Seasmoke — The 2006 Anthology

The gallies for Killing Julie Morris arrived in the mail the other day and I sat down and read them last night. They look good from a proofreading point of view but, like most writers, I picked the heck out of the writing. The truth is, in all the work to be done for Mark’s F/V Black Sheep and for my book My Last Romance and other passions, I completely forgot about Killing Julie Morris. I wrote it last winter and sent it off without thinking any more about it. It was accepted for Level Best Books 2006 anthology and that was the end of it in my mind. I guess that’s one of the luxuries of not being the publisher as well.

As a story, I still like it. I kind of wonder where it came from but I wonder that about a lot of my stories. I was talking to poet John Ronan the other day and we got talking about where poems — and where stories — come from. I have this theory that there is an alternate universe that runs alongside ours where stories and characters live. Sometimes you get lucky and one of the stories picks you to write it. It just bonks you on the head and announces, I’m here! Sometimes I feel like all I do is run the pencil.

But Killing Julie Morris wasn’t quite that easy. The deadline for the 2006 anthology was closing in and I wasn’t at all sure I was going to have something to submit. I had come up with the idea of a woman who drove an ice truck one day when I was stuck in traffic (such traffic as we have in Gloucester in the winter) behind a Cape Pond Ice Truck but that was as far as it went for weeks. As the deadline came rushing at me things began to click and, much to my surprise, I wrote my third crime story. I never thought of myself as a crime writer.

So, anyway, I read the story last night and, despite the fact that I would probably have made a dozen changes if I could, it wasn’t bad. I’ll sign off on it today.

I also received a copy of the cover which I think is really attractive. After that pretty blue cover on Windchill I didn’t think they could come up with something as attractive but they did. I love the smokey grays of this book.

I suppose every writer picks their work to death — why did I use THAT word? Why didn’t I clarify that more? Have I used that descriptor too many times? Actually, the only writers who seem not to pick their work apart are the ones who should. Now that a few people have read My Last Romance and are giving me feedback the thing I hear most often is that about my economy of language — no wasted words. I like that.

So today Killing Julie Morris goes off to the publishers and in a couple months it will be available. And I can keep stay aware for the next set of characters who need someone to tell their story.

Thanks for reading.