REFRIGERATOR QUESTIONS by Rob Lopresti My friend Paul is an accomplished writer in many fields but he has yet to achieve the highest pinnacle of literary achievement — which is to say, he has yet to sell a mystery story. Recently he asked me to review a story he was about to submit and I […]

THE STYLE IS THE SUBSTANCE by Rob Lopresti I shouldn’t be writing this. For once I am working on a deadline: writing a story for an anthology and I have just under a month to turn something in. For a guy who usually takes years to fine tune a story, this is crazyland. But I […]

BOOM! by Rob Lopresti We interrupt our usual display of wisdom and erudition to wish you all a happy Independence Day, two days early. This is, of course, the only American holiday so nice they named it twice. If you need that explained, I refer you to that excellent debating society, the regulars at the […]

WHY I’M NOT RICH Or, why I write mysteries, instead of bestselling New Age memoirs by Rob Lopresti About ten years ago, one lovely August afternoon, I was riding my bicycle home from work. I remember turning the corner near the South Campus of Saint Joe’s Hospital, thinking about the songs I was going to […]

AMAZING by Rob Lopresti The first mystery convention I ever attended was Bouchercon XIV, held in New York in 1983. It happened to be a terrible season for the flu, and a lot of authors and attendees stayed home sick. The big entertainment on Saturday night was supposed to be a magician who was going […]

A FINE ITALIAN HAND by Rob Lopresti Sitting on my table is a book called Delitti Folk, published by Delos Books of Rome.  It is a mystery, just published, and the author is listed as Robert Lopresti. That’s pretty interesting, because I don’t speak (or write) Italian. This is my first experience with being translated.  […]

NO, BUT I READ THE TV SHOW by Robert Lopresti Steve Hockensmith is one of those scary talented guys. He writes regularly for Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Plus he writes novels, good ones. And for several years he wrote the film column for Hitchcock’s. Obviously this couldn’t go on forever. […]