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.
Today I’m welcoming back Nancy Boyarsky, author of the Nicole Graves mystery series, with her new novel The Ransom, scheduled for release next Tuesday. Nancy has appeared at The First Two Pages twice before, reflecting on her previous novels Liar, Liar and The Swap, the latter when B.K. Stevens was curating the series. In addition to the Nicole Graves series, Nancy has also authored or co-authored several nonfiction books, including textbooks on the justice system and Backroom Politics, a New York Times notable book with her husband Bill Boyarsky.
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.
Boyarsky-Ransom