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.
With an essay today on her story “Pet,” Shari Randall finishes up a series of essays focused on the latest volume in the award-winning Chesapeake Crimes anthology series: Fur, Feathers, and Felonies, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley and presented by the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime and Wildside Press.
I’ve long admired Shari’s writing; her short story “Disco Donna” was just adjacent to my own story in a previous Chesapeake Crimes anthology, Homicidal Holidays. And I was thrilled when Shari kicked off her new series of books, the Lobster Shack Mysteries, with Curses, Boiled Again! Stay tuned too for the next in that series, Against the Claw, due out next month.
Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay here to read off-line.
Thanks for taking part, Shari–and congrats on the story! And thanks too to Barb and Maya for chiming in with comments. What a great chapter we have!
I enjoyed your analysis of the the first two pages, Shari!
Thanks again for inviting me, Art! I’ve learned so much – I know I’ll come back to these archives again.
Nice post, Shari! And thanks, Art, for highlighting Chesapeake Crimes: Fur, Feathers, and Felonies.