The Cup and Dagger

I bought Sanctuary edited by Robert Lynn Asprin when I was a teen. What I found memorable was the setting of the Vulgar Unicorn. It was here that the various characters in the short stories would meet and go where ever. This was in my beginning years as an aspiring teenage writer and I also wanted to write about thieves, warriors, and wizards operating from a tavern.

About the same time I made in  woodshop a pretty cool mug. I layered several pieces of scrap cedar and then turned it on a lathe. I then took a spade drill bit and hollowed the inside. It is one of my most prized creations. Another day in wood shop I took a piece of scrap pine and using a sanding belt I was able to shape a fairly good blade. I then glued to smaller pieces on to it to form the hilt of the dagger. Imagine if I were to make that in woodshop today.

  

Sometime later I was thinking of my world of Kesselt and was inspired by my old woodshop cup and dagger. It had been sometime since I had read Sanctuary. That's when I hit upon the idea of my Kesselt stories being barroom stories told by the patrons. Along the way that idea morphed into the preludes and epilogues of my Kesselt stories beginning and ending there. I had visions of a tavern like the Vulgar Unicorn in Sanctuary. One day looking at my wooden dagger as it stuck out of the cup I had my inspiration of what the name would be. The Cup and Dagger.

 

 

I had my tavern and the name for it. I open The Greggs of Kesselt at the Cup and Dagger. I use it in the body of the story as a setting. And then the book concludes in the Cup and Dagger in the epilogue.

 

When I first published my book back in 2004 I originally wanted to call it, From the Tales of the Cup and Dagger: Thomas Monroe and the Greggs of Kesselt. Knowing that titles should not be longer than five words that would have been wordy.

 

I'm still toying with the idea of short stories from the Cup and Dagger. However, I need to concentrate what's on my project list before running off and getting distracted. You will see more of the Cup and Dagger in the future. Its such a cool place to come back for more.