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.
Today’s post by Alex Segura marks the third in a series featuring contributors to this year’s Bouchercon anthology, Florida Happens: Tales of Mystery, Mayhem, and Suspense from the Sunshine State, edited by Greg Herren. The previous two weeks featured essays by Holly West and by Paul D. Marks, and Debra Lattanzi Shutika will be talking about her first published short story next Tuesday, on the anthology’s release day.
Alex’s story, “Quarters for the Meter,” features characters from the Silent City, the first of his Anthony Award-nominated Pete Fernandez mystery novels, all set in Miami. The other books in the series include Down the Darkest Street, Dangerous Ends, and Blackout, and you can check out more of Alex’s short fiction in several killer anthologies, including Protectors 2, Waiting to Be Forgotten: Stories of Crime and Heartbreak Inspired by the Replacements, Unloaded 2, and Apollo’s Daughters. Find out more about these books and stories and about all Alex’s works—comic books and a podcast too!—at his website here.
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.
Segura Quarters
