Please welcome Tom Milani back to the blog today with a guest post on his novella, Barracuda Backfire. This is the fourth novella in the Chop Shop series created and edited by Michael Bracken. This installment of the Dallas, Texas, based series comes out on April 1st exclusively on Amazon for the Kindle. You can read more from Tom in his guest posts about a story for Black Cat Weekly (Issue 78) here as well as his story in Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties anthology here.
Barracuda Backfire Inspirations
My friend John once owned a Plymouth Barracuda, an early
model with a wraparound rear window and a fold-down rear seat. He told me that
a few weeks after he sold it, he drove to the new owner’s house and got behind
the wheel. The owner came out. “You miss your car,” he said.
That story has stuck with me because it’s a reminder of
the attachments we have to our firsts—cars, loves—and how they can achieve an
outsize importance in our memories. Their faults fade from from our
recollections until all that remains is an idealized version that never
existed.
When Michael Bracken invited me to pitch an idea for Chop Shop, a series of novellas
set in Dallas and featuring Huey’s Auto Repair, I knew what car my story would
involve—a Plymouth Barracuda like my friend’s—and what the theme would be—first
loves and their holds over us.
Early on, I decided to structure the story with two
timelines, one set in 1976, the other in 2021. I thought I had a good setup.
The only problem—I knew nothing about Dallas. Enter my friend Chris, who grew
up in Texas. I offered to buy him coffee in exchange for some of his memories.
I got the better end of the deal.
He showed up with three maps of the Dallas area and
proceeded to tell me what each neighborhood was like in the 1970s and now. He
knew which auto parts stores were prominent then and which beers kids drank. I
took notes as fast as I could. As an afterthought, I asked him if people drag
raced then.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Forest Lane.”
That led me to an online article on the history of Forest
Lane as a site for cruising teenagers. The details in the article, and those
from my other research, informed the drag race scene in the story.
About that race … I knew that Billy Wright, my
protagonist, would be racing his car against Skip Parker. The question became
what would Parker be driving? Among the cars featured in the January 1965 issue
of Motor Trend, which I found
for sale on Amazon, were a Ford Mustang 2+2 and a Plymouth Barracuda. The
article had quarter-mile times and speeds for each vehicle, along with a host
of driving impressions. Now I had Skip’s car.
I’ve talked about the car, but there was also a girl
involved: Veronica Valdez. This inspiration for her isn’t as clear cut, but my
memories do play a role.
I am grateful to Michael Bracken for including me in this fantastic series. At one point during the writing, I saw how all the pieces of the story would fall together, and I began to get excited about putting it out into the world.
I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it.
Amazon
Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3TOmDtq
Tom Milani ©2024
Tom Milani’s short fiction has appeared in Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties, Illicit Motions, Black Cat Weekly, and Urban Pigs Press. Barracuda Backfire will be out on April 1, 2024. His website is https://www.tommilani.com/
Enjoyed to the max...
ReplyDeleteCheers, Wil