The First Two Pages: “Things Are as They Should Be” by P.M. Raymond

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, P.M. Raymond‘s linked-stories collection Things Are as They Should Be and Other Words To Die For was published by Uncomfortably Dark Horror, and both the pitch and the praise should be enough to get everyone to place their order quickly. (I pre-ordered myself several weeks back!) “Blood Simple meets Eve’s Bayou with a dash of Skeleton Key” is part of the description, with a promise of blending “psychological horror with the ambiguous morality of crime noir.” And S.A. Cosby has called the author “a bright new star in the world of speculative fiction.”

I’ve been fortunate to have chatted with Pamela several times over the last few months—signing on as a guest author for classes she’s been teaching through both Duke University and N.C. State University and then seeing her at this past weekend’s Malice Domestic too—and I’m honored to be hosting her here at the First Two Pages this week to introduce the title story of the new book.

Pamela’s stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Writer’s Digest, Punk Noir, Flash Fiction Magazine, Kings River Life Magazine, The Furious Gazelle, and Dark Yonder, among other magazines and anthologies. She was a 2026 Killer Shorts Screenplay Semifinalist, the Sisters in Crime 2024 Eleanor Taylor Bland Award Winner, and a 2024 Claymore Award and Killer Shorts Screenplay Finalist, and she was named to the 160 Black Women in Horror in 2023.

For more information, check out her website at  www.pmraymond.com and follow her on Instagram and Substack and by signing up for her newsletter 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.