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.
I’ve been pleased to host the terrific short story writer Carol Gyzander a couple of times at the First Two Pages, most recently back in April with her Bram Stoker Award-nominated story “The Yellow Room.” (You can find that essay here.) But in addition to her own writing, Gyzander is also a distinguished editor, and today, I’m welcoming a contributor to an anthology Gyzander helped helm: Even in the Grave, co-edited with James Chambers. Amy Grech reached out to me about her story in the collection, “Bruised and Battered Nevermore,” and her essay below offers not only reflections on her story but also a nice introduction to the book on the whole.
Amy Grech is a prolific writer of short fiction, with more than 100 stories in anthologies and magazines: A New York State of Fright, Apex Magazine, Even in the Grave, Gorefest, Hell’s Heart, Hell’s Highway, Hell’s Mall, Microverses, Needle Magazine, Punk Noir Magazine, Tales from the Canyons of the Damned, The One That Got Away, Under Her Skin, Yellow Mama, and many others. Find out more about her and her work at her website—https://www.crimsonscreams.com—and connect with her on Twitter too.
And in the meantime, enjoy the essay below!
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.
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