The First Two Pages: “The One” by Eve Elliot

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.

This week continues a two-part series featuring contributors to the new anthology Cemetery Plots of Northern California, presented by Capitol Crimes, the Sacramento Chapter of Sisters in Crime. The collection, released earlier this month, features stories by Donna Benedict, Melissa H. Blaine, Jenny Carless, Chris Dreith, Eve Elliot, Elaine Faber, Kenneth Gwin, Kim Keeline, Virginia Kidd, Nan Mahon, Jennifer Morita, Karen Phillips, Richard Schneider, Terry Shepherd, and Joseph S. Walker. Last week, Kim Keeline appeared at The First Two Pages, discussing her story “Nameless,” and this week, I’m so pleased to welcome Eve Elliot with her story “The One.”

Born in Canada and now living in Ireland, Eve Elliot wears many hats in the storytelling world—as a voice actress, a romance novelist, and now a writer of crime fiction too. Her first work in this new genre was the audio whodunit The Death of Dr. Davidson, and her story “The One” brings her even more fully into the mystery world. Find out more about all her work at her website: www. eveelliot.com.

And be sure to sign up for the virtual launch party for Cemetery Plots on Sunday, October 24—more info 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 to read off-line.