IN THE GAME by James Lincoln Warren Last month, my wife Margaret surprised me by suggesting that we buy a video game console. The stimulus for this was something she’d read on facebook by Gregory Han, my niece Emily’s boyfriend here in L.A., about a new video game called “L.A. Noire” [sic] and his link […]

CONTRAPHOBIA by James Lincoln Warren The Gentle Reader may be forgiven for not being familiar with the word I have opted for my title. You won’t find it in the Oxford English Dictionary, nor in most other dictionaries. I learned it from my father, a psychiatrist (now retired), on the occasion of watching a foolish […]

LITTLE THINGS by James Lincoln Warren Last November, I wrote a column about finding characters’ voices. You can find it here. In particular, I discussed a problem I was having in finding a particular character’s voice in a Work In Progress. Erica H. Wooding, my heroine, is young and sassy and extremely female. I, on […]

MODERATION IN ALL THINGS by James Lincoln Warren It looks like I’m the only member of the CB crew who will be heading off to Malice Domestic in Bethesda, Maryland, at the end of next month. For those of you unfamiliar with this particular fan convention, it is dedicated to the “traditional mystery,” and its […]

THE SCRITIC by James Lincoln Warren Not for the first time, we Criminal Briefers have a hat trick on our hands: no fewer than three of us have stories in the current issues of magazines (four if you count John and Woman’s World and his ongoing book tour for his collection, Clockwork—and can Deborah be […]

The following is very off topic, especially for me, but I offer it for two reasons. First, I have been very busy this week and really haven’t had time to write something on topic, especially since the Super Bowl took a big chunk out of my Sunday routine, and secondly, because this small essay was […]

THE CODE OF THE WARRENS by James Lincoln Warren Since my installation a week ago last Saturday as Master of my Masonic lodge (I’m the fat gray-haired beamish eminence seated in the center), I have found myself more occupied than a ping-pong player in a contest with the goddess Kali of the eight arms. Luckily, […]