Polterheist: An Esther Diamond Novel (25 page)

In an effort to cheer him, Nelli picked up her pink mastodon and started nudging him with it, giving fiercely playful growls. He smiled and tugged on her ears.

Then, changing the subject, he said to me, “So I guess you’re out of work now, huh?”

“Yeah, but I’ll be back at Bella Stella after New Year’s. And I’m going to light a fire under Thack then, too. I need some auditions!”

Meanwhile, it was easy to imagine how I could fill the time between now and then. I felt my cheeks burning as I thought of him again.

“You’re looking very flushed, Esther,” Max noted. “I’ll turn down the fire.”

“Uh-huh.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked it, wondering if the ringer was working.

“You expecting a call?” Lucky asked.

“Not really,” I lied. “Just checking.”

I glanced at the time. It was almost five o’clock. He was supposed to get off work within an hour. He’d probably call me then. Maybe when he was on his way to Nyack.

This being the darkest time of the year, when barriers between dimensions crumble, night fell soon after that. Nelli got restless after a while, so Max fastened her into her Christmas jacket and attached her jingling red leash to her collar.

“I believe the wind has died down,” he said. “Why don’t we all take Nelli for an evening stroll and observe the holiday lights of Greenwich Village? There are some lovely displays this year.”

“I’m in,” said Lucky. “Esther?”

“Um . . .” It was almost six o’clock now. I was thinking I might want a little privacy when he called.

“Aw, come on,” Lucky urged. “Get in the Saturnalia spirit!”

That made me smile. “I’ll get my coat.”

The holiday lights of the Village were indeed lovely this year, and the air tonight was crisp and energizing despite the gray, unpromising start of the day. I linked arms with both of my escorts, walking between them, glad of their company. Nelli pranced cheerfully in her festive coat, evidently pleased to have confronted Evil and acquitted herself well. She greeted other dogs we met on our walk, and we greeted their people, all wishing each other Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings, and Happy Saturnalia.

It was a magical night to be a New Yorker, strolling the streets of our city on a rare occasion when the pace was slow, traffic was light, and few people were crowding the sidewalks. It was a good night to commune with friends and loved ones. A good night, I thought, to be a Jewish elf in the Big Apple.

But in my coat pocket, I felt the weight of my silent phone, and wondered why he didn’t call . . .

Author’s Note

T
he question people always ask a writer is: “Where do you get your ideas?”

I’m very tempted to claim that I get mine by venturing boldly into the lawless underground world of black market story ideas, where a well-honed plot is worth more than a man’s life and novelists will kill for a good concept.

But, alas, the mundane truth is that writers get ideas all of the time, from everywhere. We experience the world as a nonstop supply-chain of story ideas. That’s just how our minds work—otherwise we probably wouldn’t be writers.

Precisely
because
I see story ideas everywhere I look, I often don’t even really know how I got the idea for a particular story. But in the case of
Polterheist
, I do remember the book’s genesis—though it took many twists and turns after that.

Back around the time I was finishing
Disappearing Nightly
, the first Esther Diamond novel, I was on a long drive during the holidays, and National Public Radio saved my sanity on that lonely rural highway by playing David Sedaris narrating his
Santaland Diaries
, a darkly funny account of the author’s experiences working as a department store elf one Christmas season.

While listening to Sedaris’ essay as I drove on that icy, empty road under a darkening winter sky, I remember thinking that his workplace sounded like the anteroom to hell . . . And since I’m a fantasy writer, that started me wondering: What if struggling actress Esther Diamond discovered her humiliating seasonal job actually
was
the anteroom to hell? Or a gateway through which something
from
hell intended to enter this dimension? So then I did some research and soon discovered that various cultures over the millennia have worried about precisely this sort of thing happening right around that time of year, when night is longer than day and darkness is overwhelming . . .

And that’s how I first got started on the idea for
Polterheist,
in which my Jewish heroine would get stuck participating in Christianity’s most exhausting holiday while trying to prevent a dangerous mystical force from running amok in the Big Apple.

Please note, by the way, that Fenster’s and Solsticeland are wholly fictional creations and are not based on any real store. Some of Esther’s experiences there are loosely inspired by real life, though, since I’ve held many less-than-delightful jobs over the years, including seasonal ones (and I frankly think I’d rather go to prison than ever again deal with the public during the holidays).

Meanwhile, I’d like to thank the tremendous staff at DAW Books, the best publishing house I’ve ever worked with, for their support, patience, and enthusiasm. In particular, special thanks to editor/publisher Betsy Wollheim and to managing editor Joshua Starr. I also want to add a shout-out to Russell Davis, who edited a couple of my books years ago at another house; he gave me some excellent editorial advice back then which has been paying off ever since—something I recently had occasion to realize.

I hope you’ve enjoyed
Polterheist
—during whatever season of the year you happened to read it. This was the fifth Esther Diamond novel, and (in case you’ve missed any of them) the DAW Books editions of the previous four novels are all available to tide you over until Esther, her friends, and her nemeses return in their next mystical misadventure,
The Misfortune Cookie
, set in New York’s Chinatown.

—Laura Resnick

Also by Laura Resnick:

DISAPPEARING NIGHTLY

DOPPELGANGSTER

UNSYMPATHETIC MAGIC

VAMPARAZZI

POLTERHEIST

THE MISFORTUNE COOKIE*

*Coming soon from DAW Books