The First Two Pages: “Moe’s Seafood House” by Ramona DeFelice Long

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.

Ramona DeFelice Long is a prolific writer of short stories, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, and more. Just scanning a list of recent works reveals a wide range of genres and publications, ranging from flash fiction in the Parhelion Literary Magazine and the Fox Chase Review to short stories in Philadelphia Stories and Currents to a personal essay in The Delmarva Review to various guest blogs and…. Well, you can (and should!) read through the bibliography of her publications at her website here.

But Ramona’s writing is only a part of what she does. She’s also a highly regarded and much-sought editor, and she’s an online writing teacher as well—and those of you who follow her on social media as I do know how encouraging she is there too, to aspiring writers and veterans alike.

I’m pleased to host Ramona today talking about “Moe’s Seafood House,” her new story for Black Cat Mystery Magazine, and the specific choices she made there to set character in motion, lay the seeds for conflict, and maneuver her way through tone—with more tonal shifts ahead already in mind.

This is the second of a series featuring contributors to the latest issue of Black Cat. Last week, I hosted Steve Liskow reflecting on his story “Messin’ With The Kid,” and next week Su Kopil will talk about “Mud Season.” Stay tuned!

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.

Long-Moes