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.
Libby Cudmore is killing it, no doubt about it. Last year, she won the Shamus Award for Best PI Short Story for “Charlie’s Medicine” from the anthology Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon, an anthology she and I co-edited for Down & Out Books, and soon after that, she won the Black Orchid Novella Award for “Alibi in Ice,” which appeared this past summer in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (and which she wrote about for AHMM‘s blog “Trace Evidence” here). Libby’s latest novel, Negative Girl, also appeared this year—a Wade & Jacks novel, featuring the characters from the short story she’s writing about today—and Library Journal praised the book nicely: “Cudmore’s neo-noir is a well-crafted story that not only functions as an ode to great music but also assembles a plot that is consistently entertaining and satisfying.” In addition to her writing, Libby is a podcaster, co-hosting both OST Party and Misbehavin’ —and she rocks the vintage fashion scene too, as she discusses in the essay below, with elements of her many interests core to the world of the story she’s discussing and her Wade & Jacks series generally.
When I first invited Libby to contribute again to the First Two Pages, we’d talked about her writing on “Alibi in Ice,” but having her reflect on the new story has an added bonus—since we get to celebrate as well the 1,000th issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine! On sale now, the January/February issue features a terrific group of authors, including Peter Lovesey, Joyce Carol Oates, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Marcelle Dubé, R.T. Raichev, Mat Coward, Joseph Goodrich, Terence Faherty, Paul Ryan O’Connor, Nancy Novick, Charlaine Harris, Richard Helms, and more too in the Black Mask, Department of First Stories, Passport to Crime, and Poetry sections!
Check out the new issue soon—and Libby’s website as well!
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.
Cudmore-Enjoy-the-Silence
