A.K.A. JOHN SMITH by John M. Floyd What’s your pen name? Bic? Paper Mate? Sharpie? Okay, I know that’s not funny. Pseudonyms are serious business to many authors, and some are far better known (Mark Twain, O. Henry, Ellery Queen, etc.) than the writers’ real names. A lady in one of my writing courses last […]

INTERIOR MONOLOGUE by John M. Floyd I’d like to offer an assumption. Well, maybe not an assumption — let’s call it a guess. My guess is, no matter what you do for a living and no matter how good you are at it, you sometimes stop for a minute and stare off into the distance […]

I’M HEARING VOICES by John M. Floyd Writing, I am often reminded, is a lonely pastime. Those of us crazy enough to do it often spend hours cubbyholed and isolated, scribbling down all the weird things we see happening in our minds. The truth is, though, unless you’re fortunate enough to get your creations published […]

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME? by John M. Floyd To all of you who read short stories (and novels too), I’d like to pose a question: Why do you do it? Most of the reasons are obvious, and have been covered to some degree in past columns: We read for entertainment, illumination, escape, mental stimulation, […]

BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE by John M. Floyd As some of you know, my working years (I don’t consider writing to be work) were spent in the Air Force and with IBM Corporation. Not the most logical background for a suspense writer, I know, but analogies can be found if you take the time to look […]

A BOOKFUL OF AUTHORS by John M. Floyd For the past eight years or so, at a college near my home, I’ve taught night courses on the subject of writing and selling short fiction. And one of the things I always try to point out, in the sessions on submitting and publishing, is an often-overlooked […]

A STORY IN A NUTSHELL by John M. Floyd I’ve always felt that meeting with and listening to other writers has helped my own writing. It’s certainly made me change the way I do certain things, and I believe most of those changes have been to my advantage. There are probably two ways to look […]