WHERE DO YOUR STORY IDEAS COME FROM? March 10, 2025

            My latest story, “My Hand to God,” is now available in the anthology, CRIMEUCOPIA: Chicka-Chicka Boomba! The stories in this volume are all written by women (hence, the Chick in the title). If you asked me where the idea for this particular story came from, here’s what I would tell you.

Idea number one came from a true story about my maternal grandmother. She arrived at Ellis Island after a harrowing trip in steerage from Poland. Or maybe Russia. When asked where she came from, her reply was always, “Minsk. Pinsk. What difference does it make?” She and my grandfather had eight children. During the Depression, his eyesight failed, and their survival was up to grandma. With her fractured Yiddish/English, she started a small grocery store in Newark, New Jersey, to make sure her family would always have food.

The store was across the street from a social club, the informal headquarters for mobster Longie Zwillman. Crime on the street was unheard of. Everyone knew the neighborhood was under Longie’s protection.

Well, almost everyone. One day, grandma’s grocery was broken into. Food was stolen and damage done. Longie was furious. He insisted on giving grandma money to make up for her losses and promised her he would take care of the culprit. Rumor had it that he did.

The second idea came from a conversation I overheard one day when I was sitting at my desk with the window open. Two teenagers walked past, and I could hear their conversation clearly. Naturally, I wrote it down before I could forget what they said.

Teen 1: “I couldn’t believe it. He got shot. Right next to me. I could’a been killed.”

Teen 2: “No shit!”

Teen 3: “If I hadn’t of bent down, he’d a blown my head off.”

For reasons I can’t explain, those two incidents came together in my mind to create “My Hand to God.” I wish inspiration would always be so close at hand.