THE TYING OF THE BUN by Robert Lopresti Back in November I found myself (Hey! There I am!) in the Los Angeles Public Library. The guidebook I bought called the Central Library “the hippest building in town.” I didn’t see enough of the city to make a fair comparison, but I liked it better than […]

MERRY HOGSWATCH TO ALL by Robert Lopresti I have written before about Terry Pratchett’s wonderful fantasy series, Discworld. They are one of the most amazing collections of books I have ever read. Imagine my delight a few weeks ago when I discovered that a three-hour production of Pratchett’s novel Hogfather was going to be on […]

LOST AND PROFOUND by Robert Lopresti We mystery writers are a very quotable bunch. Here are a few samples to demonstrate. “Books are like your children. They take nine months to write; the manuscript weighs six pounds and…you send them out into the world and hope that some day they’ll send back money.” -Edna Buchanan […]

VERY OLD MYSTERIES by Robert Lopresti Last month I attended the Bible and Archaeology Fest in San Diego. This is one of those events that can best be described as “fascinating to people who are fascinated by that sort of thing.” I’m sure some people would rather listen to a dramatic recital of the phone […]

COLD CALL by Rob Lopresti Hello? Hello. This is Namehere Publisher Service. We’re calling on behalf of Your Favorite Magazine. No, you’re not. It’s time to renew —Excuse me? I said you don’t work for the magazine. You got hold of their mailing list somehow, probably illegally, and now you’re calling up their subscribers, trying […]

YOU CAN LOOK IT UP by Rob Lopresti I have just spent the better part of a week in distant and mysterious parts (mostly L.A.) doing research on what I sincerely hope will be my next novel. It occurred to me that since most of us maker-uppers occasionally have to ferret out some facts to […]

THE RETREAT FROM MYSTERY by Robert Lopresti I want to raise a delicate subject today. Has anyone noticed that some of our best mystery writers have stopped writing mysteries? I could name half a dozen of my favorites who have abandoned their series characters for one-off “novels of suspense.” Generalizing wildly, let me say that […]