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.
The two leading mystery publications in the country (in the world, really!)—Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine—are each starting new chapters with their May/June issues. Must Read Magazines purchased the magazines (and others) earlier this year, and the news issues—handsomely produced as always!—are out now, on newsstands or, even more easily, in your mailbox too (which is a nudge to subscribe if you haven’t already). This week and next, The First Two Pages will be hosting contributors to each magazine to help celebrate the new issues and the news owners as well.
First up is Kevin Egan, whose story “Buds” appears in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. As he points out in his bio and in the essay below, this is his 24th story for the magazine and the 21st set in the New York County Courthouse.
You can find out more about Egan and his work at his website: www.kevinjeganfiction.com.
And stay tuned for next week, when we’ll host a contributor to the new EQMM—but who will it be?! (Hint: This author has a new collection of stories coming out very soon… and the new story is connected to a series, too.)
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.
Egan-Buds
