STEAL THIS BLOG part II by Steve Steinbock Last week I wrote about John Dortmunder, Arsène Lupin, and a few other larcenous heroes of crime fiction. Philosophically I’m not keen on glorifying crime, and I’m not all that crazy about the “caper” subgenre. But I do love Ed Hoch’s “Nick Velvet” stories.  And I can’t […]

STEAL this BLOG by Steve Steinbock A few weeks back, JLW queried me as to the total number of Dortmunder short stories by Donald E. Westlake. I don’t know if I ever responded (sorry, Jim) but I don’t know the answer. The question, however, compelled me to pull Get Real off the shelf and read […]

IF YOU CAN READ THIS . . . by Steve Steinbock My two boys and I are in Seattle. While on a half hour drive down I-405 the other night we made an observation: There are fewer bumper stickers in the Pacific Northwest than there are in Maine. It may have been a coincidence, but […]

LONG MEMORIES by Steve Steinbock Storytellers have long memories. We are also expert at playing with our memories, combining and connecting our recollections, ideas, and observations to create new stories. Last week I wrote briefly about the new issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Among the stories in that issue is a haunting one by […]

FEELIN’ WORDY by Steve Steinbock

DESKLESS by Steve Steinbock I’m feeling off kilter this week. I have no computer. To be precise, my regular desktop computer is in pieces awaiting a heart transplant. It became an unstable doorstop a few days ago, unable to remain on for more than two or three minutes at a time before rebooting. I don’t […]

PLUM PUDDING by Steve Steinbock I’ve been on a “Plum” kick lately. Not the purple fruit with all the juice inside, although I like that kind of plum, too. I refer to Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE, known to his readers as P.G. Wodehouse (pronounced “wood-house”), and to his friends as “Plum” (which is how […]