Guest Post: When (or if) the Narrator’s Not Reliable by Debra Bliss Saenger

  

Please welcome Debra Bliss Saenger to the blog today with the first of several guest posts regarding the upcoming new anthology, Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense. Published by SuperiorShores Press, edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, the book comes out on June 18^th.

 

 

When (or if) the Narrator’s Not Reliable

by Debra Bliss Saenger

 

Suicide or murder? Misplaced or embezzled? A crime or just an unfortunate incident? Evidence in a mystery may not be clear. The circumstances of the case may conceal the truth. Only as the story unwinds does the author reveal, and the reader understands, that not all the details of the mystery ring true. Not everything is as it seems. (Do I hear the discordant chords of an organ?)

In “Checking Out at the Live Free or Die Motel,” in the Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers anthology, the point of view may be from an unreliable narrator. Through that view, cracks between reality and the inner turmoil of a perhaps unstable personality collide. The combustion leads to an outcome headed in a different direction from the first glance.

Half pantser, half plotter, a straightforward outline for a story devolves when I sit at the computer to write. Multiple paths and layers unravel before me. My fingers hit the keyboard, and a story unfolds. (Sometimes painfully and slowly.)

Before that, the story marinates in my brain. Odd dreams and hikes with my dog allow random different plots, characters, settings, and conflicts to live in my subconsciousness. Those elements conflict or argue. They plot and scheme. Then they develop. Multiple story drafts hardened those concepts into a hopefully plausible and intriguing tale. Over time, I save the story in my folder under “Final.” (Except for those niggly edits.)

This false narrative allows me to dole out details—glimpses of what happened and what might have happened. As a mystery author and reader, I don’t enjoy giving up all details or knowing all the facts straightaway. The push and pull add tension.

And who doesn’t enjoy a story that leads them down a trail, only to hit a bump? Only to discover that plausible foreshadowing takes them instead on an alternative journey?

  

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/42q3oLc

 

Debra Bliss Saenger ©2025

Author of short stories, poetry, and mystery novel Crows Don't Lie. As seen in Mystery Tribune, Punk Noir, Yellow Mama, The Granite Review, Otherwise Engaged,Literary Journal, River and South Review. Coming in June 2025: Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers. Learn more at dblisssaenger.com