How Sentimental Are You?

 JENN McKINLAY: Anyone who has read my input over the past eight and a half years that I’ve been a Red, knows that one of my favorite things in life is to throw things out. Old clothes? Good will. Old art? Same. Old jewelry? Give it away. Anything broken beyond repair (I am a big repurpose and recycle person) goes to the dump. Thanks for your service and Adios!

I just don’t like stuff and I don’t keep things…unless they have sentimental value and then I slam into the brick wall of nostalgia and I just can’t. Photographs of old boyfriends? Still have them (in an album in a closet somewhere but I still have them). A granny square sweater my grandmother made for me in 1972 when I was a wee tot? Yup, I still have it on a shelf in the top of my closet. Why? It doesn’t even fit anymore! Obviously. Why can’t I unravel it and repurpose the yarn? I just can’t.

I thought I was a stoic/sentimental sort. I keep some things but not all. So imagine my surprise when I observed a recent breakup between a Hooligan and his Plus One and he deleted everything that was digital – texts, pictures, videos, and any connections through social media gone. Physical gifts, tchotchkes, cards, and print photos in an album were all tossed in the dumpster. 

He had me stand witness to the purge and I’m not exaggerating when I say I started to sweat and felt a little queasy. I asked “Don’t you want to keep anything to remember the good times?” His answer: “No.” I thought it was because he was a dude so I asked the other Hooligan’s Plus One (who was also an observer of the purge) if she’d tossed everything from former relationships and she said, “Yes, absolutely. That stuff just makes you sad.”

Y’all, I was so surprised I’m still processing. 

So, tell me, do you purge everything from relationships - romantic or otherwise - when they end badly? Or do you hang onto the mug you bought on the road trip, the baseball cap at the ballgame, and such to remember the moment shared with a little nostalgia? Like, seriously, do I really have to throw out the skull earring that belonged to my punk rock boyfriend in 1989? Because, yes, I still have it. 

RHYS BOWEN: My romances were back in the days when we wrote letters to each other so I had kept all the letters my boyfriend had written to me. When I had finally moved on I ceremonially burned them. Now I wished I’d kept them as it wasn’t an acrimonious break up and I would have enjoyed remembering good times together.  I don’t think I’ve kept anything sentimental from any former romances, but remember I moved to Australia and only took the minimum with me!

LUCY BURDETTE: Not so much on the old romances, but I do have boxes of letters I can’t throw out. Lots of them were sent to my grandparents from my dad when he was in the army. I have tons of old photos too that I keep meaning to organize when I have the time. HA! And letters and cards from many people over the years. It’s sad to me that people send greetings and notes by email or text–they’re too easy to lose or delete. What about our future memoirists? Where will they find their material?

HALLIE EPHRON: No old letters from ex-Xes here, either. I have a wonderful book of photographs of me and my high school, sweetheart. He was the nicest guy, a lot older than me, but not “the one.” My high school home life was a disaster and he kept me sane.

The bad exes weren’t writers, and maybe that should’ve been the tip-off that they weren’t for me. Jerry, of course, wooed me with cartoons and I saved all of them.

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  I’ve never been particularly sentimental about saving mementos from relationships, but I’ve never done a slash-and-burn, either. I think, maybe, somewhere, I still have the airmail letters my ex wrote me when he was in Scotland and I was still in Texas. If I ever turn them up, I will definitely save them. (I don’t even want to contemplate the boxes of photos in my office closet…”)

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Such a great question. I have too many mugs and t-shirts, those are the irresistible things for me at conventional and bookstores. (Mugs can be difficult, because they are impossible to pack.) For the past 20 years, I have kept my name badge from every event I’ve attended, and it’s kinda wonderful to see the descriptions under my name go from “debut author” and “first time” to “Keynote speaker” and “Guest of honor.” (The backs of TWO office chairs are filled with them–I cannot even imagine counting them.) And I have a bottle of wine that Sue Grafton gave me. Keeping forever. 

Love letters, no, I have maybe…two. And some various other pivotal paperwork. And photos, sure. But I rarely look at any of it.  And as for digital, my computer is full of stuff I have no idea is there.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: You know, this makes me realize I’m not one to collect or keep mementos in the first place (unlike Ross, who saved every piece of paper from every Bouchercon we ever attended…) I do have love letters, somewhere, from both Ross and prior beaus. I figured I’d add a codicil to my will stating they can be only be read by my grandchildren after they’ve turned twenty-five. They’ll think my flaming youth is interesting and historical, not horrifying.

Otherwise, the only sentimental items I can’t get rid of are some personal things Ross cherished and a few - few! - pieces related to my children. I grew up in the military, and of necessity my mother purged whenever we moved, and I suspect I got her practicality.

How about you, Readers? Are you a sentimental sort or not so much?

Lovers and Losers

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: His name was Mark Shaw. He was in the same biology class as I was. It was 1965, or so. And he was—so cute. And he loved cars. Cars. I didn’t care at all about cars, but okay. I tried to figure out some common ground for the casual conversation that would lead him to see how perfect I was for him.

So I channeled a Beach Boys song—what’s a little deuce coupe? I remember asking him. What’s four speed duo quad positraction 409?

He told me. And then he asked someone else out. I have to say that he crosses my mind from time to time. And, talking to the lovely and dear pal (and SinC Guppy, yay!)  Judy Penz Sheluk, I learn I am not alone.

Heartbreaks and Half-truths

Judy Penz Sheluk

I’ll admit it, I’ve been dumped, and on more than one occasion. The first time was just before grade eight graduation, when my prom date dropped me after I cut my waist-length hair into a “windswept bob.” Admittedly, the hairdo was a disaster, and not only because I’d gone to my mom’s hairdresser (whose idea of fashionable was perm it and roll it). I have wavy, unruly hair, which tends to frizz, and this was back in the day without flat irons and styling products.

 But my father had laid down the law: Cut my hair short so that people could see my earrings, or leave it long and go pierceless. I suspect he never believed I’d do it, but off it went. I really wanted pierced ears.

Judy and her hair. 

Next up was my first chaste kiss, grade nine, after our school’s spring music concert (he was shorter than me and had to stand on the curb to kiss me, but I walked on air for weeks).

 Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before he’d set his eyes on a long-legged track and fielder. My best efforts to master hurdles and high jump with two weeks of training failed to impress, and I gave up both sports at the same time I gave up on him.

But getting dumped aside, I was fifteen the first time a boy really broke my heart. With shoulder-length hair, the bottom of his blue jeans frayed to perfection, and a history of changing schools, albeit not entirely by choice, he was the bad boy to my good girl.

And, of course, I fell madly, passionately in love with him.

Years later, he would get an honorable mention in my first published short story, Cleopatra Slippers. What I didn’t mention in that story was the way the boy dumped me without warning.

By phone.

On Valentine’s Day.

For a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl he’d been seeing behind my back. A girl with “experience.”

I wonder, sometimes, if any of the boys mentioned even remember my name. My guess is, probably not. After all, to the best of my knowledge, they aren’t writers, we of the very long memories.

 But thinking of Blue Jean Boy got me thinking about the theme for the second anthology  I wanted to edit  under the Superior Shores Press umbrella: heartbreaks and half-truths.

Coming up with a theme, however, is just the first step in what is actually a very long process. For this collection, a callout was sent out in mid October and thanks to social media, the first anthology published by Superior Shores Press, word spread quickly. By the time the submission deadline of January 15 arrived, I’d received 106 submissions from the US, UK, Scotland, France, Germany, Australia, Argentina, and Canada.

Culling 106 submissions down to a manageable number was a daunting task, but the result is a diverse collection of mystery fiction in which one common thread emerges: Behind every broken heart lies a half-truth.

And behind every half-truth lies a secret.

HANK: Congratulations on the anthology, Judy! And what a fabulous line-up of authors! Wow. In clduing longtime friends of Reds  Kate Flora! James Lincoln Warren! John Floyd!  Steve Liskow! KM Rockwood!  Paula Gail Benson! Fabulous.

How about you, Reds and readers?  Is there a love from your past who did you wrong?

Lovers and losers.
Heartbreaks and Half-truths

Whether it’s 1950s Hollywood, a scientific experiment, or a yard sale in suburbia, the twenty-two authors represented in this collection of mystery and suspense interpret the overarching theme of “heartbreaks and half-truths” in their own inimitable style, where only one thing is certain: Behind every broken heart lies a half-truth.

And behind every half-truth lies a secret.

Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk. Featuring stories by Sharon Hart Addy, Paula Gail Benson, James Blakey, Gustavo Bondoni, Susan Daly, Buzz Dixon, Rhonda Eikamp, Christine Eskilson, Tracy Falenwolfe, Kate Flora, John M. Floyd, J.A. Henderson, Blair Keetch, Steve Liskow, Edward Lodi, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Peggy Rothschild, Joseph S. Walker, James Lincoln Warren, Chris Wheatley and Robb T. White.

Release Date: June 18, 2020, now available for pre-order on Kindle and trade paperback

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