Second Wind Publishing is putting together an anthology of short stories in the mystery/crime genre, and Mike Simpson, my publisher, talked me into submitting a story. How do you turn down a guy who says, “You have any number of fans out there waiting for you to pen a short story; so give it a try. For a person like you, it’s just another obstacle to be overcome.”
Not having the faintest idea how to write a short story, I did a bit of research and learned a few Tips for Writing a Short Story. Some of those tips were supposed to be funny, but they reminded me of a bit I did for an online contest where we were challenged to write the first 650 words of a novel. I entered that contest because I liked the idea of writing the beginning of a novel without having to figure out the story (perhaps I don’t like the puzzle aspect of writing after all!?), so I wrote my 650 words and forgot about them. Those short story tips reminded me of my contest entry, and I decided to develop the beginning of the novel into a short story. I can’t post the whole story (Second Wind owns the rights), but I’ll sneak you a peek at the beginning of my story, “The Stygian Night.” Just don’t tell Mike.
It was a dark and stormy night.
Silas Slovotsky leaned back in his chair and studied the words he’d typed into his computer.
He grinned. Perfect. The very words he needed to set the scene. And they had the added benefit of being true. It was a dark and stormy night. Except for his porch light, of course. And the thunder and lightning—
He leaned forward and peered at the computer screen. Did the sentence seem a bit trite? Maybe he needed to spiffy it up. He opened his thesaurus to the word “dark” and ran a finger down the page. “Stygian”. That might work.
He cleared his computer screen and typed: It was a stygian night.
Nope. Didn’t have the euphoniousness of the original sentence. Perhaps if he reread what he’d already written he could figure out how to proceed.
He printed out the manuscript he’d been working on for the past four months and read the single page. Dark as Night by Jack Kemp.
A thrill ran up his spine. He could see it on the shelf in the bookstore. Kemp, King, Koontz. He’d chosen his pseudonym specifically so the reviewers could call them the unhallowed trinity. And he deserved the accolade.
A knock on the door startled him out of his dream.
Who could that be? His friends—all two of them—knew he didn’t like to be disturbed when he was writing.
He tiptoed to the door and peered through the spy hole. His heart pounded and his knees went weak. Cops!
Pat Bertram is the author of More DeathsThan One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire, available from Second Wind Publishing.
4 Comments
July 2, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Rats, rats, rats!!!!! I need to know what happens! SO when can we expect this anthology?
July 3, 2009 at 7:53 am
Ah, the classic “dark and stormy night”. Is that why the cops are after him?
A great start to the story; it certainly leaves you wanting to read more.
July 6, 2009 at 12:35 pm
A good hook!
July 6, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Ooh! So when the book comes out we’ll finally get to see how it ends?