The First Two Pages: “Everybody’s on the Run” by Laura Oles

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.

Last week, The First Two Pages hosted Bruce Robert Coffin talking about his story “Incommunicado” from the new anthology The Great Filling Station Holdup: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Jimmy Buffett, and this week, I’m pleased to welcome a second contributor, Laura Oles, on her story “Everybody’s on the Run”—and special kudos to Laura for having completed this essay during the midst of the terrible Texas snowstorm that left her without power for the better part of a week! As you’ll see, she references that weather in the essay below—an emphasis on place that’s important to the first two pages of her story.

I first met Laura at Malice Domestic, where if memory serves, we first talked about her story for the anthology Murder on Wheels, a collection which later went on to win the Silver Falchion Award. It’s been much fun to continue that friendship since then and to watch Laura’s career continue to grow, especially with her debut mystery, Daughters of Bad Men, earning nominations for the Agatha Award, the Claymore Award, and Killer Nashville’s Readers’ Choice Award. Find out more about Laura’s work at her website.

And do check out The Great Filling Station Holdup too. Edited by Josh Pachter, the anthology’s complete line-up includes stories by Leigh Lundin, Pachter himself, Rick Ollerman, Michael Bracken, Don Bruns, Alison McMahan, Bruce Robert Coffin, Lissa Marie Redmond, Elaine Viets, Robert J. Randisi, Laura Oles, Isabella Maldonado, Jeffery Hess, Neil Plakcy, John M. Floyd, and M.E. Browning (in order of their stories’ appearance in the Buffett discography).

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.