Orphaned Story

Recently I republished a story I had high hopes for, but which didn't go far. Home Wreckers was published in Nefarious-Tales of Mystery webzine in 1999. Nefarious looked like a winner when it appeared. Not only did it publish stories, it had true crime features, movie trailers and such. Home Wreckers appeared in the inaugural edition.

The Nefarious webzine had an up and down history. You couldn't count on it being up, or if it was up, you couldn't count on new stories. As a result few people got to read Home Wreckers and the story ended up as something of an orphan.

Home Wreckers was an early attempt at hard boiled and noir. Everybody in the story does something wrong--which made it a lot of fun to write. Even after a dozen years, I think it still holds up well.

I took the title of the story from an article in Sports Illustrated about the Purdue Women's basketball team beating the Lady Vols on their home court. In my story, "home wreckers" has two meanings, the SI meaning of winning on the opponent's home court and the more common one of adultery. Adultery is the theme of the story and the consequence is murder.

When I prepared the story for republication, I discovered two versions on my computer, the original version and a bowdlerized one. The bowdlerized version had all the F words changed. I don't remember which version Nefarious published, but I decided to leave the F-bombs in this version. I didn't use it a lot in the story, but this story opens with a woman learning that the wife of the man in bed with her has been murdered and the f-word seemed highly appropriate.

I think the cover captured the theme perfectly (although the strategic placement of the title is a form of bowdlerization.) You can get this story at Smashwords and Kindle. If you purchase from Smashwords, use this coupon code at checkout to get a free copy in any format--PC44Q.

Mark Troy
Hawaiian Eye Blog