FOR LOVE OR MONEY by James Lincoln Warren Sometimes I have a taxonomic brain. There are all kinds of ways to classify fiction, and I think I use them all. This isn’t necessarily a good thing, but it is very tidy. Some time ago, I wrote a column on common crime fiction subgenres, wherein I […]

THE SEVEN PER CENT SOLUTION by James Lincoln Warren Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon […]

AMBIENT NOYES by James Lincoln Warren Have you ever heard of Ernest U. Kinsey? Probably not, but I’ll lay you fifteen to one that you’ve used his invention, or at least the simplified version of it introduced by Noyes Palmer Chapman. Kinsey invented a puzzle consisting of 35 numbered square tiles inside a square frame […]

MY LIST O’ LEXICONS by James Lincoln Warren Some people shoot heroin, some play the ponies, some drink caffeinated beverages, and others rent DVDs. Me, I’m a dictionary junkie. I don’t know how many dictionaries I own. I honestly don’t. But for a writer, having dictionaries hardly qualifies as a vice. Of the many I […]

JUSTICE IS NOT ONLY BLIND. SHE IS DEAF, DUMB, AND OBVIOUSLY HIGH. by James Lincoln Warren I was thinking about writing a column about nail-on-the-head writing, why it’s usually a bad thing, and how to avoid it. So I came up with one of the deadliest dull beginnings I could dream up: My name is […]

NOTES OF A CONTRACT KILLER by James Lincoln Warren On Saturday I got a check and a contract in the mail from Penny Publications LLC, d/b/a Dell Magazines, for a short story I submitted to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The check wasn’t huge, but it was certainly welcome: $720.00. Considering that the story it was […]

DOPPELGÄNGER! by James Lincoln Warren It’s been over two years since I wrote about our having adopted two cats who are sisters, Emma and Lizzie. A week ago last Friday, while Lizzie was sitting in Margaret’s lap, Margaret felt three small bumps or welts on the skin of Lizzie’s left foreleg below her fur. Benign […]