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.
Last week, the First Two Pages kicked off a series of essays focused on the latest volume in the award-winning Chesapeake Crimes anthology series: Fur, Feathers, and Felonies, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley and presented by the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime and Wildside Press.
Karen Cantwell was the first anthology contributor to offer reflections on the opening to her story, “Sunset Beauregard.” This week, Robin Templeton steps in to chat about “Hunter’s Moon.”
Many folks who attend Malice Domestic each year have seen Robin and her camera at event after event, and she’s a long-time member of our local chapters of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime as well—in fact, just stepping up to an officer position as secretary for SinC’s Chesapeake Chapter. Robin is also a terrific writer. She was awarded The William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers from Malice Domestic, and has twice been a finalists for the Minotaur Books/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competitions. She’s recently had a flurry of short stories published as well, in Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning, in Snowbound: Best New England Crime Stories, and in Malice Domestic 13: Murder Most Geographical in addition to the story she’s talking about 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 here to read off-line.
And stay tuned for next week when Shari Randall wraps up our mini-series on Fur, Feathers, and Felonies!
Templeton Hunter's Moon
Robin, I enjoyed seeing your thought process in these two pages. Your story has haunted me – not just the more mystical elements but also the mother-daughter element (don’t want to give away any spoilers!)