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.
For our final contributor of a series celebrating Daydream Believer: Crime Stories Inspired by the Songs of The Monkees! we’re thrilled to welcome Holly West—an extraordinary writer, amazing editor, and terrific person just all around. In addition to writing the is the author of the Mistress of Fortune historical mystery series, she’s a master of short-form fiction—find her work in anthologies including The Big Book of Jack the Ripper, Florida Happens, and The Eviction of Hope—and she edited Murder-A-Go-Go’s: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of the Go-Go’s and the 2023 Bouchercon anthology Killin’ Time in San Diego, which took home the Anthony Award the following year. She’s currently editing the 2027 Sisters in Crime Los Angeles anthology, Los Angeles: Scene of the Crime. I’m grateful to count Holly as a friend, but that’s the case for so many in the mystery community! You can find out more about Holly work at her website here.
Holly’s essay on “Randy Scouse Git” is last in a series that’s already featured Lina Chern on her story “Our Own World,” James D.F. Hannah on “Me & Magdalena,” and Michel Lee Garrett on “Last Train to Clarksville.” Edited by Lawrence Allan and Michelle Kubitz, Daydream Believer also features short stories by Eric Beetner, Libby Cudmore, Michael Downing, Jeff Esterholm, Paul J. Garth, Sean Patrick Little, Alan Orloff, Raquel V. Reyes, Keith Roysdon, and Lawrence Allan.
Congratulations again to all!
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.
