Today’s Substack article is an object lesson in never throwing away a story idea.
Several years ago, I had a story idea: a mashup of Raymond Chandler and H.P. Lovecraft pitting a hard-boiled detective against chthonic creepy-crawlies and criminals. Noodling the idea around, a couple of images popped into my head, one of Our Detective examining a rooftop corpse while trading Sam Spade-esque quips with a talking animal (cursed, of course), the other of a Soviet spy running a bait shop on a San Francisco pier. I didn't do much with the idea, just typed up a note and plopped it into a hard drive folder for later.
Flash forward to last fall. Raconteur Press announced an open call for something called Pinup Noir 2. I dusted off my Chandler/Lovecraft idea (never throw story ideas away!), threw in a slinky blonde bombshell and sent it in as "The Doll with the Peekaboo Bangs." Raconteur bought the story (my first sale with them) and published in not in Volume 2 but in Pinup Noir 3.
The rooftop scene and talking animal didn't make it into that story, but the Soviet spy and his bait shop did, along with other supporting cast members: a crooked cop who hates Our Detective, a interfering Federal agent, and a slumbering Elder God out in the Bay whose very presence corrupts the fair city of San Francisco. Of course, I had to set the story in Frisco's seedy underbelly, home to great noir anti-heroes like Sam Spade and Pat Novak For Hire.
I constructed "Peekaboo" as a series story and soon found the opportunity to write another in the series for Raconteur Press's announced Moggie Noir. I already had the noir, I just needed the moggie. Thus, that talking animal up on the rooftop became a cult-cursed cat.
The result became "The Big Purr,” appearing in Moggie Noir today. Written as a standalone, you don't need to read "The Doll with the Peekaboo Bangs" to enjoy "Purr” (or vice versa) but I hope you'll pick up both.
And while you’re reading both of those, I'll be busy thinking up a Moggie Noir 2 tale.
Lee Allred's prose fiction has appeared in Asimov's SF as well as dozens and dozens of anthologies and various other fiction venues. He's also scripted for DC (Batman '66), Marvel (Fantastic Four), IDW (Dick Tracy), and Image Comics (Madman Atomic Comics).
Congrats!