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 here. 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’s “First Two Pages” concludes a short series featuring contributors to the debut issue of Black Cat Mystery Magazine. In today’s essay, Michael Bracken chats about his terrific story “Dixie Quickies”—one with surprising twists and turns on each and every page.
Though both young-at-heart and young period, Michael has already received the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for lifetime achievement as a short story writer. He’s had more than 1,200 stories published already, in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Espionage Magazine, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, and many other anthologies and periodicals. He’s also the author of several books, including All White Girls. Find out more at his website here.
I hope you enjoy the essay here and this glimpse at Michael’s fiction. Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay here to read off-line.
Bracken Dixie Quickies