It’s a Mystery!

This year for school, I tried my hand at writing a mystery. When we started our study of the mystery and thriller genres last semester, I wanted to challenge myself to lean into the mystery side of storytelling. I don’t read many mysteries, and I’ve never written one, so I thought it would be good to push myself. The inspiration for this particular story came from a couple of different places…

First, I’ve been obsessed with the Lizzie Borden case since I visited the museum a few years ago. Yes, that Lizzie Borden, the one who took an axe and gave her father forty whacks, according to the ghoulish, yet popular, childhood rhyme. But the crime really happened just about an hour away from my own hometown, and the museum does an incredibly good job of preserving the facts while also giving guests the creepy experience of wandering through the well-preserved home of the ill-fated Borden family. I highly recommend a visit if you’re in the area and true crime is your jam.

A graphic on social media stating, “they didn’t burn witches, they burned women,” served as the second piece of inspiration for my mystery story. Growing up in New England and having taken many a field trip to Salem, MA, the quote resonated. The Borden murders and the Salem witch trials took place almost exactly two centuries apart, so I had to pick a time period and focus on getting the details for that setting right as much as possible. I ended up choosing to set the stage in Salem twenty-five years after the witch trials, but I used a particular legal element from the Lizzie Borden case to help drive the plot.

After workshopping the story, I submitted it to an anthology collection, and it was accepted. Detectives, Sleuths, and Nosy Neighbors: Dying for an Answer released earlier this month, and I must say, holding a copy of a new book, fresh off the presses and featuring a story I’ve written, really never gets old. Maybe you’ll want to check it out!