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.
Terrie Farley Moran and I first met at a party hosted by Dell Magazines the afternoon before the Edgar Awards many years ago, and we became fast friends. When I accepted this year’s Edgar a few weeks back, Terrie was at the banquet as well. In between those times, she and I have cheered along one another’s publications and successes and more—both writerly news but also personal news: children, grandchildren, what’s going on in our lives. Terrie’s not just a fine writer, but a fine friend too.
Terrie won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel for Well Read, Then Dead, the first book in the Read ‘Em and Eat mystery series, and she won the Derringer Award for Best Novelette for “Inquiry and Assistance,” originally published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. (And Terrie: Still waiting for more in that series!) She’s also the co-author of Laura Childs’ New Orleans scrapbooking mystery series, and other stories have appeared in both Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine as well as numerous anthologies. You can find out more about Terrie at her website or connect with her on Facebook here.
Today at the First Two Pages, Terrie talks about her story “Flamingo Bingo” from Alfred Hitchcock’s May/June issue—the cover story, and what a cover it is!
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.
Moran-Flamingo
I am so honored to be here. I got a bit misty eyed when I read Art’s recap of how we met and how long we’ve been friends. He, Tara and Dash are joyful bonuses in my life. One of the joys of the mystery community is that I became lifelong friends with people I would never have met were I not writing mysteries. And I want to thank Art for continuing this blog, started by our mutual dear friend Bonnie Stevens. We all miss Bonnie every day and are so happy to have this weekly reminder of her many contributions to the mystery community!
Aw! Thanks so much, Terrie! And thanks for the shout-out to Bonnie too. I miss her always, but glad to be carrying this project of hers forward. Thanks for being part of it!