Guest Post: On Writing “Jack in a Box” by Steve Liskow

Please welcome Steve Liskow to the blog today. His short story, Jack in a Box, will appear in the upcoming anthology, Mystery Writers of America Presents Crime Hits Home: A Collection of Stories from Crime Fiction's Top Authors. Edited by S. J. Rozan and published by Hanover Square Press, the book is scheduled to be released on April 19^th. It can be pre-ordered now at the link below. 

One of the perks of being an active member of MWA is that you get submission calls for the themed anthology the group produces two years or so. They’re edited by a well-known writer, and the theme works as a good writing prompt. Over the last decade, I have submitted five stories. I only made the cut with one of them (“Hot Sugar Blues,” which showed up in Vengeance, edited by Lee Child), but all the others eventually sold somewhere.

In summer of 2020, MWA called for stories to fill Crime Hits Home, edited by SJ Rozan, one of my favorite writers. I’ve met her at two events and liked her as much as her writing, so I wanted a story in a collection with her name on it.

Crime Hits Home features stories that revolve around what “Home” means to different writers. The submission call quoted Robert Frost’s line from “The Death of the Hired Man.” I took it for granted that the judges would receive several stories that dealt with family reunions, home invasions, or both. That meant I needed something different to avoid being buried in the crush. After a few days of doodling and free-association, I thought of the opposite of home, homeless.

What if my protagonist were homeless? Why was he homeless? One thing led to another, and I decided he had emotional or mental challenges, or both. My wife, the brains of the outfit, offered a tentative title, “Jack in the box,” and I grabbed it. Jack lived in a box, and I figured out why. He needed to be damaged, but not pathetic, so I added humor to keep from writing a sermon on the less fortunate.

When I remembered that Rozan likes cats, I added some to the cast. And a dog (Who says we can’t live together?). Jack has so much in common with stray dogs and cats that they hang out together. If you’re NOT a writer and you hear voices, it’s probably a bad thing, but when my characters start talking to me, it means I’m on the right track. Jack’s voice got clearer and clearer, especially his thought process, which is linear and concrete, but a little…different.

Now I needed a crime. Jack’s homeless and damaged, and he likes animals. What if someone else didn’t like animals? From there on, it was pretty easy.

I wrote the rough draft in three days and spent the next month tweaking it. When I sent it out, I hoped the judges didn’t think I colored too far outside the lines. They didn’t.

If tradition holds, Crime Hits Home will launch during Edgars Week. “Jack in a Box” will be the next-to-last story, the opening act for Rozan’s own story.  Check it out. I hope you like the collection, but have a special soft spot in your heart for Jack.

 

Steve Liskow ©2022

Steve Liskow (www.steveliskow.com) has published 16 novels and 40 short stories in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Tough, Mystery Magazine, and various anthologies. Before Covid-19 appeared, he conducted fiction writing workshops at libraries throughout central Connecticut. He has appeared on panels for both MWA and SinC, and blogs on Sleuthsayers.org. He has been a finalist for both the Edgar Award and the Shamus Award, has won Honorable Mention for the Al Blanchard Story Award four times, and was the first two-time winner of the Black Orchid Novella Award. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Barbara, a costumed tour guide at the Mark Twain House.