Writing for theme anthologies reminds me of what I liked to do best in school. When the teacher assigned us to write about a particular subject, I took perverse enjoyment in twisting the subject as far out of shape as I could and writing along the edge of it. I wanted to write something completely different from anything anyone else was doing. While that wasn't the height of literary aspiration, I suppose, it has stood me in good stead for the current market where anthologies are mostly based around themes "write about monsters, witches, the occult, shape shifters" etc.
This collection consists of stories I wrote for such anthologies. However, each story also has another inspiration than a simple theme, and for the benefit of those people who are always asking where writers get their ideas, I thought I might share those inspirations here.
Mummies of the Motorway and Scarborough Fair were both inspired originally by my own name, which indicates that I had a paternal ancestor who came from a seaside resort in England. I spent a few days in the town soaking up all the atmosphere I could and it serves as the background for both stories. Mummies of the Motorway was also inspired by stories of the disrespectful treatment the Egyptian dead received in Victorian and turn of the century England and by the personalities of my niece and nephew, with whom I had just been fortunate enough to spend some time. Scarborough Fair took its inspiration not only from the very old song whose most recent version involves my name and the name of the town where a hiring fair did indeed take place in Medieval times, but also from the Agatha Christie stories where the English go on "hols" and "take the waters" which is the sort of town Scarborough was in its heyday.
Ellery Queen once wrote that when writers get together they talk about their taxes. In my experience, authors talk about their animal friends and the veterinarians who keep them healthy. When my friend Carole Nelson Douglas, author of the Midnight Louie series, requested an animal detective story, I wanted to do one for my recently deceased cat friend of 20 years, Mustard. When I had to have Mustard put to sleep because he was in great pain from being poisoned, I was very moved something said to me by Jeannette, Dr. Tony the vet's wife and herself a wildlife rescuer. She said that Mustard would not be left alone, but would be laid in a nice little box with candles and incense around him and someone staying nearby. Also, a man I had been seeing had turned out to be a career criminal who was nevertheless very good with animals.
Whirlwinds comes from my interest in folklore. I had just completed The Godmother's Web, a novel set in the Hopi Partitioned Lands in the middle of the Navajo reservation. The Navajo beliefs about the wind and whirlwinds in particular were fresh in my mind, and I was pleased to find an Irish belief that corresponded.
Worse Than the Curse and The Invisible Woman's Clever Disguise were both informed by my experiences as a once voluptuous sweet young thing turned, almost overnight, into an all too sturdy and stout middle aged woman (when did that happen?).
Boon Companion was originally written for an anthology about familiars, and I think it is a good example of that. However, the editor felt it fit better in an anthology on vengeance, although the vengeance is more of a "what goes around comes around" nature. My mother told me about the girlfriend (now wife) of my cousin's son who lost her mother and was promptly set upon by rampaging relatives who tried to take everything her mother left away from her. In that case the girl had my cousin to help her. In my story, it's a cat.
Long Tome Coming Home was written for Shadows of the Wall an anthology edited by Byron Tetrick. I wrote about my own experiences in Vietnam in my novel, Healer's War. However, my friend and sometimes muse, a fellow Vietnam vet named Rick Reaser, had some hair-raising combat experience in Nam and has the names of many fallen friends on the Wall. I asked Rick to co-author a story with me. Although Rick doesn't write, he is one of the best extemporaneous storytellers I've ever met. We tossed ideas back and forth, they mutated as I wrote them down, read them to Rick, he suggested things, I made counter-suggestions, and so forth until the story was complete.
Mu Mao and the Court Oracle took its inspiration not only from a minor character in Last Refuge, my post-apocalyptic novel set in Tibet, but also from an experience I had at the animal shelter. The elderly inconsolable cat whose dying master wanted it to find a home broke my heart. That cat never did find a home but in my stories, I get to control things so they come out somewhat better.
Probably the only story that actually took most of its inspiration from the title of the anthology was the one I wrote for Jody Lynn Nye's Don't Forget Your Spacesuit, Dear. It was supposed to be about bold space explorers and the things their mothers told them. My mom was very big on the clean and intact underwear, hence my story.
A Rare Breed, written for Peter Beagle and Janet Berliner Gluckman's Immortal Unicorn anthology, takes place in the town where I live and has the town's New Age er—sensibility—at its heart. It also has the unicorn's magic horn healing a heart singed by an old flame.
So that's where I got my ideas. I hope you'll enjoy what I did with them.
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough