![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/09-Dec-Xmas-10-Jan-Hawaii-111.jpg?resize=203%2C279&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nPublished in issue #10 of Black Cat Mystery Magazine<\/a><\/em>, along with works by my friends and writing acquaintances Steve Liskow, Barb Goffman, and Liz Zelvin, with seven others I look forward to meeting. In a nutshell, it\u2019s the story of a Wall Street wheeler-dealer who buys and refurbishes a permanently beached ship in Cape May, N.J., turning it into a quirky vacation cottage. Stunning. But then the trouble starts. Is the ship haunted? Is he losing his grip?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The long-ago origin of this story was a John Gardner writing prompt my writers\u2019 group worked on. It asked us to plot a ghost story with certain elements. We had such fun with this cooperative exercise that we all went home and wrote the story, each one very different, but involving a vacation cottage, Cape May, a crusty 1800s sea captain, and (for two of us, a very fowl-mouthed parrot [sorry about the pun]). The eventual story in BCMM<\/em> takes off from that early effort, though the hero has considerably more agency, and the existence of the ghost is still in question. I suppose the message is, whatever fires your engine, let it rip!<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA Hungarian Christmas\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re familiar with the hilarious books about Eloise, the six-year-old girl who lived at the Plaza Hotel you may remember how she was always angling to get herself a present. In this story, published in the Mystery Magazine<\/a><\/em> December issue, along with works from several fellow-members of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, the unsuspecting Bert and his fianc\u00e9e Veronika are anticipating the holidays. She\u2019s helpfully explained to him that, as a Hungarian, she should be given a special present on December 6, Hungarian Christmas. (This is a scam that actually works, don\u2019t ask me how I know.) Maybe it was taking the Zoom class on precious gems last year that inspired it, or the several notable jewel robberies I\u2019d read about recently, but Bert decides his special gift should be something from Tiffany\u2019s. As you can predict, mayhem ensues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I set the story in northern New Jersey, close to Manhattan, but not in it, so that the scale of the police presence and Bert and Veronika\u2019s living arrangements wouldn\u2019t present word-count busting logistical difficulties. Because I believe most complicated problems\/investigations benefit from a team approach, I gave her a loving family\u2014older brothers defending her and Bert\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To quote a lyric from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum<\/em> by the late Stephen Sondheim, \u201cAnd a happy ending of course.\u201d Hey, it\u2019s the holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Your Bookshelf<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n John Gardner\u2019s The Art of Fiction<\/a>.<\/em> (I still don\u2019t understand some of this one.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" People always ask writers, \u201cWhere do you get your ideas?\u201d which is not a question with a straightforward answer. So many facts, ideas, memories, glimpses, pet peeves, dreams, loves, and outrages weave themselves into a story, the truthful answer would … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Eloise.jpg?resize=238%2C342&ssl=1\")
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