The Mary Roberts Rinehart Pittsburgh chapter of Sisters in Crime recently announced an open call for their next anthology titled: “Gold Bridges, Dark Rivers.” Oddly, I’ve never written anything set in my hometown, so I sharpened my pencil and got down to it.
Pittsburgh
has so many idiosyncrasies I didn’t know which one to pick. The most glaringly obvious one is Pittsburghese, our local dialect, which is grammatically
incomprehensible, impossible to decipher if you’re not already fluent, and sort
of like having a secret insider handshake. When two Pittsburghers meet and slip
into it, you know they’re not jagoffs.
Here’s
a quick primer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OHGYNud5Go
Since I
wanted to write a story that readers could actually comprehend, I decided to
skip that one.
Next
was some consideration on how to connect with readers. Food is always a good emotional
hook – just look at the plethora of mysteries that include recipes in their
back pages. Then came the difficulty of explaining pierogies (delicious usually
potato and cheese filled dumplings), haluski (cabbage and noodles), a
traditional Pittsburgh grilled salad (mixed greens with ranch dressing topped
by French fries), or a Primanti Brothers corned beef sandwich that includes a
fried egg.
Nope. I
began to panic. Sports teams? The Stillers, the Buccos, or the Pens? What topic
could I possibly use to lure readers into being curious about my native land?
Going
nuclear, I settled on Three Rivers, ground zero and where Pittsburgh began.
In Colonial
American times, George Washington recommended using the Forks of the Ohio River
as a strategic military location. In 1803 Lewis and Clark floated past The Point
when they launched their expedition, but local history goes way beyond that. Prehistoric
Indigenous people heaped a mound at nearby McKee’s Rocks which existed until
the powers that be bulldozed it to make way for a cement plant.
Don’t
get me started. The way we casually discard our history makes me cross my eyes
and slap my forehead. Wait a second. There’s a hook I’m passionate about.
Magically, the prologue from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet popped into
mind:
“Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;”
Inspired,
I started to noodle around with the idea of two star-crossed lovers living on
opposite Ohio riverbanks and whose families were historic enemies. That gave me
the story’s base, the framework to build from, and my short story “Sacred
Drums” was born.
The
anthology’s projected publication date is year-end 2026. I hope you’ll look for
it. Meanwhile, if you’d like to read my other free read short fiction, they’re
posted on my website: https://www.reedmenow.com/short-fiction.
Enjoy
and let me know what you think!
