Guest blogger: Stephen D. Rogers talks Shot to Death

We’re trying something new here today with our first guest blogger. Author Stephen D. Rogers is making the rounds to talk about the stories in his new collection, Shot to Death. Rogers has written more than 600 stories and poems, is the head writer at Crime Scene (where viewers solve interactive mysteries) and a popular writing instructor. Shot to Death collects 31 stories of murder and mayhem that are earning him some rave reviews. Here, he talks about the story, “Puzzling.”

“There was only one way to do a puzzle in the Magri house.”
- PUZZLING

So begins one of the 31 stories contained in Shot to Death (ISBN 978-0982589908). Within that beginning lurks the ending to the story and everything that happens between the beginning and the end. Or at least it seems that way to me.

How can there be only one way to do a puzzle? Assuming the statement is illogical, who maintains the fiction and why is this person so obsessed? What would happen if one of the other family members tried to branch out and do a puzzle differently?

The Magri family. While there could be any number of members, only two are required by that first sentence, and thus any more than two would be clutter.

Husband and wife. Parent and child. Siblings. These or any other combination works but there must be some sort of power equality for the story to work.

Equality leaves out children. If we’re talking adults, why does the one who wants to branch out stay in such a stifling atmosphere? Or perhaps the “risk taker” is about to change that, perhaps the party who has always been told what to do and how to do it has decided to move out.

The person who declares that there is only one way to do a puzzle is not someone who welcomes change.

An overbearing husband/father? Why would we have any sympathy? Empathy is certainly possible, but this is not the husband/father’s story. So it’s mother and son. She has already lost her husband and is terrified of now losing her son who stays at home out of a sense of obligation.

Or at least he has been living at home. He’s in love, and determined to leave the nest.

All that remains is the writing.

For a chance to win a signed copy of Shot to Death, click on over to http://www.stephendrogers.com/Win.htm and submit your completed entry.

Then visit the schedule at http://www.stephendrogers.com/Howto.htm
to see how you can march along.

And then come back here to post your comments. Phew.