POETIC JUSTICE by Charles Ardai One of the things I remember most fondly about reading Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine from the old days was just how broad a definition editor Fred Dannay had of what counted as a short story. He’d publish excerpts from great novels, if he could find a snippet a few pages […]

THE LUCKY THIRTEEN – Part Two by Steven Steinbock Last week I told you about three of my favorite mystery anthologies: Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Omnibus of Crime (1928), Detection Medley edited by John Rhode for the Detection Club (1939), and 101 Years’ Entertainment edited by Ellery Queen (1941). Special thanks to Tom Walsh for […]

LOOKING THE PART by Deborah Elliott-Upton “You don’t look like a writer,” the man said, taking another sip of the scotch. “Let me guess. Romance?” he asked. His salesman smile revealed very white, perfectly sculpted teeth. I shook my head. “Children’s books ?” he offered. “No.” I sipped the pinot grigio, noticing he wasn’t deterred […]

DO YOU REALLY HAVE TIME TO READ THIS? by Robert Lopresti Every day the New York Times is delivered free to my doorstep. Well, not really my doorstep. Actually it’s the door of the university library where I work. As I understand it, the dozens of free copies they provide every day is part of […]

WHY NOT THE SHORT STORY? by Melodie Johnson Howe Miles Davis commented that if you can’t say it in eight bars, you can’t say it. He was talking about improvisational jazz. But he could have been talking about the short story. If you can’t write it in a few pages, you can’t write it. I […]

LINGUICIDE by James Lincoln Warren Steve has already spilled the fact that I’m a diction cop—I guess it didn’t occur to him that I might be deep undercover, and that by revealing my law enforcement status, he might endanger my life and the safety of the community. Which is just as well, because I’m not […]

SEND MONEY: from TYPING to TYPOGRAPHY by Leigh Lundin One of my favorite people is Micheline, who lives just north of Paris. In eMails, we once talked about my “sending money”, actually a reference to monetary symbols such as the euro (pronounced UR-oh without an Americanized Y sound). Micheline uses a Windows machine which requires […]