CHANDLER ACTS by Melodie Johnson Howe I’ve seen the movie Double Indemnity starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray so many times I’ve lost count. But not once did I notice Raymond Chandler sitting on a bench, reading a book, in a hallway as MacMurray walks by him. It seems it took a Frenchman to make […]

THRILLERFEST by Melodie Johnson Howe Joe Finder, David Morrell, Melodie Johnson Howe I just got back from New York where I attended Thrillerfest. Sleep deprived, I am writing this column from memory with no notes or programs to help my recollection. So it’s very sketchy. For the first two days of the convention they have […]

SEXY! THRILLING! TRAILERS GALORE! by Melodie Johnson Howe I love the old black and white movie trailers where they wrote in big script across the screen words such as Daring! Sexy! Brutal! Heart Stopping! Spine Tingling! Then the deep male voice sounding oddly like a Presbyterian minister spoke the words as if the audience couldn’t […]

MELODIE’S MEANDERINGS by Melodie Johnson Howe It is summer and time to bring out the garden furniture. But wait! Something evil lurks! FOLDING CHAIR FRUSTRATION What? You don’t have Folding Chair Frustration? It’s a new syndrome. At least according to the commercial I just watched. It’s the trauma one encounters when attempting to unfold a […]

JUNE GLOOM by Melodie Johnson Howe We have been experiencing what is called June Gloom in California. And if you live along the coast it is June Gloomier. At this time of year the sun does not come out until somewhere between 4:30 pm and 7:00pm if at all. Our days are spent in a […]

WORDY by Melodie Johnson Howe Derivations aside, there are certain words that I find, odd, irritating, or just plain ugly sounding. I know this stems from my childhood when I was learning to read and pronounce words. Vocabulary was not easy for me and I remember having to be tutored. Looking back I think I […]

DRAPED by Melodie Johnson Howe In crazed moment I went to Bed Bath and Beyond (I never understood what the Beyond meant. Heaven? Hell? No Returns?) and bought some drapes for my office. I pounced on a wonderful silk stripe that looked like a man’s dressing gown from the 1930s-40s. Perfect! Now the drapes are […]