November 2023

I’m thrilled that my story “Real Courage” has been published in issue 14 of Black Cat Mystery Magazine, which is now available from Amazon in paper form and ebook form and from Barnes & Noble in ebookform. Also, for a limited time, you can read the story here on my website. Just click here or click on the “Real Courage” tab.

“Real Courage” is a story about a seemingly insignificant incident that winds up affecting many lives over many years. It’s told linearly from four points of view, starting with teen Elise in 1983, who accidentally breaks the violin of the most popular girl in school, losing all her friends in the process. We fast-forward to a scene more than thirty years later, in which Elise is trying to impress upon her eleven-year-old son, Connor, the importance of loyalty and compassion. She asks him to promise to always help Zoe, the socially awkward girl who lives next door. He makes that promise. We then fast-forward four years. Connor and Zoe are at an unsupervised party. A crime is committed. Mistakes are made. The rest of the story is told from Connor’s dads perspective and then from Zoe’s. This is a story about good intentions, moral quandaries, questionable judgment, unintended consequences, and courage. I hope you’ll give it a read.