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 very much enjoyed hosting the cover reveal for the new anthology Hooked on Urban Legends—And Murder! this past weekend. Edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley, the collection features stories by members of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, including Ellen Byerrum, Ginny Fite, Shari Held, Kathryn Holland, Smita Harish Jain, Meghan Lewis, Jane Limprecht, Alan Orloff, Pat Remick, KM Rockwood, Daphne Silver, Shannon Taft, Robin Templeton, and Joseph S. Walker, as well as the editors themselves (all chosen through an anonymous submission process). On the heels of that reveal, I’m pleased now to be introducing a series of First Two Pages essays by several of the contributors—talking about their stories and about the legends that inspired them!
First up, we’re welcoming Pat Remick, writing about a legend local to the chapter’s area: Screaming Jenny in Harper’s Ferry, WV—which she’ll explain in the essay below.
Pat is an award-winning mystery short story author and nonfiction writer with a background in journalism in several directions: print, wire service, TV, and on the web (some of which also helped to inform the story, as you’ll discover). She retired as a press officer for an international environmental organization and now provides communications coaching. To find out more, visit her website at www.patremick.com.
Stay tuned for more essays ahead—by Ellen Byerrum, Shannon Taft, and Robin Templeton. And watch the skies for the anthology’s release on September 8! Or just pre-order here….
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.
