My short story, “Paris Pickpockets,” a wry tale of theft at the Châtelet-les-Halles metro station in Paris, was published recently in the Summer 2024 (Vol. 2, No. 3) edition of Washington Square Review, a literary journal produced by Lansing Community College in Michigan that’s been around since 1972. The story was written earlier this year, inspired by research into crime statistics related to rail travel in Europe.
While I’ve traveled by train through central and Eastern Europe, I have never actually set foot in France. Acrimony between Britain and France has always made me disinclined to explore that country. I’m not sure I will ever set foot in Paris, but I enjoyed this opportunity to explore the capital city via travel blogs and guidebooks.
When it comes to foreign languages, my communication skills invariably let me down. French-speaking hoteliers have even questioned my aptitude for the English language. As such, I decided to incorporate French into the story, writing the language rather than ruining it verbally but expressing it through dialogue. And so the humor that’s there, filled with frustration and ridicule, is hidden in a language other than mine.
You can purchase paperback or Kindle versions of the Summer 2024 volume of Washington Square Review online at Amazon at the links provided.
Washington Square Review: Summer 2024 by Melissa Ford Lucken, Christopher Manning, Tara Brady. Softcover: $8.74, 208pp, 6X9″: ISBN: 979-8-337680-54-5, Kindle: 265pp, $0.99.
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