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.
Rounding out a series of essays celebrating the new anthology Malice, Matrimony, & Murder: 25 Wedding Cozy Mystery and Crime Fiction Stories, Karen McCullough appears this week to discuss her story “The Other Wedding Crasher”—following up on two earlier essays this month: Lynn Hesse on her story “Sabotage and a Murder Mystery” and Ashey-Ruth Bernier on “Chill.” Edited by Marla Bradeen, Malice, Matrimony, & Murder: 25 Wedding Cozy Mystery and Crime Fiction Stories also features stories by (in order of appearance) Joslyn Chase, Charlotte Morganti, P.M. Raymond, Paige Sleuth, Teresa Inge, Sally Milliken, Rebecca Olmstead, Nikki Knight, Shari Held, Barbara Howard, KD Sherrinford, Stephen D. Rogers, Elaine Togneri, Margaret S. Hamilton, Stella Oni, Robert Petyo, Pamela Kyel, Wil A. Emerson, Jack Bates, J. Aquino, Sharyn Kolberg, and Becky Clark. (Note that the link above goes to Marla’s website, with buy links in various directions.)
In addition to short fiction here and in various other anthologies, Karen McCullough is a distinguished and prolific writer, with two dozen published novels and novellas in the mystery, romance, suspense, and fantasy genres, including the Market Center Mysteries Series and three books in the No Brides Club series—so writing about matrimony without the side of malice and murder, too! You can find more about her and her books at her website here: http://www.kmccullough.com.
Thanks to Ashley-Ruth, Karen, and Lynn for contributing posts this month—and congratulations to them and all the contributors to the new book!
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.
McCullough-Wedding-Crasher
You had me at “It appears she’s done this kind of thing before.” I want to know all about her and what she’s up to this time. Thanks for sharing, Karen!
Thank you Art, for the opportunity to talk about my story here! And thanks to Marla, too, for organizing this wonderful project. I’m proud to be part of it.
Thanks, Karen! And Marla too!
Love the name Lynn as your main character, and how you build suspense in the story. Happy Holidays! Best, Lynn
Thanks so much for this inside look into the start of your fun story, Karen! And thank you, Art, for these awesome posts spotlighting some of the Malice, Matrimony, and Murder stories!
Thanks for organizing, Marla — both the anthology and the writers for this series of essays!