Stranded in Hell’s Shadow
The story behind the creation of my first published short story.
Finished stories are so much more than words on a page. Hidden among those words are stories about how the plot, setting, and characters came into existence that are often as fascinating as the tale shared with the reader.
Such is the case with my first published short story.
Bringing In Hell’s Shadow to Amazon in April, 2020 marked the final step in a 21-year journey from idea to published story. The original rough draft, then titled Stranded, represented my first stab at writing a short story.
Finding Inspiration
I drew inspiration for what became In Hell’s Shadow from my experiences during a two-year Mormon mission in Texas and Louisiana. While living in Houston in late 1999, I got in a car accident during a foggy night on a poorly lit Houston city street. My car was totaled. The impact obliterated the front wheel on the driver’s side of the car. The other vehicle narrowly missed striking the driver’s side door, and likely killing me, by a only few feet.
The accident left me and my missionary companion without a replacement car for a few weeks. Riding bicycles soon became eliminated as an alternate transportation option after I blacked out on a hot day after bicycling for several hours. We walked or took the bus while proselyting during the day. Since we lived in a dangerous neighborhood, we came home around dinner time and spent the evenings inside our apartment. Arriving back at my apartment a couple of hours earlier than usual every night left me with unexpected spare time to do other activities. I decided to use the time to sketch out the rough draft of a ghost story.
My brush with death conjured up the image of Kate, my In Hell’s Shadow protagonist, plunging through a guardrail on a darkened canyon road amid a blinding rainstorm. Over two weeks, I sketched out a rough draft of a short story and resolved to submit a polished version to a magazine after returning home to Utah a year later.
I submitted Stranded to ON SPEC, a Canadian Magazine, five years later. My efforts netted a rejection letter. Fresh off the rejection, I kept tinkering with my story and wrote others. I submitted Stranded to additional publications with no success. Finally, I became fed up with not getting my story past gatekeeping magazine editors and chose a different route to get In Hell’s Shadow to my target audience.
I published my retitled story on Amazon in 2020 as my first Kindle Unlimited offering. I wanted to test the waters of the KU platform, but In Hell’s Shadow only enjoyed limited success with KU audiences. I still may publish a few other short stories as Amazon exclusives at a later date.
Crafting Memories
This story, like my second novel Under a Fallen Sun, holds a special place in my heart. My Mom only had a chance to read a handful of my stories before succumbing to cancer in November, 2003. In Hell’s Shadow was one of those stories. The story went through a dramatic evolution from that original rough draft. Still, the draft she read is woven into the DNA of the final form In Hell’s Shadow took.
I cherish the memory of Mom reading my first short story while she was alive. The promise in my early stories persuaded her to encourage me to pursue my writing dreams. Mom always believed in me and I can attest that I’m where I am as an author because of her early influence. Dusting off stories like In Hell’s Shadow and sharing them with the world is a perfect way for me to honor her memory.
Take a moment to check out In Hell’s Shadow on Amazon this month. If you enjoy my ghost story, please spread the word and recommend it to other readers.