A confidential peek behind the curtain at my secret Cinderella Going Going Gone contest deal with Kobo. Start with Part 1: The e-mail & Part 2: The Call.

Okay! My mission was clear.

Read Gone Girl.

I’d heard of it, but never run out and read Gillian Flynn. Now that Kobo was commissioning me to write Gone Girl-inspired stories, though, you bet I immediately downloaded a copy (yup, from Kobo) and started devouring it.

Gillian Flynn’s writing blew me away.

So witty and funny, but underneath, saying very caustic, actually frightening things about intimacy and marriage. That romantic love might be the worst thing that ever happened to you. That you might be better off alone than trapped in a marriage with someone who only wants to make you suffer, and everyone else suffer, until the end of time, amen.

My favourite line was about how the real Amy wanted to punch her parents’ fictional Amy character in her stupid, spotless vagina. But I was constantly highlighting lines and honest to God laughing out loud (people always say lol, but I think most of them aren’t really splitting the atmosphere with their guffaws). Gone Girl was a tour de force: character, plot, humour, and…deviance.

Well played, Gillian.

Okay. I’d done my homework.  One of my book clubs had even picked Gone Girl as their next read. I’d cleared my mental writing desk, finishing my two Hope Sze short story submissions for Jewish Noir and Montreal Noir and revising my second mystery romp, The Goa Yoga School of Slayers.

Now what?

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Your Choose Your Own Adventure path is clear today: September 16th, Kobo releases the second Gone Fishing short story, Trouble and Strife. Download it, solve the riddle, and you’re 2/3 of the way to winning the prizes of $5000 and a Kobo H2O Aura so you can read underwater!

Merci bien to anyone from Sleuthsayers who stops by. My spies inform me that people around the world checked out the Cinderella sleuth post, including armchair detectives from South Africa, France and Germany. W00t!

Special thanks to Anne, my new friend who told me that she’s enjoying this “behind the scene” series, thus encouraging me to continue. Not only did she personally deliver wood for us this winter (“Good-looking wood,” said my father-in-law), but she’s coming to the Books & Bodies event on Saturday (her birthday), and she’s making cupcakes or muffins. My son Max nearly split himself with joy, and I wasn’t far behind.