I write as M.E. Proctor.

I’m a transplant. It’s a long way from Brussels, Belgium, to Texas. A long way in miles, a long way in having to adjust perspectives, geography being only one of them. I come from a country a little bit bigger than Maryland, that many in the U.S. would have trouble pinning on a map (maybe people aren’t too sure about Maryland either). North of France, west of Germany, south of the Netherlands, the UK across the water.

I’m an adoptive Texan now. A state that shares a few historical trivia details with my place of birth. Like the number of empires or countries that claimed possession over time. Six flags, or so… And we got independent at about the same time, 1830 versus 1836. Useful icebreakers when people ask me where my unusual accent comes from. They never guess right.

Does any of this shape my writing? Of course it does. Even if I can’t say exactly what that influence might be. Because I’ve always been writing. Working in advertising, corporate communications, doing a stint as a freelance journalist. Slinging words in French or English. For a long time, most of these words weren’t fiction, or were not supposed to be.

It was good training. Learning the value of a well-chosen word, a short sentence, a piece of visual exposition. I learned to cut, cut, cut, and get to the point. When I decided to write crime stories, a genre I grew up reading and inhaled at the movies, the rhythms of a clean prose came naturally, with the beats of efficient dialogue, and the feelings that are so much stronger for remaining between the lines.

I’m currently working on a contemporary detective series. My short fiction has appeared in Vautrin, Bristol Noir, Pulp Modern, Mystery Tribune, Reckon Review, Shotgun Honey, and Thriller Magazine among others. I’m a Derringer nominee. My short story collection Family and Other Ailments is out from Wordwooze Publishing. You’ll find me on Substack at The Roll Top Desk.