SMART CRIMINALS by Deborah Elliott-Upton Despite my last column, there are some smart criminals out there, too. Real life criminals evading the police include D. B. Cooper, who in November of 1971 hijacked a Boeing 727, held the passengers hostage, and received a $200,000 ransom before jumping from the airplane and quite literally disappearing into […]

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP by Deborah Elliott-Upton Writers are told we must know the tricks of the trade when writing about crimes, but in truth, criminals are pretty darn dumb. The Oklahoman website reported that James Brewer of Shawnee, OK, suffered a stroke and feared he was on his deathbed. Wanting redemption in […]

HOLIDAY WRITING by Deborah Elliott-Upton While vacationing in Ft. Lauderdale one year with my sister and brother-in-law, my husband and I found ourselves at an Oktoberfest celebration. We’d never heard of the event, which was a shame, because it was a lot of fun. Probably the most fun was when my sister – sneaky girl […]

JUST ONE THING by Deborah Elliott-Upton All good books have one thing in common — they are truer than if they had really happened.” – Ernest Hemingway Recently I received an e-mail from a friend asking me to share just one thing about me others may or may not know and pass it on to […]

SHORT CRIMES by Deborah Elliott-Upton There may not be a free lunch, but it appears that a web site, SHORT STORIES AT EAST OF THE WEB, is offering short crime stories for nada. Okay, so there are a few ads hoping to catch your attention, but like everything else in today’s world, it is merely […]

THE GIFT OF MURDER by Deborah Elliott-Upton I met mystery writer Tony Burton several years ago through the Short Mystery Fiction Society, an online group. Not unlike Criminal Brief, SMFS’s members are mostly writers whose discussions are usually about writing, although here our emphasis is more on sharing our love of the mystery short story, […]

MYSTERIOUS LIFE LESSONS by Deborah Elliott-Upton This week’s column was written in spurts. I was suffering from a heinous stomach virus that allowed me to sit at the keyboard only for a few minutes at a time. I’ve since made a full recovery, but some interesting ideas floated around my semi-consciousness during the times I […]