THE FOUR SEASONS by Rob Lopresti Last month, in the midst of darkest, coldest December, spring broke out. I have to explain that the seasons of a writer’s life are not the ones you find on the calendar. They have to do with what is going on in his head or between his hand and […]

BE SEEING YOU By Rob Lopresti I feel like Mr. Morbid here, writing an obit for the second time in a month, but I can’t let Patrick McGoohan pass uncommemorated. (And as I write this, John Mortimer has just died … what a month.) Back in the early sixties when spy shows were popping up […]

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION by Rob Lopresti Not long ago James put up an assortment of opening lines from his short stories. In November John did the same. Since all the cool kids seem to be doing it I am going to give in to peer pressure and provide some of mine. In a few […]

WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? by Rob Lopresti Back in 1987 there was a mystery conference in New Jersey. I don’t remember the exact title but it amounted to a salute to Otto Penzler and to the Mysterious Press, which he had founded, and which had changed the entire field of mystery publishing. There […]

YOU SAY YOU WANT A RESOLUTION by Rob Lopresti I resolve that in the year 2009 … I will send a story out every month (although it may be an older, unpublished story, seeking a new market). I will let no adverb pass into my story without passing a thorough exam to prove it is […]

THE PRETTY GOOD SHEPHERD by Rob Lopresti I was a kid, see … Christmas Eve, 1964. In a house in suburban New Jersey ten-year-old me, too excited to sleep, lay in my bed, trying to find something interesting on my AM radio. Suddenly, I hit the jackpot. A wonderful voice I have never heard before […]

A REAL-LIFE PHONY GENUINE HOLLYWOOD SPY STORY by Rob Lopresti Melodie’s terrific recent column about visiting the CIA Spy Museum, and learning that they employ Hollywood make-up artists, reminded me of a fascinating article which brought up that very subject. It had to do with the Iranian Hostage Crisis. As you may remember the U.S. […]