When I learned the proposed title/idea for the SleuthSayers' anthology was
“Two crooks walk into a bar…” – I chuckled. Felt like another school homework assignment because I don't go to bars, haven't been in one for a drink since the mid-70s and those were discos where I danced more than drank. Wouldn't be familiar turf, more like writing about two guys walking across the Gobi desert. It was a challenge I became eager to take.Some may ask how can I be a New Orleanian and not frequent bars. Well, I don't like jazz music either. I've been a rock-and-roll fan since the last 50s.
OK, I did enter bars when I was a cop, searching for suspects or witnesses to crimes, seeking help from bartenders and barmaids, which brought me to the plot of my story in MURDER, NEAT. I decided to write a simple story and came up with "Flesh Wounds."
It took longer to write than I thought but I like its simplicity.
The set-up – a man staggers from a rainstorm into a bar. There's a lone barmaid inside. There's blood.
I just followed along …
Hope the anthology does well. Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman did a great job in editing and the stories are so well done.
So y'all indulge, take a drink and see what's going on where people get liquored up and sometimes die.
That's all for now,
www.oneildenoux.com