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.
This week continues our focus on Hot Shots: Celebrating Thirty Years of the Short Mystery Fiction Society with an essay by Doug Allyn, called by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine “one of the best short story writers of his generation—and probably of all time.” The author of more than 130 tales (and 11 novels too!), Doug has won two Edgar Awards for Best Short Story, and he’s the all-time most frequent honoree in EQMM‘s annual Readers Award competition. Today he introduces the first two pages of his story “Famous Last Words,” which won the 2010 Derringer Award for Best Long Story.
Doug’s story joins 27 other Derringer Award winners—one for each year of the competition—in Hot Shots, which was edited by Josh Pachter. You can also check out an essay by another contributor, BV Lawson, in last week’s First Two Pages.
The Short Mystery Fiction Society was founded in 1996 and began presenting the Derringers two years later. The full list of contributors to Hot Shots is below—and be sure to pick up the collection here to read them all!
1998: “L.A. Justice,” by Kris Neri (Best Short Story)
1999: “Pretty Kitty,” by Joyce Holland (Best Flash Story)
2000: “Just a Man on the Sidewalk,” by Carol Kilgore (Best Flash Story)
2001: “The Cabin Killer,” by Henry Slesar (Best Puzzle Story)
2002: “All the Fine Actors,” by Earl Staggs (Best Short Story)
2003: “Closure,” by Dave White (Best Short Story)
2004: “Notions of the Real World,” by Dorothy Rellas (Best Mid-Length Short Story)
2005: “Viscery,” by Sandy Balzo (Best Mid-Length Short Story)
2006: “Secondhand Shoe,” by Patricia Harrington (Best Flash Story)
2007: “Cranked,” by Bill Crider (Best Mid-Length Story)
2008: “The Gospel According to Gordon Black,” by Richard Helms (Best Long Story)
2009: “No Flowers for Stacey,” by Ruth McCarty (Best Flash Story)
2010: “Famous Last Words,” by Doug Allyn (Best Long Story)
2011: “Pewter Badge,” by Michael J. Solender (Best Short Story)
2012: “The Touch of Death,” by BV Lawson (Best Short Story)
2013: “When Duty Calls,” by Art Taylor (Best Long Story)
2014: “Luck Is What You Make,” by Stephen D. Rogers (Best Flash Story)
2015: “The Kaluki Kings of Queens,” by Cathi Stoler (Best Short Story)
2016: “Twilight Ladies,” by Meg Opperman (Best Short Story)
2017: “The Phone Call,” by Herschel Cozine (Best Flash Story)
2018: “The Cop Who Liked Gilbert and Sullivan,” by Robert Lopresti (Best Short Story)
2019: “Dying in Dokesville,” by Alan Orloff (Best Short Story)
2020: “On the Road with Mary Jo,” by John M. Floyd (Best Short Story)
2021: “The Great Bedbug Incident and the Invitation of Doom,” by Eleanor Cawood Jones (Best Short Story)
2022: “The Downeaster ‘Alexa,’” by Michael Bracken (Best Long Story)
2023: “My Two-Legs,” by Melissa Yi (Best Short Story)
2024: “The Referee,” by C.W. Blackwell (Best Flash Story)
2025: “The Wind Phone,” by Josh Pachter (Best Short Story)
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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