One of the highlights of publishing an anthology is the opportunity to read submissions from some of my favorite storytellers. Such is the case with Joseph S. Walker, who has a story in both Heartbreaks & Half-truths and Moonlight & Misadventure. At the end of this post, I’ve included the opening paragraph from ‘Crown Jewel,’ the first story in Moonlight, but for now, here’s Joseph with his behind-the-scenes look on what he aims for (hint: It’s working for him). Take it away, Joseph.

Why do you write?

Every writer probably has several answers. We write because we feel compelled, because it’s fun, because we hope it will be rewarding. But we also write—or at least, I also write—in hopes of having a particular kind of impact on the reader.

For example (and spoilers ahoy).

I love Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, but I’ve never entirely forgiven Jackson for omitting my favorite moment from Tolkien’s trilogy. At the Council of Elrond, after it has been decided that the ring must be taken to Mordor and destroyed, the representatives of several races are sitting around gloomily wondering how this can be done. Then Bilbo—tiny, aged Bilbo—steps forward to say that he knows what they’re all hinting at and, fine, if someone will just be kind enough to point the way, he will take it. Some in the circle laugh, but Bilbo is entirely sincere, and his offer is received gravely by those who know him.

Forty years after I first read that passage, I can remember almost every detail about it. It’s one fleeting moment in an epic tale, but in that moment Professor Tolkien has seized a part of my imagination that can never be taken from him.

Another, more recent example. A few months ago, I watched the 1972 film Fat City, directed by John Huston, screenplay by Leonard Gardner (based on his own novel). The film centers on two undercard boxers in Stockton, California, one (Tully, played by Stacy Keach) on his way down, the other (Munger, played by Jeff Bridges) on his way up.

Late in the film, Tully’s trainer reluctantly accepts an offer for Tully to fight Lucero (Sixto Rodriguez), a tough, veteran Mexican boxer. Lucero arrives in town on a bus, dressed formally in a three-piece suit. He goes alone to his hotel, where we see he has blood in his urine. After a tough fight in which both men are knocked down, he loses to Tully. At the arena’s exit, Tully, still dazed, celebrates with his friends. After they leave, Lucero comes out of the dressing room, back in his suit, carrying his suitcase. He walks out alone into the night.

I don’t think Lucero has a single line of dialogue in the film, aside from mumbled exchanges with his cornermen. I’m sure, however, that he will stick in my mind long after the rest of the film has become more a vague impression than a memory. To me, there is not just a character but an entire history, an entire world, in the details with which this character is sketched. We see how the careful formality of his bearing is his fragile shelter against the pain and loneliness of the life he has led. To a certain extent this arises from direction and performance, but the voice of the writer is clearly here as well. I very much now want to read Gardner’s original novel, to see how this Lucero was translated from the original, but in a way that doesn’t matter. The film’s Lucero will not leave me.

I could offer a hundred more examples, but these are enough to illustrate the thing I most hope for as a writer. It’s to create a moment that will stick with the reader for a long time, maybe even for as long as I’ll remember Bilbo at the council and Lucero’s lonely walk through that arena. I guess the catch is this: will I ever know if I have?

Joseph S. Walker lives in Indiana and teaches college literature and composition courses. His short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, Tough, and a number of other magazines and anthologies. He has been nominated for the Edgar Award and the Derringer Award, and has won the Bill Crider Prize for Short Fiction and the Al Blanchard Award. Follow him on Twitter @JSWalkerAuthor or find him at https://jsw47408.wixsite.com/website.

And now, the beginning of ‘Crown Jewel.’

Given a choice, Keenan Beech wouldn’t have committed his first felony on the night of a full moon. He particularly would not have picked a night just after a big snowfall, when the lunar glow on the unbroken whiteness of the fields turned night into another day. Driving toward his brother’s ramshackle house, out in the endless miles of flat, glowing farmland surrounding town, Keenan felt exposed. Vulnerable. The moon was an eye, hanging in space to witness his crime, and he was an ant, dashing across a clean kitchen floor, hoping to reach shelter before some karmic boot came down on him. Hard.

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

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