I WRITE WHAT? by Melodie Johnson Howe This will be a short column today because I am off to be interviewed for a show called Literary Gumbo that airs on our local cable channel. I don’t usually do these things, mainly because they light these shows with a flashlight making everyone on camera look like […]

I, THE VILLAIN by Melodie Johnson Howe Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe and Claire Trevor as Mrs. Helen Grayle (Velma Valento) in “Murder, My Sweet” (1944) I never liked Halloween. I think it’s because my childhood was one long Halloween night. However, I did love being a witch. When playing games of pretend I was […]

IS IT LITERATURE, YET? by Melodie Johnson Howe At Bouchercon I went to a panel I had not intended to go to, don’t ask, and found myself listening to writers telling very funny horror stories of trying to sell their books and dealing with wacky fans. The authors and the audience were having a jolly […]

WRITERS GONE WILD by Melodie Johnson Howe Bouchercon is an event where writers, who spend most of their time in self imposed solitary confinement, are let loose in a hotel without proper supervision and begin to talk and drink, and drink and talk. Now and then they make it to a panel where they speak […]

FOR ERICA by Melodie Johnson Howe Like James, Steve, and Rob, I’m off to Bouchercon and I haven’t even thought about packing. I’m still trying to get off the high-heels I wore to a wedding this past weekend. It was a special affair for our daughter Erica, whom I raised since she was six years […]

PEDICURE by Melodie Johnson Howe I’m sitting in a large, beige, leather massage chair. A young Asian woman whose name is Diane is giving me a pedicure. My life is frantic. My daughter is getting married this Saturday, and I am deep in revisions of my new novel. I have come here to relax and […]

DISCLAIMER: I don’t believe in rules. But I do believe in certain practical applications that make the craft of writing if not easier, possible. Having said, that here are some rules. Notice how some resemble a construction site. —MJH RULES FOR EXCAVATING AND REVISING by Melodie Johnson Howe 1. Ruthlessness: Do not a fall in […]