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.
Our series on Hooked on Urban Legends—And Murder! continues this week—after some great essays by Pat Remick, on her story “Screaming Jenny,” and Shannon Taft on “The Cave Man.” For our newest contribution, Ellen Byerrum talks about “The Portuguese Sailor”—both the story and the legend, which is one of her own making (though resonant with the “dream lover” motif in literature, as Ellen so nicely explains below.) Notably, Ellen is new to short stories—only having recently begun writing them but now with three coming out this year. Her writing career, though, has stretched back many years, with twelve Crime of Fashion Mysteries—two of which, Killer Hair and Hostile Makeover, were filmed by Lifetime television. Her new Screwball Noir Art Deco Mysteries are set in 1934’s New York City. You can find out more at her website: https://www.ellenbyerrum.com/.
Hooked on Urban Legends…, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley, features short 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.
Stay tuned for one last essay next week—from Robin Templeton. And read all the stories in Hooked on Urban Legends—And Murder! by ordering the book 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.
