BOND FANS ARE FOREVER by John M. Floyd I grew up with James Bond. I read all the Ian Fleming novels as a teenager in the sixties, snapping them up from the library’s “bookmobile” that rumbled into our small town once a week, and throughout college I eagerly awaited every new movie in the series […]

CALL ME LATER—I’M WRITING by John M. Floyd I’ve always been interested in how writers write. I like finding out about their sources of inspiration, their workplaces (thanks, Steve, for your recent columns on that), and their daily routines and schedules. One thing I find particularly fascinating is that so many writers assign themselves “quotas,” […]

TICKET, PLEASE by John M. Floyd For today’s column I went to a familiar subject, in mystery/suspense fiction: stories that involve trains. I’ve always liked them, because they give the reader or viewer an isolated, “closed” setting—sort of like a locked-room mystery, at times. After all, when the train’s moving no one’s going to get […]

IF YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR BURRO FROM A BURROW by John M. Floyd Two guys are sitting in a tavern, sipping their beers. One says to the other, “See that girl at the end of the bar? I think I’ll ask her for a date.” The second guy takes a look, then says, “Forget it. […]

LESSER EVILS by John M. Floyd Rob Lopresti’s column about heroes and their sidekicks the other day got me thinking. It’s true that the best Kirks need good Spocks, or Hawks or Tontos or Watsons or Samwise Gamgees, as the case may be. But let’s be fair, here: the villains need interesting helpers as well. […]

ZAPPED by John M. Floyd Like Leigh and Rob and JLW, I’ve had computer problems recently, and was even reduced to typing and sending in my last two columns via my wife’s laptop. In my case, though, it was more of a disaster than a problem: my main computer was so ill it was in […]

UNDERAPPRECIATED by John M. Floyd Everyone likes the blockbuster novels, the ones that attract millions of readers. We usually even know beforehand that we’ll like them, either because we’re familiar with the authors or because we’ve seen the reviews or heard the buzz. You know the ones I’m talking about: Jaws, The Godfather, The Prince […]