Guest Post: Bringing “Amanda Ross” to the Page by Tom Milani

 

Please welcome back author Tom Milani to the blog today as he shares the backstory of his short story, Amanda Ross, that appears today in the latest issue of Black Cat Weekly.

 

Bringing “Amanda Ross” to the Page

by Tom Milani

“Amanda Ross” had a difficult birth. Originally titled “The Missing Person” and part of a dual-timeline story, the Amanda Ross portion was the PI origin story for Erin Ferrigno, my protagonist. The other portion, which became “Riley Walker,” was about Erin’s first case as a PI. Too complicated by half, “The Missing Person” didn’t work.

I decided to separate the stories and submitted a revised version of the Amanda story to my writers group. The discussion was … lively and the ensuing criticism remarkably constructive. Several people with IT experience pointed out flaws in Erin’s approach to hacking into her client’s husband’s computer to access his day-trading account. Other people pointed out that Erin solved her client’s problem without facing any obstacles.

It was a lot to take in, and I put the story aside for a while to work on “Riley Walker,” a missing-persons case that, in many ways, was more straightforward to write. When I finally got back to “Amanda Ross,” I knew I needed to add some obstacles, and I needed to know more about day-trading. One of my neighbors has been day trading for years, and over dinner he filled me in on the personalities of day traders, the computer setups they used, and how margin accounts work. When our discussion strayed to powers of attorney, my neighbor, who’d been a lawyer in the military, explained the difference between a specific and a general power of attorney. That difference became an unexpected key to the story.

One final piece remained. After I pitched the story to Michael Bracken, he asked me to revise the ending, pointing out where it fell short. One small revision later, and it was done.

I hope you enjoy meeting Erin Ferrigno. Thanks to my writers group for their critiques, my neighbor for sharing his knowledge and expertise, and Michael Bracken for seeing a flaw I had missed.

“Amanda Ross” appears in BlackCat Weekly #226.

Tom Milani ©2025

Tom Milani’s (www.tommilani.com) short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in several anthologies. “Barracuda Backfire,” his novella, Book 4 of Michael Bracken’s Chop Shop series, was nominated for a Derringer award. “Barstow,” which appeared in Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir vol. 5, was an “Other Distinguished Mystery and Suspense of 2024” selection for The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025. Places That Are Gone, his debut novel, was released on May 13, 2025.