I’d already received a fair number of submissions for Moonlight & Misadventure when Elizabeth Elwood’s short story popped into my Inbox. I’d had a few definite “no’s” and a handful of “maybe’s,” but, nothing that called “This has to be in the anthology” to me. And then I read ‘Ill Met By Moonlight, Proud Miss Dolmas,’ and I knew this story had to be included in the collection. Why? Because the “voice” was so authentic. I realize, now, that authenticity came from Elizabeth’s own truths…and I especially love how she was able to “get even” all these years later. The first paragraph of her story is included at the end of this post, but now, here’s Elizabeth, with the story behind the story:
When I saw the title, Moonlight and Misadventure, the first thing that came to mind was a quote from William Shakespeare: “Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.” After all, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the epitome of moonlight and misadventure—and having thought of the play, I immediately thought back to the time I spent as a high-school drama teacher. What better subject for a mystery story to fit the theme!
I had many great memories to inspire the plot. One was slipped in early in the story. I really did have a Principal who had my studio theatre dismantled because a maintenance supervisor complained that it had not been built with union labour. It was so satisfying to sneak that tidbit in: how, with the help of the Math teacher who taught on the floor below my English room, I filed a grievance and got the theatre restored. However, the main conflict in the story arose from differences in philosophy of education. When I began teaching in the seventies, I was hired as an English teacher, but, because of my stage experience, was assigned drama classes. Traditionally, these had been held in an ancient portable unit where the noise level was least likely to intrude on academic classes. Drama classes in recent years had been improv sessions where students were encouraged to let it all out as exuberantly as possible.
I resolved to change that. If I had to teach drama, students were going to study stagecraft and voice projection, and what’s more, they were going to learn lines. The students rose to the challenge, and before the year was out, my enthusiastic troupe was itching to attempt a full-length production. Rather than use the stage in the gym, with its poor acoustics and lack of ambience, I asked the principal if we could convert our portable into a studio theatre where I could double-cast plays, mount longer runs and provide more opportunities for students to showcase their talents. Having got the okay, we scrounged the necessary equipment, and with help from janitors and shop teachers, converted the portable into a fifty-seat studio theatre. An exciting two years followed and the program was a great success.
However, when a new Principal arrived the following year, he, like Miss Dolmas, was all for free-expression and questioned my structured classes. Also, like Miss Dolmas, he was gone within the year, but not in the drastic fashion depicted in my story. And, to be fair, before he left, he changed his tune and admitted that he was impressed with our program. Still, the memory of that initial confrontation gave me the stimulus for the “misadventure” in my plot. So thank you, Moonlight and Misadventure. It was great fun being able to relive those experiences in my story. Fiction is always full of truths, and it’s deliciously satisfying to use those moments to drive a plot.
Oh, and one point that didn’t make it into the story, though I relished the memory all the same: The Math teacher who advised me to file a grievance—he and I will be celebrating our 45th wedding anniversary this December.
A former high-school English and drama teacher, Elizabeth Elwood spent many years performing with Lower Mainland music and theater groups and singing in the Vancouver Opera chorus. Having turned her talents to writing and design, she created twenty marionette musicals for Elwoodettes Marionettes and has written four plays that have entertained audiences in both Canada and the United States. She is the author of six books in the Beary Mystery Series; her short stories have been featured in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Malice Domestic’s 2020 Anthology, Mystery Most Theatrical. Elizabeth is a member of Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime National and Canada West Chapter. Find her at www.elihuentertainment.com
And now, the beginning of ‘Ill Met By Moonlight, Proud Miss Dolmas’:
In my forty years as an English and drama teacher, I have never had a problem with keeping high school principals in their place, but in that blissful unaware-of-what-was-to-come-September before the pandemic took over the world, one appeared who tested my patience to the limit. Half my age, drop-dead gorgeous if it hadn’t been for the predatory look in her baby blue eyes, and steeped in current mores of jargon, political correctness, and administrative protocols, Martha Dolmas was determined to root out any staff members who disagreed with her ideology. Furthermore, she considered herself the champion of those young people of today who equate the term, safe—which, in my day, meant being free from the prospect of physical danger—with not being criticized or forced to listen to anything they don’t want to hear.
Moonlight & Misadventure is now available for pre-order in e-book and trade paperback. Release date is June 18th.
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