LURID by Melodie Johnson Howe Larry McMurtry opined in the Los Angeles Times on July 5 on the dust jacket of Mickey Spillane’s novel, I, The Jury: “McMurtry analyzes the cover of I, the Jury, the crime writer’s 1947 pulp novel, with the zeal of an anthropologist exploring a lost culture: In the gritty paperback’s […]

AFTER THE FALL by Melodie Johnson Howe I took a fall. I blame my dog, Dr. Watson. He pushed me. After all P. D. James thought Humpty Dumpty was pushed. (In crime fiction people don’t fall by themselves.) Not being an egg or even an egg head, I didn’t break into a thousand pieces. But […]

REEL MEN, WOMEN REEL, REEL WRITERS by Melodie Johnson Howe I went to see Sex and the City the other night with my girlfriends. Oh, God, where do I begin? There were parts of the movie I loved, including the satirical scene with a naked man who was too gorgeous; and the camera lingering lovingly […]

REAL MEN? REAL WOMEN? by Melodie Johnson Howe Leigh’s last two columns got me thinking. When I was learning to write it never occurred to me that it would be difficult to write about men. At least not more difficult that it was to write about women. Jane Austin or Flaubert didn’t have a problem […]

UNRELATED MATTERS by Melodie Johnson Howe I will be teaching a fiction workshop at The Santa Barbara Writers Conference from June 21 to June 26. This is one of the premier writer conferences in the country. For those who don’t want to take the workshops they are offering a special package to attend all the […]

THE LITERARY CRAFT? by Melodie Johnson Howe The following are two descriptions of short story writing courses being taught by Stanford University online that were sent to me via e-mail. I’m pleased that they are teaching the short story, but some of the terminology they used gave me pause. Here is the first one. Fiction […]

WORDS by Melodie Johnson Howe Words, words, words, words, words, words, words, words words, words, words words. (God, I love it when the writing flows.) Hope. Morally bankrupt. Flag. Flag pin. Move forward. Continue on. Change. Words. Sexist. Racist. Ageist. Bitter. Low-class. America, Un-American. Guns. Ducks. Health Care. Surge. Pant suit. Double-down. Maverick. SUVs Words. […]