"Graveyard Shift" was published in the November 1978 issue of
Mike Shayne
Mystery Magazine, under the pseudonym M.R. James. The editor,
Sam Merwin
Jr., stuck that pseudonym on it since that issue also
contained two more
stories by me, "The Obit Man" under my own name, and "The Old
College Try"
as by R. Mason. I discovered that all three stories were in
the same
issue, two of them under pen-names, when I bought a copy of
the magazine.
Sam wasn't real diligent about keeping writers informed of
such things--but
he was a great editor anyway, since he bought a bunch of
stories from me!
In fact, the Mike Shayne story in the next issue, December
'78, was the
first of 38 Shaynes that I wrote as Brett Halliday, and I'll
never forget
seeing it in a little newsstand in Corpus Christi, Texas,
while Livia and I
were on vacation. I bought several copies immediately, of
course.
As for "Graveyard Shift" itself, it was one of many short,
twist ending
stories I wrote during that time when I had broken in but
hadn't fully
established myself as a writer. Sam bought nearly everything
I wrote, but
he still rejected some of them with scribbled notes such as
"This one goes
along fine for a while, then blooey!" or "Ye Gads, what a
massacre!" I
wrote the story, thought it was pretty good, cashed the check
(fifteen big
smackeroos!), and moved on. Bill Pronzini was the one who
contacted me
about reprinting it. He had deduced somehow that I was "M.R.
James". (I
guess Sam Merwin either forgot or didn't care that there was
an English
writer by that name.) I was very glad to see the story back
in print, and
it has since been reprinted again by Ed Gorman in a Carroll
& Graf
anthology called _Love Kills_. One of my other early short
stories from
MSMM called "Down in the Valley" is also going to be
reprinted in the
anthology _American Pulp_.
This week's other story is a very good one by Margaret Maron
called
"Deadhead Coming Down", and I agree with earlier comments
that it's a nice
companion piece for "Graveyard Shift". I read this one when
it was new,
remember it well, liked it then, still like it now. Maron is
an author
whose novels I've always meant to read, but I haven't gotten
around to them
yet. I'll have to do that. (The Creed of the
Procrastinator)(Say, that
sounds like a fantasy novel title, doesn't it?)
This is the longest post I've ever written. Ask me what time
it is, and
I'll tell you how to build a watch . . .
Best,
James
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