The First Two Pages - “Haven” by Joseph S. Walker

Aug 28, 2026

An essay by Joseph S. Walker reflecting on the opening pages of his story “Haven,” selected for republication in the collection Crime Scenes. The text revisits the earliest scene, its original writing timeline, and how the opening paragraph sets a dramatic situation through narrator voice. It explains the meaning of “Haven” as a shelter for abused women and children, traces personal inspirations for characters, and comments on dialogue influenced by Robert B. Parker while evaluating the passage’s lasting effectiveness.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time9 min

AccessFree to download

The First Two Pages

Origin of the collection and choosing “Haven”

The opening paragraph and narrator voice

Meaning and inspiration behind the name “Haven”

Character inspirations: Jess and Angie

Dialogue passage and stylistic reflections

The First Two Pages: “Haven” by Joseph S. Walker From Crime Scenes (Level Best Books) An Essay by Joseph S. Walker In March of this year, Level Best Books published Crime Scenes, collecting twenty of my stories—something I wouldn’t have believed, a few years ago, would ever happen. Choosing which stories would appear in the collection was, for the most part, surprisingly easy. A lot of writers might be hesitant to say so, but I suspect we all have favorites among our published works. Maybe they’re the pieces that got awards or nominations, or the ones that got the most vocal and enthusiastic feedback from readers, or just the ones with a plot twist or a few lines of dialogue we still remember fondly. The list of stories I wanted to include came together pretty quickly. It was the process of choosing an order for them and editing them for republication that gave me a chance to reflect on how (or if) my writing has changed over the years, so I thought it would be interesting to look atthe earliest passage included in the book: the first pages of my story “Haven.” “Haven” is not, mind you, the earliest publication in the book; that honor goes to “Pillbug,” which ran in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine in 2015. The opening scene of“Haven,” however, is something I had written several years before that—well before 2011, when I first saw my fiction published. I believe I may have written the first version of the scene as early as 2005. I always liked it, but I couldn’t think of how to continue the story. It would be a while before I developed the discipline, as a writer, to realize that just plowing ahead usually works, one way or another. Here’s the first paragraph of the story: I was sitting with Jess and Angie on the front porch at Haven, waiting for Mason Barnes to come try to kill his wife. He was running later than we’d expected, and my attention was wandering. I have to say I’m still pretty fond of this. It does what I still try to do in the opening of most of my stories: immediately establish a dramatic situation, while using voice to give some idea of the main character. My narrator here is Wade, a small-town cop who takes the job, but not himself, seriously. “Haven,” in my story, is the name of a shelter for abused women and children, run by Jess and Angie, who are a couple. I’ll acknowledge here that the name itself is the first instance in the story of, depending on your point of view, either homage or outright theft. In 1982, there was a story called “Haven,” written by Len Wein, in Detective Comics \#514. In it, Batman pursues a group of criminals into some remote mountains, where they encounter a hermit and committed pacifist who calls himself Haven. I won’t spoil the story, but when I read it as a kid, it made an enormous impact on me, and I always wanted to use the name in a story as a tip of the hat, even if I was the only one who knew about it (but now you know, too) . While we’re on the topic of inspiration: the character Jess is based on one of the bravest people I’ve ever known, a girl from my high school who was an out lesbian and punk rocker—at a Catholic school in the 1980s. That girl and Jess are different in a lot of ways (Jess is considerably more violent, as befits a character in crime fiction), but there are definite points of overlap. The story now shifts into dialogue: “If my legs were a little longer,” I said,“I could put my heels up on the porch railing and tilt the chair onto its back legs and pull my hat down over my eyes.” Jess and Angie were sitting together on a bench swing a few feet to my right. Angie, focused on the long driveway leading down the hill, ignored me. Ignoring me was one of Angie’s favorite pastimes. Jess snorted.“Only if by a little longer you mean ten inches,” she said. “It would look cooler when Mason shows up,” I said.“Just sitting here in an old kitchen chair with all four legs on the floor makes it seem like I’m waiting on him.”

FAQs

Why does Joseph S. Walker focus on the first pages of “Haven”?

He uses the editorial and ordering process for republication as an opportunity to reflect on how his writing has changed, and chooses the earliest passage included in the book: the first pages of “Haven.”

What does “Haven” refer to in the story?

In “Haven,” the name is the shelter for abused women and children, run by Jess and Angie, who are a couple.

How does Walker view the dialogue in the opening passage?

He acknowledges mixed feelings: he can detect an influence from Robert B. Parker in tone and rhythm, yet he still finds the exchange amusing and useful for establishing character relationships.

Aug 28, 2026

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