Suspension: title story

Suspension's title story is the first one up. I must admit, the inspiration for this was watching a recent production of The Girl on the Train. There, I got to thinking, "what would the infantile male version be of this story?" If a woman, elegant, introspective, sees and then solves a murder on a train; well, a hopped-up male version of that would be a on a rollercoaster!

As soon as I came up with that idea, I loved it. This story, even, didn't entirely get rid of the itch for me. I love constricts and restraints when it comes to the short story, so having the protagonist solve a murder during one rollercoaster (and they'd have to be a prodigy to do this, come on) was really up my flight of stairs.

I've long been horrified by the exploits of the BTK killer. So, writing this story, they made for a good villain and the sort of mask-wearing evil maniac that our hero could go after and bring to justice.

There's a lot of symbolism involving knots and loops and threads in this story, from the rollercoaster to the boy-scout knots to the devilish bounds the BTK killer ties.

I'll admit this story isn't intended to be sweeping or epic, rather it's meant to be a jolt that wakes you up and gets you ready for more adrenaline with the stories to come. The title was perfect for the collection, as it reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock. I've also always wanted to put a rollercoaster on a book cover.