Mincemeat and Murder

Where Short Story Ideas Come From. . .

I talked to my mother yesterday. I had sent her a copy of my Christmas short story "Holly, Hemlock & Mistletoe" in with her Christmas card. She's always been amazed at my stories and always wants to know where the ideas come from. She marvels at the fact that I actually have ideas, I guess. LOL. When she pressed me for details, I finally said I have more ideas than time to put them into stories.  True. But I really couldn't explain where some of them come from. She never believes me anyway since some of them are so convoluted it's hard to track the origin.

So, this morning I was relaxing and browsing online for recipes. I've recently gotten into making chutneys and such, and love tasting (in my mind) the mixtures of tart, tangy and sweet ingredients. I made two over the last few days—a delicious Pear Ginger Chutney and my annual Cranberry Sauce tarted up (literally) with oranges and candied ginger. (It's similar to Aunt Jewel's recipe for Cranberry Sauce except she's not brave enough to add the ginger. She says it gives her the colly-wobbles.)

I ran across a recipe for mincemeat, a traditional Christmas condiment. That brought back memories. My grandmother was fond of making and eating mincemeat, although as a child we hated the stuff. I wondered why that was since we'd loved her other concoctions. So I went in search for the origin of the stuff and ran across the phrase "Operation Mincemeat."

It seems that Operation Mincemeat was a WWII British "dis-information plan" carried out in order to fool the Germans into thinking that they had, by accident, intercepted 'top secret' documents.  According to an article in Wikipedia, the documents were attached to a corpse deliberately left to wash up on a beach in Spain.

 Ah, a corpse planted with false documents! Interesting! Pretty soon, my mystery-writer imagination went on overdrive and I had an idea for a story. There's still some thinking to be done, because I don't really write historical world war stories. Still, there's a hint of an idea there and actually several other authors over the years have felt the same way.

 I sure hope my mother doesn't ask for the origin of that story, because I'm not sure she'd believe it anyway.

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Copyright © 2014 Bobbi A. Chukran. All rights reserved. 

Another great review for DYE, DYEING, DEAD!

This time, in the August 2014 issue of Over my Dead Body online mystery 'zine, reviewed by Cherie Jung:

"DYE, DYEING, DEAD introduces readers who haven’t met her previously in the author’s short stories, to Kendra Louise Harper, in the first novella of the Nameless, Texas mystery series. Kendra is an avid gardener, folklorist, and amateur sleuth. Her plan for the day was to help her Aunt Jewel with a Natural Dyeing with Plants workshop for the garden club. Before the workshop concluded, a dead body turned up and a witness claimed that Aunt Jewel bashed the victim over the head. No one really believed Aunt Jewel was the killer except the sheriff. Hence it was up to Kendra to change his mind.

The author has a folksy, fun style of writing with a clever turn of phrase. She has assembled quite a group of characters that readers are sure to find amusing. The dialogue is witty and sparkles.  Nameless, Texas is a town I want to visit again! 

DYE, DYEING, DEAD is a 35,000 word novella. I love novellas! Since I read a lot of short stories and a lot of full length books, when I get a chance to read a novella, it seems like the perfect length to me."

Thank you, Cherie!

bobbi c.

New Halloween Short Story E-Book

Dear friends,

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  So that's why I've written a story that's part memoir, part heart-warming fiction, set in a small Texas town.  Only the names have been changed; the spirit of the story stays intact. 

It's all about choosing and buying costumes, Halloween candy, trick-or-treating circa 1965, and the anticipation surrounding the holiday for a certain young girl and her brother and sister.  And it's about what happens when she gets too sick to participate.

"Best Halloween Ever, 1965" is available now for the Kindle (and other devices, using the free Kindle reading app available on the Amazon website) for only 99-cents (introductory price).

And yes, I did make that jack-o-lantern on the cover. :-)

Happy haunting!

bobbi c.
http://bobbichukran.com

New short story published in the Dead Mule!

Dear friends,

I'm pleased as punch to announce that my literary short story, Sadie and the Museum Lady, has been published in the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature online journal.  Yippee!  The Dead Mule has long been on my "get published there or else -- dagnabbit" list.

You have to love a journal that forces you to come up with a "Southern Legitimacy Statement" before they'll look at your work. :-)

You can read the story here:

http://www.deadmule.com/fiction/2012/12/bobbi-a-chukran-sadie-and-the-museum-lady/

Happy trails from Texas!

bobbi c.

P.S. Check out my latest handmade artists' book, Our Family of Dogs, over on da-art blog.