The First Two Pages: “How Do You Mend a Broken Heart?” by Maggie King

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.

Cheers to the new anthology Murder by the Glass. Released earlier this fall, the collection was edited by Teresa Inge and Yvonne Saxon and features stories by Betsy Ashton, Frances Aylor, Mary Dutta, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Diane Fanning, Debra H. Goldstein, Libby Hall, Maria Hudgins, Teresa Inge, Maggie King, Kristin Kisska, Allie Marie, K. L. Murphy, Alan Orloff, Josh Pachter, Shawn Reilly Simmons and Heather Weidner—so many fine writers and fine friends there!

Representing that line-up, I’m pleased to welcome Maggie King today, discussing her story “How Do You Mend a Broken Heart?” In addition to short stories in a wide range of collections—the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, and Death by Cupcake in addition to the new anthology—Maggie is also the author of the Hazel Rose Book Group mysteries, including Murder at the Book Group, Murder at the Moonshine Inn, and the upcoming Laughing Can Kill You. You can find more about Maggie at her website, and please do connect with her on both Facebook and Instagram.

And in the meantime, enjoy at glimpse at her new story here—an opening laying the groundwork for much trouble ahead.

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.