TITLE FIGHT by Deborah Elliott-Upton When I signed with my first agent, I knew little about the world of publishing. I did know that titles weren’t copyrighted and if I’d wanted to name my novel Gone With the Wind, I could certainly do so, but it wasn’t a smart idea. I found that editors most […]

IT’S ALL LIES by Deborah Elliott-Upton Every day criminals are caught and herded off in handcuffs past family and friends to a waiting patrol car amid cries of “You’ve got the wrong man!” And every day, people are proved wrong when police produce evidence with or without the aid of a confession. “Who knows what […]

DUMB AND DUMBER by Deborah Elliott-Upton You know something out of the ordinary is going on when several squad cars and a couple of state trooper vehicles block the entrances of a Walmart super center with their lights flashing. It isn’t just a shoplifter being apprehended and for some of us, whether we’re writers or […]

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY by Deborah Elliott-Upton “But only a fool would write short stories solely for money. There has to be something more to it than that. In my case I am blessed (or cursed) with the ability to think up plots faster and more easily than I can fully develop them and set them […]

GETTING STARTED AGAIN by Deborah Elliott-Upton When I agreed to my first speaking engagement of 2009, I assumed I would probably be standing in front of or at least near a podium or somewhere I could place a few index cards with notes. Instead, the former radio host asking for the interview in January said […]

2009 – BRING IT ON by Deborah Elliott-Upton “We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” – Edith Lovejoy Pierce There’s something magical about starting anew. Like new notebooks for September back-to-school […]

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES by Deborah Elliott-Upton On this Christmas day, I want to thank you for the gifts you’ve presented each of us at Criminal Brief since our inception. The gift of returning week after week to read our renderings is something no writer should ever take for granted. Please know that we don’t. […]