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. I’m a fan of long titles for short stories, and today’s post by Joseph S. Walker begins with a great title: “And Now, An Inspiring Story of Tragedy Overcome.” I ..read more

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. Robert Lopresti was the first guest at the First Two Pages when I took over curating this series in November 2017 after Bonnie Stevens’ death; Rob wrote about hi ..read more

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. Stephen King has called Charles Ardai “a true renaissance man”—a quote I’m glad I found, since I started to use the same phrase myself in writing this introducti ..read more

I’ll be celebrating my birthday this year by interviewing my good friend Donna Andrews as the headline event at the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival—one of our favorite mystery events and such a thrill to be part of the program again in 2024! This year’s festival takes place Saturday, March 16, at the Suffolk Conference Center, adjacent to the Hilton Garden Inn on the beautiful Suffolk Riverfront, 100 East Constance Road, Suffolk, Virginia. And here’s the schedule for the day—though need to point out that the VIP Reception has already sold out! 11:30am-12:45pm VIP Reception (PRIVATE) Advance T ..read more

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 fourth and final essay celebrating Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology, it’s a true honor to welcome one of the founding members of the SleuthSayers b ..read more

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. The First Two Pages continues a celebration of the new anthology Murder, Neat with an essay below by David Edgerley Gates on his story “Shuffle Off to Buffalo”—f ..read more

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. We’re continuing a series of First Two Pages essays by contributors to Murder, Neat, a new anthology edited by and featuring writers from the group blog SleuthSa ..read more

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. February 13 is publication day for Murder, Neat, a new anthology edited by and featuring contributors to SleuthSayers, a group blog that’s home to some of the fi ..read more

Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology features short fiction by members of the group blog SleuthSayers, whose contributors include some of the best short story writers in the genre. Edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, the collection features 24 stories, all touching on drinking and drinking establishments of some kind—”from dive bars to wineries.” I’m proud to be a SleuthSayers alum—not in the rotation anymore but with occasional guest posts—and so pleased to be included in the new collection. My own story, “Two for One,” follows a woman who’s wanting a little more adventure in h ..read more

I’m joining Richie Narvaez, Edwin Hill, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden on a panel about teaching crime fiction at this year’s AWP Conference in Kansas City. “It’s a Crime! Genre Fiction’s Bad Rap (Sheet) in Academia’s Mean Streets” will take place on Thursday, February 8, at 1:45 p.m. in Room 3501AB of the Kansas City Convention Center (Level 3). Here’s the write-up: Crime fiction has often struggled to be taken seriously in literature classes and creative writing workshops, even as the students themselves are avid fans of suspense, thrillers, true crime podcasts, and more. Professors who teac ..read more