LIE, LADY, LIE by James Lincoln Warren Probably long before Bob Dylan violated the rules of diction with his ballad “Lay, Lady, Lay” back in 1969’s Nashville Skyline, people seem to have lost all awareness of the distinction between “lie” and “lay”—two completely different words with different meanings. Not too long ago I watched a […]

GOING TO ANY LENGTH by James Lincoln Warren I spent the last several days attending Left Coast Crime here in L.A. I signed up too late to be assigned a panel, and that’s perfectly cool with me—the main reason I go to crime fiction conventions is to catch up on old friends and to make […]

OPENING MONOLOGUE by James Lincoln Warren Among any self-identified group, there are topics that may seem trivial to the uninitiated but will generate passionate debate among the cognoscenti. Among writers, one such topic relates to the use of prologues in story telling. Another such topic is “rules for writing” (a new collection of which the […]

BLITHERING IDIOMS by James Lincoln Warren Blithering – Senselessly discursive or talkative, babbling; esp. of a person, used chiefly as an intensive adjective, with the meaning ‘consummate’ (freq. in blithering idiot); also more widely = despicable, contemptible. Idiom – A form of expression, grammatical construction, phrase, etc., peculiar to a language; a peculiarity of phraseology […]

MURDER SET TO MUSIC by James Lincoln Warren As my distinguished colleague Rob noted last week, murder is a prominent theme in folk music—and he didn’t even touch upon the seemingly endless list of grisly Celtic and medieval English songs of revenge, dismemberment, poison, supernatural justice, and incest, confining himself to good old-fashioned Boy Murders […]

THE ANGEL IN THE ROOM by James Lincoln Warren Janice, the skinny blonde Muppet who plays guitar for Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, is famous for uttering embarrassing statements at the exact moment that every other Muppet in the room shuts up: “Look, Mother, it’s my life, OK? So if I want to live […]

HIGH CONCEPT by James Lincoln Warren Per Rob’s request, today’s column concerns the Hollywood idea of high concept. Simply put, the phrase “high concept” describes a story, especially a movie, that can be pitched by using a catchphrase that evokes a contrived premise, one that explains all ye need to know about the story and […]