I don’t have much excuse for this being so late other than to say life got in the way, but I’m still really happy to report I had a story published in the anthology “Heightened Anxiety” by Inkd Publishing. You can purchase a copy here if you’re a fan of suspense.

I wrote “In the Open” after reading a lot of news articles about Japan’s “yami baito” or shady part-time job problem. The jobs apparently pop up a lot on social media offering quick, easy money with descriptions like, “Just deliver a package” or “Just stand at this street corner and count birds” or something ridiculous-sounding that ultimately is code. And then once you sign up, the anonymous higher-ups put their claws in you, saying they’ll kill your family unless you do exactly as they say.

I put the setting in the desert in the U.S. after reading that the desert can actually get more rain than people might think, which I think would pose a unique problem, and also because I found on Google Maps a fairly remote-looking place that actually did have a sign saying there would be no gas stations for the next X hundred miles.

This is where I picture the main character finds the car, and the hill behind the building is where they try to bury the body.

It’s a really sad state of affairs that “In the Open” isn’t pure fiction, and my greatest hope is anyone who reads it will think twice before signing up for a job that sounds too good to be true.