COLORFUL LANGUAGE by James Lincoln Warren By the time the Gentle Reader peruses this article, I will be in South Africa, vacationing with my father. The trip is the fulfillment of a long-time dream. I have been fascinated with the continent ever since I saw my first Tarzan movie and watched Louis Leakey and Jane […]

AN UNEXPECTED HISTORY by James Lincoln Warren I do not believe that any person’s worth is determined by his ancestry. History is full of examples of wise and compassionate potentates whose issue were among the vilest of tyrants, as well as of highly meritorious men and women who were the children of utter blackguards. As […]

HABITUAL OFFENDERS by James Lincoln Warren Why have so many short story publications gone the way of all flesh? This isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s been happening gradually for several decades. When I was a kid, there were lots of short story magazines on the newsstands, and “slick” magazines regularly printed short fiction. Most of […]

THE CALIFORNIA CRIME WRITERS CONFERENCE: SELLING SHORTS by Melodie Johnson Howe and James Lincoln Warren The weekend of June 13-14, 2009, Sisters in Crime Los Angeles Chapter and the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America teamed up to present the California Crime Writers Conference in Pasadena, CA. The conference consisted of two days […]

Deborah Elliott-Upton should return next week. Yay! —JLW OUR FIENDISH PLAN by James Lincoln Warren This weekend, Sisters in Crime Los Angeles Chapter and the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America are convening the California Crime Writers Conference at the Hilton Pasadena here in Southern Cal. The conference is offering multiple classes and […]

THUMPING THE GOOD BOOK by James Lincoln Warren 1 According to Technorati, the website that tracks blogs, Criminal Brief is ranked 237,453rd among about 7.3 million blogs on the web. Not bad … except that when you consider that Sarah Weinman’s Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, perhaps the premiere mystery blog on the net, rates […]

WEATHER THOU GOEST by James Lincoln Warren The Santa Ana wind, which makes you crazy, is the most famous weather phenomenon in Southern California, but the most persistent weather phenomenon out here is during the overcast weeks of June Gloom, which just makes you depressed. Of course, Southern Californians have a reputation for mental aberration […]