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.
Richie Narvaez returns to The First Two Pages this week with an essay on his story for On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology—the third and final essay in a series celebrating the new anthology. Edited by Curtis Ippolito and published by Rock and a Hard Place, On Fire and Under Water features stories that “peel back the curtain on the ways in which climate change impacts real people in their most desperate hour.” Contributors include C.W. Blackwell, Mary Thorson, Zakariah Johnson, Puja Guha, Colin Brightwell, Priscilla Paton, Christian Emecheta, Raymond Brash, Edward Barnfield, Kendall Brunson, Michael Downing, C.E. McKenna, Jim Ruland, Richie Narvaez, and Meagan Lucas. We’ve already hosted Kendall Brunson on her story “Bad Egg” and Michael Downing on “Burn”—do check out those essays in addition to Richie’s below.
Richie is a tremendously talented short story writer with more than 80 stories to his credit in journals, magazines, and anthologies, including Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mississippi Review, Storyglossia, and Tiny Crimes. He has two short story collections: Roachkiller & Other Stories and Noiryorican, the latter of which was nominated for an Anthony Award for Best Anthology. And he earned both an Anthony and an Agatha Award for his YA novel Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco. You can find more about him and his work at his website: www.richienarvaez.com/.
As you’ll see in the essay and excerpt below, Richie’s new story, “The Skies Are Red,” boasts not only a unique premise but also a distinctive structure—just more evidence of his mastery and inventiveness in the short story form. I’m honored to host him here—and to count him as a great friend 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.
Narvaez-The-Skies-Are-Red
