The First Two Pages: “Mourning Glory” by Mollie Cox Bryan

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

Mollie Cox Bryan visits the First Two Pages this week as part of a series featuring contributors to Deadly Southern Charm: A Lethal Ladies Mystery Anthology. Mollie’s story is “Mourning Glory,” which you’ll get a glimpse of in the essay below, but short fiction is just one of the many forms and genres she writes in. While centered on women’s stories, Mollie has written novels, cookbooks, essays, poetry, and more. The first book in her Cumberland Creek series, Scrapbook of Secrets, earned an Agatha Award nomination, and other books in the series have been contenders in the Library of Virginia’s People’s Choice Awards. She also writes the Cora Crafts Mysteries, and her latest book goes in a brand new direction: The Jean Harlow Bombshell, first in a new series and Mollie’s first non-cozy mystery. Added bit of trivia: Mollie and Jean Harlow are distantly related!

For more information on Mollie’s work, visit her website here, and you can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Beyond Mollie’s story “Mourning Glory,” Deadly Southern Charm features short fiction by Frances Aylor, Lynn Cahoon, Judy Chalkey, Stacie Giles, Barb Goffman, Libby Hall, Bradley Harper, Sherry Harris, Maggie King, Kristin Kisska, Samatha McGraw, K.L. Murphy, Genille Swope Parente, Deb Rolfe, Rod Sterling, S.A. Warwick, and Heather Weidner. The collection was edited by Mary Burton and Mary Miley in conjunction with the Central Virginia Chapter of Sisters in Crime and published by Wildside Press.

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.

Bryan-Mourning-Glory

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6 thoughts on “The First Two Pages: “Mourning Glory” by Mollie Cox Bryan

  1. Pingback: The First Two Pages: “Unbridled” by Kristin Kisska – Art Taylor

  2. Lynn Cahoon

    I love looking at another author’s process and choices as they are writing. We don’t talk about these things as much as we should. Such a fun series. Thanks Art and Mollie for the peek into a Deadly Southern Charm story.

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