Thursday, July 10, 2008

Pet noir?

Just heard that my short story, "Dumb Beasts," has been accepted for Deadfall: Crime Stories by New England Authors, to be published in November by Level Best Books, a multiple-award-winning small publisher up here in New England. I'm tremendously excited for multiple reasons.

For starters, stories from Level Best's last anthology, Still Waters, have raked in several awards, so I know I'm in fabulous company. And... while I was re-reading my story, I realized that I might have a germ of a new novel. "Dumb Beasts" features a pet psychic who "hears" animals' thoughts – and this helps her realize a murder has been committed. The animals don't talk to her like we talk to each other; they only note what is important to them, in ways true to their species. But my heroine has always been better with animals than with people, so she catches on pretty quick.

I'm now toying with a larger story along these same lines. I want to be true to the animals, and give readers a thrill, too. When I sent "Dumb Beasts" in, I described it as "pet noir." What do you think?

7 comments:

DebGrabien said...

Oooh, nice idea! Will email further thought...

Karen Olson said...

Totally pet noir. Love the idea. Congrats on the acceptance!!!

Caroline said...

Pet Noir! I want a t-shirt that is festooned with that!

Clea Simon said...

Thanks, folks. God, don't you wish that you could write faster? (Karen Olson is an inspiration on that front.)

Anonymous said...

Pet Noir is brilliant and beautiful and so sophisticated. Chris

Anonymous said...

Pet Noir is brilliant and beautiful and so sophisticated. Chris

Anonymous said...

I absolutely love the phrase "pet noir"! I hope more authors pick up on the idea and pen their stories. You could edit an entire anthology. I'd be first in line to buy it!

Sandie