by Craig Hansen
“What’s that?”
“You ever heard of a stupid game guys play called ‘Marry, Make Love, and Murder?’”
I shook my head, though the name of the game caused my stomach to twist. I leaned closer to the detective. “Tell me.”
“Well, I guess they were playing it when they thought Tim and Mystelle were out of earshot, but Mystelle was in the shadows and decided to listen in. They were doing it with the four of you girls.”
“Four? You mean with Fang included, too?”
“Yeah, this was the night before she disappeared, according to Mystelle. They all took turns, and that was the weird part.”
“What’s that?”
“Not one of them mentioned Fang.”
I nodded, and then broke down, not quite crying, but close to it. Instead, it felt more like depression, a gray fog of it, clouding my mind. What Detective Connor said made sense; Mystelle’s story lined up with what Tuco had revealed to me in the woods.
“So, that made you decide to come back and check on us?”
“That, and about that time, I got a call saying that Mystelle’s replacement, Gwen, hadn’t met up with you all yet, and she was concerned because of the storm and the fact that she didn’t see anyone even walking down the coast toward town. It all combined to make me more than a little concerned.”
I sighed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. It’s just, I wish I’d had better instincts. Like yours. Maybe I could have—”
“Don’t do that to yourself, Shabby. You’re sixteen. Just a teenager.”
“Still. I feel like I messed up, somehow. Like I should and could have done more to prevent what happened.”
The detective sat back wordlessly, a knowing grin on her face.
“What?” I asked. “What?”
“Nothing,” Connor replied. “You just remind me of myself at your age. I had those same hyper-responsible instincts. It means you want to make a difference. Who knows? You might have what it takes to be a cop yourself, someday.”
I snorted. “Like the cops would ever want someone like me working for them.”
“I don’t know, Shabby,” Conner said. “You might be surprised.”
The End
About the Author
Craig Hansen wrote his first published short story, a SF tale, “The S.S. Nova,” when he was fourteen, published in the Minnesota Writers in the Schools COMPAS program’s 1981 anthology of student writing, When It Grows Up, You Say Goodbye To It. As a result, he decided to dedicate himself to writing.
Hansen earned two degrees at Minnesota State University at Mankato under the mentorship of young adult novelist Terry Davis. In the years that followed, Hansen worked a variety of jobs, including five years in journalism in northwestern Wisconsin, where he earned several statewide awards for his writing and editing.
His work has appeared in the Meadowbrook Press anthology, Girls to the Rescue, Book 1, as well as the true crime journal, Ripper Notes, in volume 28.
His first novel, Most Likely, originally written as the creative thesis for his master’s degree in 1992, was released in May 2011. Shada, the first installment of the Ember Cole series of young adult paranormal suspense books, was published in September 2011. Under Contract followed in the spring of 2012. The Devohrah Initiative appeared in August 2013. Nice Girl Like You appeared in June 2014, and Spoiled in September 2014. Rotten and The Woodsman were both released in October 2014. Ripe was released in February 2015.
In April 2015, he contributed his original novella, Fireweed Trail, as a launch title for KindleWorlds, making the book an Amazon-exclusive title, and a version of this tale now permanently out-of-print. Spoiled Rotten, a mild revision to his trilogy of the same name, Spoiled, Rotten, and Ripe, made its first appearance in April 2016. Lies My Parents Told Me, as well as two forthcoming follow-up titles, Lies I Tell Myself and Lies We All Believe, mark Hansen’s latest releases and his first major releases following a nearly-fatal stroke suffered in June 2015.
Hansen remains hard at work on several other projects that will be announced when they are close to release, on his author website, http://author-craig-hansen.com/.
Hansen lives in Oregon with his wife, a dog, two cats, and, until recently, his 96-year-old father, a World War II veteran, who passed in December 2018.
Craig’s interests include the music of Johnny Cash, reading the novels of other independent authors, blogging, and the study of Messianic theology.
On his website, you can sign up to receive a periodic email newsletter that will notify you when he releases new books.
Connect With Me Online At:
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Author’s Note
My thoughts on Lies My Parents Told Me are complicated, and have become moreso in recent weeks. Those who follow my work closely will note that this tale seems familiar. That’s because an earlier version of this yarn first appeared in 2015, via Amazon’s then-current KindleWorlds program. Earlier this year, they ended that program, which meant that Fireweed Trail would no longer exist. Fortunately, I was given a rare opportunity: change a few story elements, and I’d be offered my rights back, which would allow me the chance to republish it.
So, no, I’m not trying to bait-and-switch anyone by publishing “the same story twice.” Not at all. But I’m a very character-driven writer, so my challenge became, how do I take one character’s tale, and make it make sense for an all-new lead character?
To understand this conundrum, imagine you worked for Marvel Comics, and your big tale was a Spiderman/Green Goblin tale. Then imagine Marvel tells you, “You can have your story back, so long as you don’t use Spiderman, the Green Goblin, or any affiliated characters that Marvel owns.”
The simple method would be to simply change character names. However, I am not the sort of writer who can easily do that. To me, even if you call Peter by the name of Brett, it would still be Peter’s tale. In a smaller, parallel way, Fireweed Trail will always be linked, in my mind, to its original main character. Even though that version is now out of print, permanently.
In my favor were these factors: It had been three years since I’d written Fireweed Trail, and in that time, I’d had a chance to evaluate the tale and speculate on what I wished I could change about it. Also, being the horror-and-suspense-oriented author I am, I had long been playing around with the idea of launching a new series. I’d even come up with the name Shabbat Abbott as a main character name that appealed to me.
Therefore, I decided to give the entire tale a slightly more thorough makeover. Thus, rather than simply republishing Fireweed Trail, with some names changed, this book is now called Lies My Parents Told Me, now features Shabbat Abbott as its main character, and rather than being a standalone novella, is now the first installment of at least a three-book series, soon to be followed by Lies I Tell Myself, and Lies We All Believe.
So, not only have I added to the original length of Fireweed Trail, but now, rather than it being a standalone tale, Lies My Parents Told Me actually leads to more tales about Shabbat Abbott. So, hopefully, that adds value to all readers.
I found several sources of inspiration for the stories I want to tell with Shabby. First, I’d seen a documentary a couple years ago (now closer to five years ago) about wilderness-encounter/therapy groups for troubled teens, which seemed like great grist for the mill. I’d also recently watched Reese Witherspoon’s stunning performance in a hiking-related movie, Wild.
And finally, while researching the Oregon Coast Trail, I ran across a lot of footage on YouTube that gave me direct inspiration for my settings. A lot of the Oregon Coast Trail is just off a highway, on rocky or sandy beaches, but the hiker’s cabins at Tillamook Head promontory in Ecola State Park gave me the woodsier setting I desired, as well as providing a natural camping site for my hikers.
It all coalesced into the tale you have before you, a story that e
stablishes setting and conflict and gets to the action about as quickly as I ever have. It has been a fun ride pulling this story back out of the out-of-print ash-heap; I hope you all enjoy this re-done tale.
Thanks.
Craig Hansen
December 2018
Other Books by Craig Hansen
For Older Readers
Spoiled Rotten (Collects Books 1, 2, and 3) (2016)
Ripe (Spoiled Rotten Book 3) (2015)
The Woodsman (2014)
Rotten (Spoiled Rotten Book 2) (2014)
Spoiled (Spoiled Rotten Book 1) (2014)
Nice Girl Like You (2014)
The Devohrah Initiative (2013)
Under Contract (2012)
For Young Adults
Lies We All Believe (A Lies Thriller Book 3) (Coming 2019)
Lies I Tell Myself (A Lies Thriller Book 2) (Coming 2019)
Lies My Parents Told Me (A Lies Thriller Book 1) (2018)
Shada (2011)
Most Likely (2011)
KindleWorlds
Fireweed Trail (KindleWorld novella) (2015) (Out-of-print as of July 2018)
Tools of the Trade
I imagine the public obsession with what equipment professionals in any field use to do their jobs, especially when they do it well, probably hit musicians long before writers; thus the obsession with Fender Strat-o-Casters over other guitars, for example. Or whatever vocal mics are trendy right now.
That being said, it’s now a frequently-asked-question of writers, as well. I cannot promise that anyone who uses these tools will write any better than they would without them, any more than Jon Bon Jovi can assure me of sounding more like him, even if I were to use his own personal Crown 311-microphone the next time I go to karaoke.
Nevertheless, people do like to know what equipment others use, so, in that spirit, herein are my Tools of the Trade:
Windows 10: The debate between Mac and Windows will never end, certainly not by what I use, but Windows 10 is my poison and it runs both my Dell desktop PC, and my Asus laptop, with equal precision. My tablet and cell phone are both Google Android, by the way, though both play a minimal role in my writing. At best.
On Windows 10, my arsenal includes other assets, too.
Literature and Latte’s Windows-flavored version of Scrivener is an excellent writing tool for crafting fiction, far better than MS Word for my purposes and writing style. (It is originally a Mac app, so there’s my tip of the hat to Jobs fans.)
Since surviving a massive stroke in 2015, I also make use of Dragon Naturally Speaking dictation software when I write. I also chose the Blue Snowball iCE microphone for that purpose. It required a big shift in mentality, but it keeps me working.
I also find it helpful to use Serenity Software’s Editor program, which helps me keep my prose relatively tidy.
For layout and formatting purposes, I typically use Adobe’s InDesign, like most of the industry. I’ve also been known to use, or at least experiment with Anthemion’s Jutoh 2, as well as Scribus 1.4.6.
So, there you have it.
Table of Contents
About Lies My Parents Told Me
Dedication
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
About the Author
Author’s Note
Other Books by Craig Hansen
Tools of the Trade