{"id":555,"date":"2015-03-07T01:52:17","date_gmt":"2015-03-07T01:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=555"},"modified":"2020-08-09T16:29:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-09T16:29:30","slug":"behind-the-short-story-two-bad-hamiltons-and-a-hirsute-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=555","title":{"rendered":"Behind: “Two Bad Hamiltons and a Hirsute Jackson”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fleur<\/a>Violet Celucci is a better angel and an inner demon. A frigging genius is how Vi might describe herself, a bastion of sanity in a disorderly world, a process improvement-seeking missile. An over-obsessed stickler for efficiency is how she\u2019d never describe herself. Sorry, Vi. The truth hurts, and so can life. Tough as you are, I see the breaks in your armor. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I can write Vi because over the years I\u2019ve worked with my share of consultants and industrial engineers. You know the folks I mean: big-brained and unapologetic process nerds committed to life by timetable. And we need those folks. Process folks dream up boxes that fit our mail-orders just so; they reduce plant emissions and build supertankers; they took our rover to Mars. This month Vi took my story “Two Bad Hamiltons and a Hirsute Jackson” into Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine’s<\/a> May 2015 humor edition. The company she and I are keeping there is humbling.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"AHM515-finalcover\"<\/a>Okay, I can also write Vi’s craving for order among chaos because some days, at some level, it is also my own.  <\/span><\/p>\n

We have a Venn diagram overlap, she might say. <\/span><\/p>\n

Vi sprung from a high-caliber question: what if those big-brained engineers lived every livelong moment the way they worked their flowcharts and daily operating reports? How they shopped, for example, or how they cooked, how they sought–or didn\u2019t–friends and lovers. Surely in the end that kind of quest would make life more difficult. Extra balls juggled, needless battles fought, friends and family distanced. That\u2019s Vi. Her obsession demands she take the hard road to make it more efficient next time. A<\/span>nd it might work, if immovable reality ever played along.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Like all of my characters, Vi is an amalgam of experience and imagination. Certainly Louisville<\/a> is in my very bones, and my travels used to take me to New England a good bit. The rest would be for psychologists and magicians to figure out. But a quick bio on Vi: Rhode Islander, mid-30s, moderately attractive, MIT-educated, lots of quality certifications. Fish-out-of-water, confident but flappable, obsessed with calcium carbide<\/a> production. Someone attempting to make sense of the world by measuring it into improvable slices. She\u2019s funny–I hope–as a roving neighborhood engineer out to optimize the dry cleaners and delis of Crescent Hill<\/a>, like it or not. Vi clicks for me because her humanity by turns leaks and jumps out onto the page. She truly exists to make the world a better place. Her way.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few years back, early in my return to writing, I binge-wrote Vi stories, unleashing her upon various situations bound to set her off. Most of the lot ranged from inconsistent to terrible, though a funny one did get published. Eventually I <\/span>shelved her, thankful to have met and learned craft from and with a colorful character. Ever pushy, though, soon Vi again had me wondering about her. What if there was <\/span>a crime out there for her to solve? That she couldn’t help but try to solve.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mystery!<\/span><\/p>\n

But not murder. <\/span><\/p>\n

What stopped a dead body in Crescent Hill was Vi. How she needed to grow, become less literal and more intuitive. \u201cTwo Bad Hamiltons\u201d is about mountains made out of mole hills, and murder is the Mt. Everest of crime. Vi had to stumble–and stumble she does–over small-scale stuff, but a crime to rattle the steel polymers of her being. Falsehood. Deceit. Intentional error. <\/span><\/p>\n

Counterfeiting. Of which I knew zero. That research montage is for another post, but I did try to portray counterfeiting as realistically as the story allowed. Key word, allowed. I suspect–and greatly hope–Secret Services investigations are pursued with more tenacity. But hey, not here.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Vi<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Crescent Hill and Clifton<\/a> are as true-to-life as I could make them. No, there is not a Dunkin Donuts on Lower Brownsboro unless it has opened quite recently. I grew up in this part of The Ville and learned to love stories in its library<\/a>. Today the neighborhood is fine dining mixed with fast food buffets, historic mansion houses and bland apartments, forever gentrifying but somehow shopworn, good paychecks and bad paychecks, a healthy ladle of the modern American melting pot. Vi would be drawn to its refurbished quarters, its proximity to downtown and affordable chic, and deep where she is starting to access, its place in her heart. <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what displaced Vi protects in \u201cTwo Bad Hamiltons.\u201d Her new home. <\/span><\/p>\n

What else would a better angel do?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Violet Celucci is a better angel and an inner demon. A frigging genius is how Vi might describe herself, a bastion of sanity in a disorderly world, a process improvement-seeking missile. An over-obsessed stickler for efficiency is how she\u2019d never describe herself. Sorry, Vi. The truth hurts, and so can life. Tough as you are, I see the breaks in your armor. I… Continue reading Behind: “Two Bad Hamiltons and a Hirsute Jackson”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,92,6],"tags":[75,65,9,3,81,82],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-mystery-and-suspense","category-short-stories","category-this-whole-writing-thing","tag-alfred-hitchcock-mystery-magazine","tag-behind-the-story","tag-crime-fiction","tag-short-stories","tag-two-bad-hamiltons","tag-vi-celucci","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/ah-may2015.jpg?fit=300%2C435&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3CG0W-8X","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":652,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=652","url_meta":{"origin":555,"position":0},"title":"First Two Pages + Two Bad Hamiltons = Too Good a Time!","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"July 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm delighted to have a guest post over at The First Two Pages, a blog run by writer extraordinaire B.K. Stevens. Every week a novelist or story writer takes apart an opening they find instructive: the fits and starts of crafting it, how the hook became sharp, etc. In my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Short Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Short Stories","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=92"},"img":{"alt_text":"AHM515-finalcover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/ah-may2015-207x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":758,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=758","url_meta":{"origin":555,"position":1},"title":"Born Under a Bad Sign: Behind “The Cumberland Package”","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"March 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Vernon Stagg was born\u00a0from a bad book. A manuscript actually, mine sadly, and fortunately for us all I abandoned it before the querying stage. This was 2011, early yet for me\u00a0into This Whole Writing Thing. The manuscript was a sort of Westlake-ian, Hiaasen-ian lovechild romp, and no matter what I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_2653 (1) (2)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_2653-1-2-300x185.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1484,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=1484","url_meta":{"origin":555,"position":2},"title":"Pride Cometh Before the Sale: Behind “Murder on the First Night’s Feast”","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"November 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"There is a C.S. Lewis quote about the blindness of the proud. To paraphrase, someone completely full of themselves is so busy looking down their noses that they\u2019re blind to what\u2019s above them. And what\u2019s above them, of course, is the whole, wide world. We\u2019re all prideful. Someway, somehow we\u2019re\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_4773-e1572743015544.jpg?fit=902%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_4773-e1572743015544.jpg?fit=902%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_4773-e1572743015544.jpg?fit=902%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_4773-e1572743015544.jpg?fit=902%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":968,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=968","url_meta":{"origin":555,"position":3},"title":"Derringer-ered!","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"April 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm incredibly proud\u00a0 that last year's\u00a0\"The Cumberland Package\"\u00a0(AHMM, May 2016) has been named a finalist for the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Derringer Awards.\u00a0 I mean, like busting-at-seams proud. Of being named, because the crime\u00a0space these days is terrific in\u00a0its voice\u00a0and depth. The\u00a0stuff that leaves me vibrating explores\u00a0in stark terms\u00a0human nature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1561,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=1561","url_meta":{"origin":555,"position":4},"title":"Title Fight","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"February 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"You can do a lot with fiction. You can remove all narrative or all punctuation. You can go stream of consciousness and remove spelling norms and paragraph breaks. Cormac McCarthy removes the dialogue quotes. Do it right, and you can remove most everything in fiction and still have terrific writing.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/COVER_Murder-Under-the-Oaks_x1500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/COVER_Murder-Under-the-Oaks_x1500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/COVER_Murder-Under-the-Oaks_x1500.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/COVER_Murder-Under-the-Oaks_x1500.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1215,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=1215","url_meta":{"origin":555,"position":5},"title":"Borgias, Bother, and Bad Ideas: Behind “Book of Hours”","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"June 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"So I had this idea for a novel. There was this gentleman thief, see, and he needed to steal something. Wait. There was more. This something, see, was hidden in the pit network underneath the Colosseum. The hypogeum, if you're into archeology. A caper in front of ten thousand tourists.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/AHMM-JulAug18-Book-of-Hours-first-version.png?fit=829%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/AHMM-JulAug18-Book-of-Hours-first-version.png?fit=829%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/AHMM-JulAug18-Book-of-Hours-first-version.png?fit=829%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/AHMM-JulAug18-Book-of-Hours-first-version.png?fit=829%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1764,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions\/1764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}