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, we host one final contributor in a series celebrating Hooked on Urban Legends—And Murder! So far, we’ve welcomed Pat Remick on “Screaming Jenny,” Shannon Taft on “The Cave Man,” and Ellen Byerrum on “The Portuguese Sailor.” And now, Robin Templeton reflects on “The Legend of Samuel Savage,” inspired both by a story from 17th-century Maryland and—at least it sounds like it from her essay’s final line—maybe a famous film of the early 1960s…? Read through, and you’ll get a sense of what I mean…. And beyond those four writers, here’s another shout-out to editors Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley, and to contributors Ginny Fite, Shari Held, Kathryn Holland, Smita Harish Jain, Meghan Lewis, Jane Limprecht, Alan Orloff, KM Rockwood, Daphne Silver, and Joseph S. Walker—all members of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime.
Robin has been a regular contributor to the anthologies associated with the Chessie Chapter, with stories including “Eight Seconds to Live” in Three Strikes—You’re Dead; “What Goes Around” in Magic is Murder, and “True Colors” in Invitation to Murder. Her stories have also been chosen for Malice Domestic 13: Mystery Most Geographical and The Best New England Crime Stories 2017, and her experiences as a professional photographer and private investigator helped inspire her two novels-in-progress: Double Exposure and Fatal Focus, both finalists in the Minotaur Books/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Novel Competition.
Enjoy Robin’s essay below, check out the other contributors via the link above, and order 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.
