Wish Upon a Crime

On June 2, Level Short released Wish Upon a Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Fairy Tales, an anthology I edited with Stacy Woodson. Though it’s the second published of the three anthologies we’ve co-edited, it was the first we delivered to a publisher. The path from concept to publication was a long and torturous road, but that’s a story for another day.

Stacy and I have collaborated on various projects over the years—a Derringer-nominated short story, classes and presentations for Outliers Writing University and The Back Room, ShortCon, and more—so adding an anthology or three to the list wasn’t much of a stretch.

The anthology’s concept was Stacy’s, I helped her turn concept into submission guidelines, we made a list of writers to invite, and we worked together to edit the resulting stories.

MY CONTRIBUTION

The stories range from light-hearted to deadly serious. My contribution—“Three Billy Goats Gruff”—leans toward the lighter side.

The three Gruff brothers run a marijuana dispensary, and their cannabis crop is infected with Hop Latent Viroid, which doesn’t kill the plants but does cause dudding—the plants are shorter, have smaller leaves, and have tighter node spacing—and the Gruff brothers are losing customers to the Trolls.

The cannabis plants at Troll Bridge Farm, located in a small valley accessible only via a single one-lane bridge, seem immune to the disease, and the Gruff brothers want access to the higher-quality product.

Well, if you’re familiar with the fairy tale, you know all three brothers have a go at crossing that bridge.

I don’t write much that would be considered light or humorous, so it was fun to explore the lighter side, to bury Easter eggs throughout, and to model human characters after goats.

THE TABLE OF CONTENTS

• “Hansel and Gretel” by Joseph S. Walker
• “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” by John M. Floyd
• “Rapunzel” by Adam Meyer
• “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Laura Oles
• “Three Billy Goats Gruff” by Michael Bracken
• “Beauty and the Beast” James A. Hearn
• “The Bremen Musicians” by Debra H. Goldstein
• “Jack and the Beanstalk” Andrew Welsh-Huggins
• “Cinderella” Donna Andrews
• “The Frog Prince” by Josh Pachter
• “Little Red Riding Hood” Barb Goffman
• “The Briar Patch” by Tom Milani
• “King o’ the Cats” by David Dean
• “The Gingerbread Man” by Stacy Woodson

These probably aren’t bedtime stories for your children, but you’ll enjoy them all. So, go Wish Upon a Crime.