Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Considers the Strange Perambulations of Writing Inspiration

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Considers the Strange Perambulations of Writing Inspiration

When my first noir short story was published, my mother-in-law held Orange County Noir, with the cover of a knife stabbing an orange, and said, “What is noir?” She read mysteries and thrillers where light triumphs over darkness, and good always wins out in the end. Was noir like this, she wondered? “Just the opposite,” I said. “In noir, the main characters want better things for themselves, and feel they deserve them, but try as they might, they…