I wanted to write a Memorial Day column for today, but as it was coalescing in my mind, I kept hearing the refrain, “In Flanders fields, the poppies blow …” In former days, wearing poppies on Veterans Day was common, even customary. That’s because Veterans Day was originally November 11, commemorating the end of World […]

RHETORICAL QUESTION by James Lincoln Warren As I promised I would do eventually, here’s my take on the third of the subjects covered by the “Trivium” of the medieval classical education: Rhetoric. (The first two subjects were Logic and Grammar.) Of the three, Rhetoric is the most misunderstood. The OED defines rhetoric as “The art […]

CRIMINAL BRIEF ENCOUNTER by James Lincoln Warren Ever since I first conceived of Criminal Brief, it has been my fervent desire to encourage as much reader participation as possible, even beyond trying to stimulate responses to our posts. CB was first and foremost intended as an advocacy site for short crime fiction, a voice for […]

CARPE DIEM by James Lincoln Warren I’m always amused whenever I see a tee-shirt or a coffee mug emblazoned with the motto, Carpe Diem. This is usually translated as, “Seize the day”, although a more literal translation is to “Pluck (off) the day”, as in pulling an apple off a tree. (“Seize” will do, however.) […]

BACKSTORY BLUES by James Lincoln Warren I have taken two creative writing courses in my life. One was at my alma mater, UTSA. That one was a poetry course. The second one was a screenwriting course I took through UCLA Extension. I took the first for three elective credit hours toward my bachelor’s degree and […]

EVERY SINGLE ONE of the Criminal Brief authors last week picked up on Leigh’s delusional rants about a Criminal Brief Corporate Headquarters and wrote independently about it. Honest, it was nothing like an assignment—everybody chose to write about the same thing without consulting with anybody else. And to prove it, you’ll notice that our descriptions […]

MENCKEN MODERNIZED by James Lincoln Warren The following definitions were taken from Chapter X, “The Jazz Webster”, of H. L. Mencken’s A Book of Burlesques (Borzoi, 1907)—they were obviously written in imitation of Ambrose Bierce. But seeing as more than a century has passed since the marvelous Mr. M formulated them, I have added emendations […]