Tuesday, July 14, 2020

A Recurring Character Who Demands to Be Heard by KM Rockwood

Sometimes a fictional character pops into my head and demands to present a story. It can be a brand-new character, but it’s frequently someone with whom I have dealt before.

Miss Agnes Dorothea Grayling is one of those characters. She is an elderly spinster who lives with her black cat Arabella in a deteriorating Victorian mansion in Middle Falls. The once-prosperous riverside town in the Appalachians has lost industry and population. Many of the fine homes that once belonged to the owners of local businesses have been subdivided into apartments.

When Miss Grayling insists the time has come for her to tell a story, her backstory is already complete
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She doesn’t realize it, but time has passed Miss Grayling by. She has lived in this house her entire life. Since she never married, her father assumed responsibility for her well-being, as befits a lady of her generation and standing. The family fortune is managed by an attorney who handles all the bills, from taxes to the monthly bill from the local grocery store. He is the grandson—or is it the great grandson?—of her father’s original attorney.

Although Miss Grayling is aware that some things in her home need attention—indeed, her house has been cited for building code violations—she sees no urgency in addressing these issues. She maintains a list of items that need attention, but never quite manages to deal with any of them.

Miss Grayling wants everything in her life to remain exactly the way it has always been. She has no tolerance for “progress,” which in her mind leads only to chaos and lowered standards.

She feels obliged to uphold her standards, whether it’s sipping her brewed tea from a proper cup and saucer—none of these clumsy mugs that one might expect an Irish laborer to use—to accepting responsibility of the well-to-do to assist those less fortunate. She does not believe in dealing with difficulties by half-measures. Final solutions are more appropriate. And so where she can, she eliminates the problem.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the contributors to Writers Who Kill post short stories as a gift to our readers. Over the years, Miss Grayling has graciously agreed to appear in two of those stories. The links are below.

Miss Grayling will also make an appearance in the next Chesapeake Crimes anthology, Invitation to Murder, produced by the Chesapeake Chapter of SinC.


8 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the story in Invitation to Murder. Looking forward to reading it.

    I remember Miss Grayling from last year's Christmas stories. She is a delightful character and as a baby boomer, one I remember encountering in my little town. There was always the elderly spinster who terrified the kids but bought Girl Scout Cookies and handed out home baked goodies at Halloween, after the lecture about how in her day, children were not allowed to beg door-to-door.

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  2. A new Miss Grayling story! What a great character.

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  3. Recurring characters appeal to readers, particularly in mysteries. My new Kim Reynolds mystery BLOOD FAMILY is the 5th novel in a series which has proved popular. Our recurring characters become very read to us.

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  4. Kait, yes, that's exactly a Miss Grayling character.

    Margaret, I hope you enjoy the anthology.

    Jacqueline, it is always comforting to find an "old friend" when you start reading. I hope the new Kim Reynolds mystery sells well for you.

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  5. Miss Grayling sounds awesome! I'm so glad you found her.

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  6. More like Miss Grayling found me, I think.

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  7. I love recurring characters, and Miss Grayling is a pip. Can't wait to see what she has up her sleeve in the new anthology.

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  8. More of the same. Devising a final solution to troublesome problems that come her way.

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