BRAVO EQMM & FORGIVE THE RANT by Melodie Johnson Howe Black Mask is back in Ellery Queen. The first short story is Dashiell Hammett’s “Bodies Piled Up.” He takes the discovery of the body in the closet and turns that moment into dark satire. It’s great to be back in San Francisco, with the Continental […]

UGG! by Melodie Johnson Howe I am trying to finish a short story before I leave for Vermont next week when the phone rings. It’s Lenore whom I’ll be visiting in Vermont. We have known each other since we were thirteen years old. She has called me every day with a weather report. It’s snowing, […]

BORDER MADNESS by Melodie Johnson Howe I met my friend, Kathleen, for coffee and to exchange books. She’s a nonfiction writer who is published in major newspapers, magazines and has written two books. She’s interested in writing fiction now, possibly a mystery. We tried Starbucks first but there was no place to sit so we […]

PARK THAT BROKEN DOWN METAPHOR by Melodie Johnson Howe It’s Monday. The day I set aside to write the Criminal Brief blog, which JLW masterfully puts up for me by Tuesday. I’m sitting in bed, sipping my first morning cup of coffee, flipping through the Los Angeles Times. My mind is not on the paper. […]

MORE MELODIE MUSINGS by Melodie Johnson Howe Norman Mailer died. I have a love hate relationship with him just as I do with Doris Lessing. In fact I’m beginning to really detest Lessing after I read this quote from her in a James Carroll column in the Boston Globe. “… the 911 attacks were ‘not […]

INVASION of the SLEEP SNATCHERS by Melodie Johnson Howe On Sunday, Leigh had wonderful column where he was talking — ranting? — about television. I believe that television saps your soul. In fact I wrote a short story, “The Talking Dead,” about just that. (EQMM June 23, 2003) But if TV can drain your originality, […]

THE INSPIRATION OF SPAM by Melodie Johnson Howe Coffee in hand I stagger into my office to begin writing. I crank up the computer and wait for it to go through its machinations. My icons appear on the screen. I tell myself not open my emails. Don’t do it, Melodie, you’ll get bogged down. Start […]