Your Own Backyard Story Cupboard

I've become a soccer grandma this past week.  Yep, I've been hauling my grandson and his friend back and forth to practice.  While waiting for practice to end I get to read and write, sometimes sitting on a large rock at the edge of the field, other times in my car where the seat is more comfortable.  But the best thing about being there, other than spending time with my grandson, is thinking about how to place a murder or any type of crime in this setting.

That's the best thing about being a short story writer, you can place a crime in any setting.  You don't have to think city and dark streets.  You can actually think sunshine and soccer fields.  Over the past months I've thought about how easy it is to find different and interesting settings for short stories.  You have funeral homes and cemeteries.  Or how about the grocery store?  Perhaps a stone quarry or a gravel pit.  A family reunion where you suddenly discover the unsavory past of one of your relatives.  Or how about a nature walk?  Perhaps a lake or river setting.  Or maybe while scattering your husband's ashes you discover a bullet mixed in the remains.  Of course he died of natural causes, but when had he been shot and what kind of a dark past has he been hiding from you?  Will that past come after you or will you find  it?

So stop and take a look around you.  Where would you find the perfect place to commit a murder in your back yard?  And yes, the back yard works if you have a good friend and a back hoe to help bury the body. :)