With the upcoming June 18th release of Moonlight & Misadventure: 20 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, I’ve asked the authors in the anthology to share a Behind the Scenes glimpse into their writing life, should they wish to do so. I’ll also be including the opening paragraph of their story in the collection at the end of the post.

First up is Tracy Falenwolfe, who has a story in both Heartbreaks & Half-truths and Moonlight & Misadventure. And now, without further ado, here’s Tracy:

Avoiding writing is part of my creative process. Sounds better than saying I procrastinate, doesn’t it? Ideas don’t come to me while I’m staring at a blank screen. Sometimes getting out of the house works, which is how I found myself walking around a home improvement store with my kids while the deadline for a short crime story loomed.

For the record, home improvement stores bore me silly. When I was a kid dragged into one by my father, I enjoyed ringing all the doorbells, or testing out the storm doors, but my kids get embarrassed when I do that now.

On this particular trip, I noticed that every time I stopped to look at something the same woman was right next to me. My first thought? Maybe she was working on her deck, too. Glancing into her cart, I spied a shovel, some rope, a bag of plastic zip ties, and a roll of duct tape. Uh oh.

I got my younger son’s attention, and cut my eyes to the woman’s cart. My son took a look and shrugged. When the woman walked away I whispered, “Did you see what was in her cart?”

My son rolled his eyes. “Mom.”

We had a few more items to grab, and the woman stayed with us every step of the way. I kept my eye on her, but she ignored me, looking at items she eventually decided not to buy. I wondered what to do. Call the police? Alert security?

I wasn’t worried about my kids or myself. My sons look like my security detail. They are both adults. The short one is six-three, and their natural scowls match mine. If this woman was looking to abduct someone from the store, there were much easier targets. But, what about her other potential victims?

I pulled a U-turn with my cart and dragged my kids to the plumbing supplies. “Listen,” I said. “That woman has got to be up to something.”

“Mom, stop,” my older son said.

“But she had zip ties and duct tape.”

“Just stop.”

As we stood there, the woman walked up behind us and faked looking at a piece of PVC pipe that I knew she wasn’t going to buy. I opened my mouth, but my older son shook his head. My younger son texted me. “Not everything is part of a murder mystery.”

Fine. I marched past the sociopath and went to the register. Flanked by my glowering security detail, I paid for my chain saw sharpener, my big bag of lime, and my roll of heavy-duty trash bags, and I got out of there.

Out in the parking lot, I thought I saw the woman pointing at me while she spoke to the store manager. Whew. Someone else must have been concerned enough to say something. I was glad, because I didn’t really have time to get involved. I had to get home and come up with an idea for a short story.

Since winning the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award in 2014, Tracy Falenwolfe’s stories have appeared in over a dozen publications including Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Spinetingler Magazine, Flash Bang Mysteries, Crimson Streets, and several Chicken Soup for the Soul volumes. Tracy lives in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley with her husband and sons. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Find her at https://www.tracyfalenwolfe.com/

And now, the opening paragraph to ‘Cereus Thinking,’ Tracy’s story in Moonlight & Misadventure

It started with a Barbie doll. The kind that wore a frilly dress and a tiara that made her look like a theme park princess. I took it from a girl named Holly and hid it in the laundry room in dryer number four, which had been out of order for two years. For the rest of their stay at the campground, Holly’s parents thought she’d dropped the doll off our fishing dock and had ridden the eight-year-old about how much money she’d tossed into the ocean. I didn’t bother to point out Manatee Playground Campsite was on the Indian River, and not the ocean, since I knew Barbie wasn’t in either body of water.

Moonlight & Misadventure is now available for pre-order in e-book format (trade paperback to follow). Release date is June 18th.

Click here to find it at your favorite retailer.