"When You Sue, You Begin With Do, Ray, Me"

For some years, an anthology of new stories set in the host state has been published in conjunction with the annual Bouchercon mystery convention. I used to go to Bouchercon back in the Seventies, when it was a relatively new event, but I stopped when I moved overseas in '76 and didn't go again until the 2015 event in Raleigh, North Carolina. (I submitted a story for that year's anthology, but it was rejected. I ultimately reworked it just a bit and sold it, as "The Supreme Art of War," to the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime's Fur, Feathers, and Felonies collection.

In 2018, B'con was held in St. Petersburg, Florida, and I wrote "When You Sue, You Begin With Do, Ray, Me" with its anthology, Florida Happens, in mind. It wasn't accepted, putting me at 0-for-2 on Bouchercon anthology submissions. I did not go to the 2019 convention in Dallas, but I changed the setting of "When You Sue" from Miami to Houston and tried again, and this time the editor took it.

This is an odd little story, not really a crime story at all, but I like it--and I'm glad Denim, Diamonds and Death editor Rick Ollerman agreed.

You can order the paperback edition here and the Kindle edition here.

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