This is the “Behind The Scenes” post for Harold Green Is Dead. Please read the original story first if you want to avoid spoilers…
This was an odd one. I started feeling unwell on Thursday afternoon – some kind of stomach problem (I’m prone to them) – and this continued right through the weekend and into this week (in fact, I’m still fighting it this Thursday evening, a week later). Anyhow, I somehow made myself plough through it while flying on painkillers. (From a pain management point of view, that was a mistake, but let’s gloss over that.)
I started this one with the idea that it would be a straightforward one, but it didn’t stay that way. I kept changing things – at one point it got cliched beyond belief, so that got deleted – and whenever something went for more than a hundred words and felt like it was working, I left it.
The ending came as a surprise to me. The reason Green had the actor beaten up was, of course, because he spiked the secretary (presumably, it was intended for Green), which was completely misinterpreted by Andrews – something Green, of course, used to his advantage. I hadn’t expected Green to be quite so callous, but it felt delicious.
Over all, I’d say I’m quite pleased with this one. Like a lot of them, it’s a short, thin little thing, but for a change, it’s one that surprised me even while I was writing it, and I really enjoy those.
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