, a historical mystery, is set in 17th century Massachusetts. Your two Level Best short stories have been contemporaries. How do you manage the time travel in your fictional worlds?
Both of my Level Best short stories are drawn from actual events, and there was so much material to work with. I find it much easier to write about the present. The idea of writing a novel set in the past came from learning about local history and visiting house museums in the area. I became intrigued by what it must have been like to live in colonial New England – to wear the clothes, eat the food, feel the cold. It was also fascinating to read written records of the time, showing that these were people with the same emotions and drives that we have. They were not cardboard people. The “time travel” is easier if I surround myself with sights and sounds that remind me what it was like in the 17th century. I’ll put on some music of the period, and put out photos of antique New England houses to look at as I’m writing. The biggest challenge has been trying to figure out how investigations would have been carried out – and evidence evaluated – in a time before modern forensics.
Mary E. Stibal lives in Boston’s Seaport District, has published in Yankee Magazine, and this story marks her third appearance in a Level Best Crime Anthology. She grew up in Iowa and has five sisters, to whom this story is dedicated. She says that while they don’t necessarily dress in black, they are all firm believers in good, old-fashioned retribution.
You hint in your bio at the end of your story “Sisters in Black” what your inspiration might have been. How did you go from inspiration to story?
When starting this story, I had a snippet of a scene, an argument at, of all of terrible places and times, the funeral of one’s mother. In the beginning I had a priest and just two mourners at the service, the narrator (the daughter of the deceased), and her mother’s ex-husband. I knew there would be a confrontation between the two during the service, and I knew the narrator hated her mother’s former husband, but I didn’t know why until I got more into the story. I also realized it was unlikely there would be only two mourners and a priest at a funeral. And so I ”gave” the narrator my own five, beloved sisters as her aunts. (And yes, my oldest sister is named Shay.) And then I added another 190 mourners as friends and neighbors. One’s mother’s funeral should be well attended after all.
I was more than three-quarters into the story before I knew how it would end.
And actually, I’m the only one of the six Stibal sisters to wear black. Basically all the time. My mother would always say, “You would look so pretty if you’d wear something besides black ALL THE TIME.” ( Her voice used to rise up at the end every time too). I told her I was afraid bright colors would burn out my retinas.
Your story contains two characters, the DEA Agent narrator and Mass State Police Detective Lieutenant Donia Amick, who seem like they might have more stories to tell. Any chance they may be continuing characters?
I will absolutely write another story with the DEA narrator and the State Cop Donia. Donia Amick is a real person, and a cop. She is my first cousin’s daughter, a sweet, young woman. Until you see her in uniform. Then you see the “take-no-prisoners” side. She makes a swagger look feminine and dangerous at the same time.
There may be a Level Best “first” in Dead Calm. You may the be first author who inspired a character in another author’s story. Would you like to say something about that?
I had to smile when I read Julie’s story ”Her Wish.” Much in that story is true. And I am honored that she included me as a character. After “Elizabeth” died, Julie and I joked that we should break her husband out of prison as a tribute to our friend. And here Julie actually did it — in a literary sort of fashion. “Elizabeth” would be so proud!
Janice Law is a novelist and short story writer. Her first novel, The Big Payoff, was nominated for an Edgar, and her stories have been frequently reprinted, including pieces in The Best American Mystery Stories, The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, Alfred Hitchcock’s Fifty Years of Crime and Suspense, Riptide, Still Waters, and the New Fabulist anthology, Paraspheres.
Her most recent novels are The Lost Diaries of Iris Weed and Voices. She lives with her husband, a sportswriter, in Hampton, CT.
Her website is www.janicelaw.com. She blogs at www.jolt462.tumblr.com, and http://sleuthsayers.blogspot.com. You can find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/janice.law.trecker
In your story in Dead Calm, “The Armies of the Night,” a woman makes an incredibly difficult choice for the sake of her children. What was your inspiration for this story?
Years ago I had read, and saved, a news story about a serial killer who buried his victims on the family’s big suburban property. He was finally caught and his wife and children discovered that their yard was a cemetery. I thought at the time that serial killer stories were a bit of a cliché, and I was interested less in the killer than in the consequences for the family.
My first thought was to tell from the children’s point of view and I was actually going to have the killer a beloved grandfather but I decided that was maybe not too plausible. Finally, I focused on the woman and her relationship both to her father and to her boys.
You describe your protagonist as a woman who has a lifetime of training of “keeping stray thoughts at bay.” Yet as the story goes on that becomes impossible for her to do. How did you figure out how to structure this story?
I’ll be honest, I don’t figure out very much when I am writing. That is, the story tends to come to me in pieces and I just have to be patient. The key thing in getting those ideas, I think, was the whole business of the house. I tend to watch the house and garden shows when I am doing my back exercises and the narrator’s house-mad friend came right out of the gushing realtors and renovation freaks that inhabit the shelter programs. I’m rather fond of flashbacks anyway, and the narrator’s relationship with the house led nicely to her relationship with her father and then to the conflicted feelings of her homecoming.
You write both novels and short stories. Do you know right away if an idea is right for one or the other, or is that something you discover along the way?
I pretty much know. Some people start with short stories and then work them into novels. I started writing novels first and only later moved to short stories, mostly, but not exclusively, mysteries. Ideas for novels have to have a certain amplitude, if I can put it that way, while the short stories often rely on a clever solution or a peculiar situation or even an eloquent narrator for their effect. They are just smaller in scale, although I always like to think that there is a lot in a compressed form with the stories.
Some of my short stories could have grown into novels, but there is usually a reason why I didn’t go that route. Sometimes the character is one I liked well enough for a short piece but not well enough to spend nine months to a year with. Sometimes I know enough about the setting and time frame for 14 pages max but not for 250 pages and I don’t feel like committing to the research required for that particular idea.
What are you working on now?
I’m embarrassed to say, not much. I have several novels I want to sell and two forthcoming in e-book form- Homeward Dove for Wildside and Fires of London for Mysteriouspress.com. I have a couple of stories coming out – the MWA’s Vengeance has one of mine as well as the next Sherlock, but really there are very few outlets for short fiction at the moment. Having said that, I am researching Kansas Territory in the run up to the Civil War – we’ll see what that produces.
Louisa Clerici’s short stories and poetry have been published in literary anthologies and magazines including; The Istanbul Literary Review, Carolina Woman Magazine, City Lights, Off the Coast, Shore Voices, Bagels with the Bards and The Shine Journal. Louisa is the host of DreamSpeak, a popular venue for writers in Downtown Plymouth, MA. and has just finished her first novel.
The narrator of your story in Dead Calm, “The Rose Collection,” is, to put it mildly, a piece of work. How did you come up with this woman?
I’m fascinated by all the layers of a person’s character. On the news every day, we hear about “seemingly normal” people robbing stores and murdering family members. But what drives someone to commit a crime? Can the same person who is able to enjoy beauty, be capable of doing something terrible? I’m infinitely curious and wanted to explore those themes in The Rose Collection.
When a character comes into one of my stories like my narrator Laura, it’s as if she already exists, whole and complete. Something inside me begins to speak for her in her voice as I hear it. And I love the feeling of letting go and seeing where the story will take me. Laura took me for a wild ride and the puzzle of her personality fascinated me. I had no idea how it would end when I started The Rose Collection.
The narrator collects collectible fashion jewelry, among other things. Is this something you knew about before you wrote the story or did it just fit the character or something in between? How did you research this topic?
I’m a huge fan of jewelry of every kind. I’ve worked in design and sales and have dabbled in collecting. My character, Laura Peckham lived a life of such containment and quiet desperation that it took jewelry to light up that captive part of her.
It seemed like the perfect hobby to give Laura. I wanted to see where it would lead her, what it might drive her to do. Though I have to admit it, I’m so passionate about jewelry myself, that I find I’m always adding a pretty trinket to a story. I love to point out the character who is wearing a gorgeous sapphire ring or draw the reader’s attention to the Timex on a skinny black band on the wrist of a suspect. Jewelry is so revealing.
You’re a poet, a novelist and you write literary short fiction, but “The Rose Collection” represents your first published crime fiction. What inspired you to try your hand at crime fiction?
I’ve always loved crime fiction from Nancy Drew to Agatha Christie. I grew up seeing the world through those writers’ eyes. It took me a while to see that there was this part of me patiently waiting to commit a crime. I began to notice that my flash fiction and even poetry were like little stories that often contained some wrongdoing and even suspects. When I won a place in the National Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas in 1998, I chose to perform my piece called, Road Noise in which a guy gives his girlfriend a gun as a gift and there are consequences! I had to admit it. Maybe there was a mystery writer hiding in the verses of my poems, waiting to be revealed.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on some women’s fiction that I’m getting ready to send out and a cozy murder mysteries series. I have a thousand partial stories hiding in my files. I write all the time. I need to finish more! New focus for 2012!
Sharon Daynard has crossed paths with a serial killer, testified before Grand Juries, and taken lie detectors tests. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies in both the US and Canada. She is a member of the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime. www.sadaynard.com
Your story in Dead Calm, “A Fortune to be Had” has a cast of highly memorable characters–the psychic, Meg Proctor, her husband Nate and, of course, the two elderly sisters from Portsmouth, NH, Biddy and Patience Pendergast. How do you create such memorable characters?
When writing “A Fortune to be Had” I needed two couples that would almost mirror and play off of one another in a good cop/bad cop fashion. The husband and wife team Nate and Meg Proctor and elderly siblings Biddy and Patience Pendergast took those roles.
At the time, I’d never been to a psychic/fortuneteller and had no one to use as the basis for Meg Proctor. After doing a bit of online research on fortunetelling scams, a jaded Meg, hell bent on making a fortune regardless of the consequences, came to me. A reluctant and guilt ridden Nate easily played the ying to Meg’s yang. Biddy and Patience, on the other hand, just took on a life of their own, demanding center stage in the narrative.
Coming up with names that suit a character can be a challenge for me. I sometimes find myself halfway into a story still referring to the players as X, Y, and Z. Usually, my characters wind up “telling me” their names. This wasn’t the case for “A Fortune to be Had.” I knew what I wanted to call the elderly sisters before I ever began writing the story. I don’t think I could have picked two more appropriate and telling names. Biddy is the epitome of an irritating and opinionated old woman. And Patience is a trusting, mild-mannered, sweetheart of an old doll.
“A Fortune to be Had” is funny–it might be characterized as a romp or a caper. Writing a funny short story is a challenge. How did you bring the funny to this story?
When I sit down to write a story, the amount of humor that creeps in is up for grabs. I only know how the story begins and how it ends. If the character of Meg Proctor had spoken louder to me than Biddy and Patience Pendergast, the story would have taken on a darker, more sinister tone. When I gave in to the characters of Biddy and Patience and allowed them free reign, the story just naturally took a humorous turn.
If I sat down at my computer with the intent of writing a humorous story, I’d still be staring at a blank page today. I write what come naturally at the time. The humor in my stories is more about attitude than punch lines. I don’t force it. If something make me chuckle, hopefully someone else will find the humor in it as well.
I have to confess that I am, by nature, a silly person. I see the absurd and farcical in almost every situation. Even in my darkest stories, there’s a sentence or two that makes me giggle. I owe my sense of humor to my late father, Francis Lennon, who was a quite a character himself. One of my father’s favorite pastimes was having himself paged over the PA system at Logan Airport as Ambassador Lennon and then rushing to the nearest phone to have an urgent conversation with himself. In “A Fortune to be Had” I named the Bunco Squad detective Lance Lennon, the name my father wanted to go by if he ever made it to Hollywood and into the movies.
You’ve written both dark and humorous short stories. Which do you prefer?
I love a dark humor/comedy. It’s the best of both worlds. Like a lot of mystery writers, I have been witness to the dark side of humanity and I think humor is a coping mechanism.
My favorite author is Stephen King. Most people consider most of his works truly dark. For whatever reason, I think there’s more depth to his writing than he gets credit for. He really has an amazing sense of humor if you look past the horror.
What are you working on now?
I recently completed my manuscript “The Rigors of Murder” which is a dark comedy/caper. It revolves around five women who decide to murder their best friend’s husband for her 50th birthday present. Unfortunately, the hapless group of would-be hit women find out murder is best left to the pros.
Nancy Gardner has had her short stories published in magazines, anthologies and online. Currently she’s working on a mystery set in Salem, Massachusetts and featuring a modern Salem witch who uses her ability to walk into other people’s dreams to unmask a murderer.
Your story in Dead Calm focuses on a very memorable central character. How did you create this story and character and what were the challenges of writing from this point of view?
Let’s start with character development. In “Count to Ten,” the main character, Flo, is one of my favorite characters to write—maybe because she came to me so easily, as did her fellow homeless shelter resident, Rose. So I have Flo’s point of view pretty well down. I suppose this is because Flo and Rose remind me of several loved ones from the past who were homelessness and/or mentally ill and/or alcoholic. It’s plotting that was my biggest challenge. After many iterations and failed submissions I finally figured out I needed to come at the plot from another angle—looking at Flo through a less clearly defined character, the nun who wants to help Flo. Once I did that, I understood how the natural conflict between these women could strengthen Flo’s arc.
Congratulations on winning an honorable mention for the Al Blanchard award for “Count to Ten.”
Thanks. I’m really proud of that award. And I’m also excited that “Count to Ten” is scheduled for republication in an anthology of baseball fiction for release in early 2012, and in time for Fenway’s 100th anniversary.
What is your advice for beginning short story writers?
Take to heart Nathaniel Hawthorne’s words, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” I say this because my biggest newbie mistake was to focus on writing to my strength—which is characterization. I’d write good characters and then submit for publication. It wasn’t until I got tough-love feedback from objective readers that I realized—duh!—readers want the whole enchilada. That’s when I focused more on improving my plots. This newbie mistake is not uncommon. Many of us have heard that competency comes after 10,000 hours or 10 years of practice. And haven’t we been writing all our lives? But it turns out that developing competency requires more than simple repetition. We must do the ugly work of identifying and working on our weaknesses. For more specifics on how writers can develop a more deliberate practice, I highly recommend Louise DeSalvo’s blog posting: (http://writingalife.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/deliberate-practice-by-louise-desalvo/).
What are you working on now?
A short story set in Salem, on Halloween night. It features an aging pickpocket torn between avoiding being sent back to prison and preventing an attack on innocent revelers. I’m also working on a novel set in Salem.
Kate Flora’s books include series mysteries, police procedurals, suspense and true crime. Current projects include a true crime and a novel in linked stories. She spent seven years as editor and publisher at Level Best Books. Flora is a founding member of the New England Crime Bake. She teaches writing for Grub Street. Redemption, a Joe Burgess mystery, will be published in February. Kate’s website is http://www.kateflora.com/ and she blogs at http://mainecrimewriters.com/
Your story this year is the second story starring U.S. Marshal Gracie Christian. Is she going to be a recurring protagonist for you? What do you think is required to develop a character with more than one story to tell?
A funny story here, actually. I had no intention of writing another story about Gracie, but two things happened to change that. First, a number of people who read “Gracie Walks The Plank” in the last collection wrote to me and said they thought she’d make a great series character. That was an interesting surprise. And then, second, when I pondered about the story I’d written, I realized that I’d never explained about the diamond necklace. So I had to write a story to explain how she got it.
I honestly don’t know what is required to develop a character with more than one story to tell. When I write a novel, I do a great deal of planning before I start, and I know where the story is going and what it’s about. In short stories, it’s more like a journey of discovery. I get a character in a situation, and then I let them show me what they, and thus the story, are about.
The first Gracie story began with an off-hand remark my husband made about me being slovenly because I went straight from the bed to my desk and was still in my nightgown at 1:00 in the afternoon. That led to the thought, “the slovenly detective,” which was the original title of the story. I opened with Gracie sitting there in that ratty housecoat, and wanted to know what she was doing there.
This year, for “All that Glitters,” I essentially wrote a prequel to how she ended up in that trailer, and it was fun to learn more about Gracie—her world view, her attitude, her ability and inability to get along with people, her rescue complex, and some things about her past. She interests me.
You write novels, true crime and short stories and you also teach writing. What advice do you give to short story writers that you wouldn’t give to novelists, and vice versa?
Mostly it would be two things:
First, to slow down, listen to your character, and let him or her tell you what the story is about and where it is going. You can do that in the more compressed medium of a short story.
Second, I ask writers what has happened in the story that matters, and how the character is changed at the end. Basically…has there been an epiphany? Have the events of the story changed the character? It can be only a slight change, but I’m looking for development, and change.
These things are true for novels, but in a novel, there’s a lot of time to develop the story. In the short story, it’s very compressed and everything that the character thinks or does or that happens to them has to matter to the story or it doesn’t belong. There’s no space for meanders, subplots, or page long riffs about the weather. If there’s food, it has to matter. If there’s movement, it has to go some place. If there’s confrontation, something has to be changed as a result. I also find I end up talking a lot about making scenes, and how writers use those scenes like building blocks to reach the inevitable conclusion.
Inevitability is a nice word in short stories.
You have a new Joe Burgess book coming out in February. What’s it about? Can you give us a little preview?
Thanks for asking. I’m very excited about this new book, which is called, Redemption. My vision for the Burgess series is a quartet, taking place in each of the four seasons. Playing God takes place in February. The Angel of Knowlton Park is an investigation into the awful death of a child, set against blistering, unnatural summer heat. Redemption is my fall book, and it’s a book about endings, and sadness, and the death, and hopefully, rebirth, of hope.
The book opens on Columbus Day weekend, with Burgess having just picked up the two foster kids we met in The Angel to take them on a picnic. A boy rushes into his path, stops the car, and asks Burgess to call the police, saying he’s been fishing and has just spotted a body in the water. Burgess says, “I AM the police,” and watches his day, his plans, his weekend, vanish as he becomes a homicide detective working on a body.
The body turns out to be that of a Vietnam vet who has never truly recovered from the war. Reggie the Can Man is a well-known figure who pushes a shopping cart around town, collecting returnable bottles and cans. He’s also a high school buddy who went to Nam with Burgess, and Burgess has been patching him together ever since. Now Burgess wants nothing more than to give Reggie a decent burial and get on with his mourning. But when the Medical Examiner says it wasn’t a salt water drowning, Burgess knows there is one more thing he must do for his friend.
The investigation won’t be easy. Reggie was working, but no one knows where. Reggie had had some angry tangles with his estranged son over some family land, but no one can find the son. Reggie’s bitchy ex-wife has also shown an interest in the property, but she refuses to talk with Burgess. And a strange relative who claims to be a witch does everything in her power to keep Burgess from finding any answers.
Nothing else in Burgess’s life is going to be easy, either. Captain Cote doesn’t want Burgess wasting resources on an old drunk who fell in the water. Burgess’s girlfriend, Chris, is seriously considering adopting the children, and Burgess knows he’s not ready for that. Even keeping his team together turns out to be a challenge, as Stan Perry goes off the reservation with a seductive married woman, and nearly gets them all shot. Then he gets some shocking news from an old girlfriend.
I’m still looking for the plot for the spring book. All I can tell you right now is that I have a title: And Grant You Peace. But getting to normal, Burgess’s goal, is going to be a rocky road.
Michael Nethercott has published stories and plays in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction; Crimestalkers Casebook; Plays, the Drama Magazine; and various anthologies including Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year; Thin Ice; Dead Promises; and Gods and Monsters. He is a past recipient of the Black Orchid Novella Award for traditional mystery writing and has an upcoming novel published by St. Martin’s Press. His website is www.michaelnethercott.com and he blogs at http://michaelnethercott.blogspot.com
Your story in Dead Calm, “Plain Vanilla,” takes place in a very specific time. A lot of the utter fun of it is that’s in written in the style of it’s time. How did you find this story’s distinctive voice?
I knew I wanted a narrator who’d present the tale in a quirky, quick-witted way. That became the Wheelman –this streetwise, cocky, funny low-level criminal type. This was one of those cases where I latched early on to a character who knew what he was about and could babble on relentlessly, and my job was basically to hang on his coattails to hear what the hell he had to say. I don’t know that I did much plotting with this story; I just let the Wheelman say his piece
You also write plays and had one produced this summer. How does play writing inform your short story writing?
