Pamela Tracy here, and I've been writing suspense too long. Nope, say it isn't so!!! My friends and family pretty much have stopped sending me email jokes, stories, cartoons, and such because they know I don't read them. When my boss sends me something, I do read it. He's my boss. So, last week he sends me an email titled "So you think you had a bad day?"
There were seven bad day stories, none of which made me blink, and then I came to the final story which I've posted here. I read it; I sit back; I blink, and I say hmmmmm.
Now, I've been writing suspense for over a decade. I've asked fireman about the smell of dead bodies. I've called funeral homes to ask about the lining in coffins. I've chased down a garbage man to ask about the hopper. It should be no surprise that I said, "hmmmmm." See, five days in an office... the writer in me says, "Nope, can't happen. Bad smell." I checked it out on Snopes.com and sure enough HOAX.
Ironically, that night I attended a workshop given by a homicide detective. I asked him if the above scenario was possible. Keep in mind. I'm in Arizona: the land of burn. I wore sunglasses today. The summer I moved here temperatures reached 122.
He said, "Tell me about the air conditioning in the office?"
Ah, exactly what a suspense writer wants to hear.
So, what do you think? Given the right degree of air conditioning, could the hoax turn into a plot for a suspense novel?
