The Ultimate Bounty Hunter

Sherry: With any luck, I’m going to be on a plane today flying to Maine to spend the weekend with the Wickeds!

I’m so thrilled to have my humorous short story “The Ultimate Bounty Hunter” in the Three Strikes—You’re Dead anthology edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley. I wrote the story two and a half years ago. Originally, Barb Goffman thought about putting together an anthology set around Halloween, and I started writing my story.

I’m not exactly sure where my main character, Elsbeth, came from. Maybe I’d just re-read one of the Janet Evanovich books or maybe I’ve always just wanted to write about a bounty hunter. I originally thought about setting my story in Virginia but when I looked up what it took to be a bounty hunter here, there were too many requirements. I checked Massachusetts and voila, almost anyone can decide to be a bounty hunter.

I also wanted Elsbeth to have a complicated family so gave her a mother who is a high-powered defense lawyer and a deadbeat dad who only contacts Elsbeth when he needs money. Both come in to play in the story.

The set up for the story is that Elsbeth has been trying to capture a fugitive who didn’t show up for his court appointment. When things go horribly wrong on Halloween night, Elsbeth realizes a bad guy might be after her.

Barb eventually decided not to do the Halloween-themed anthology because she didn’t have time. However, she mentioned the sports-themed anthology that she was putting together with Donna and Marcia. It meant adding a sport to the story. I didn’t want to use one of the more familiar sports and I’d written about Ultimate in an early Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery before I’d ever watched a game. Since then, my husband and I have attended several Ultimate Frisbee tournaments. It’s an exciting.

While I often struggle with figuring out titles, this one was a no brainer! There are nods to the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich which Elsbeth loves. I have to thank Stacy Woodson for editing my story before I turned it in. And to Jono Keyes who plays Ultimate Frisbee for the Australian national team. I ran my scenario by him, and he said it would work. Any errors with the game are totally mine.

Also having a story in an anthology along with all of these great authors is humbling: Alan Orloff, F. J. Talley, Kathryn Prater Bomey, Adam Meyer, Rosalie Spielman, William Ade, Maddi Davidson, Shannon Taft, Robin Templeton, Lynne Ewing, Barb Goffman, Joseph S. Walker, and Smita Harish Jain.

Readers: I love reading short stories right before I go to bed. Do you have a favorite time to read them?