Midnight Schemers: Checking Out at the Live Free or Die Motel

A warm welcome to Debra Bliss Saenger, one of the 22 authors in the Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers anthology. She’s visiting today to share her inspiration and plot moves and manoeuvres in her short story “Checking Out at the Live Free or Die Motel.” Take it away, Debra:

Planted elsewhere, my New England roots still run deep. Although I moved for work to Hawaii, then to the Southeast, and finally back up the East coast to Virginia, my thoughts turned to that region. While brainstorming ideas for Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers, my initial thought was the setting. In the mountains. In New Hampshire. That venue resonated.

Tucked into the base of one of those mountains, a few of my distant relatives had managed an inn. It needed repairs and more guests. Having helped them over several holidays to cook for guests and then clean the rooms, the seeds of a story started.

My short story, “Checking Out at the Live Free or Die Motel,” now had a place—a setting. I named the motel after New Hampshire’s motto. Next, it needed a plot, characters, conflict, and a theme. All within a story arc. Pulling from my experiences there, ideas swirled in my brain during the day and in my dreams at night.

It was time to formalize the story. It was time to sit at the computer, look at my scritch-scratches on notepads strategically placed throughout the house, and begin writing.

I needed a plot. But the characters spoke to me first.

My characters developed from the multiple personas I met in my setting. The main character, Connor Fisk, was a compilation of law enforcement figures. My sister-in-law’s sister’s fiancé (whew!) was a state trooper. A neighbor down the street, a deputy sheriff, with a county car in his driveway. A friend of a friend’s boyfriend who worked on the city’s police force.

But I needed more characters.

Gunter, the motel owner, appeared as an innkeeper my family once knew. The story depicts Gunter’s wife as Elyse, but I based her physical description on a bakery owner. Based in a remote mountain town, her shop produced heavenly bread loaves threaded with three fresh cheeses. We traveled there often to load up on carbohydrates.

Sitting at my computer, I let these imaginary characters sit and talk to me. They developed dimension, motives, and means. There were innocent bystanders, darker motives, moral ambiguity, and conflict to resolve. The characters jelled.

The plot developed further. A conflict of motives and means ensued, and a theme emerged. Swirling through my brain during the day and in my dreams at night, the story refined its shape. There needed to be a crime. Was it suicide or possibly murder? Or maybe both? With that muddled concept, the tale unfolded with unrequited love (or was it obsession?) and selfish motives. Greed and a desire for a better life. And the tedium of life in the smallest of towns.

Now grounded in my imagination, all those elements rumbled across the page. How was the narrative to end? Once my characters spoke to me, the story unwound, and the path toward the ending grew clearer. Time to complete the story arc.

My random afternoon hikes helped. An epiphany hit me as I rounded the corner toward home with my dog, Snap. (Her sister, a reddish-haired stray, goes by Ginger.) A concept of an ending twist made sense. Edited and polished, the story typed itself: “The End.”

Debra Bliss Saenger’s writing and publishing hats include print and digital editor, journalist, marketing professional, English teacher, and public television director. She enjoys writing fiction and poetry as a Sisters in Crime, Short Mystery Fiction Society, Poetry Society of Virginia, and Arlington Writer’s Group member. Her short stories and poetry can be found in print and online publications, including literary journals. She lives in Northern Virginia with her family and a fetching rescue dog. Find her at dblisssaenger.com.