RETURN FROM WONDERLAND by Steven Steinbock Monday night and Tuesday morning, my two sons and I sat aboard a 757 that flew toward the sunrise. We all managed to get some sleep, but it was pretty spotty. Now we’re all unpacked and laundered, but still getting adjusted to the time-zone. (It’s after noon, and Nate […]

I HEAR IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY! by Deborah Elliott-Upton Today is a special day: it’s Michael Chiklis’ and my birthday. Not that Michael knows I celebrate his birthday concurrently with mine, but I always raise a glass to him on our shared birthday. I assume he would do the same for me if only he knew. […]

THE WORLD IS FLAT by Robert Lopresti No short stories today. I want to talk about my current favorite police procedural novels. They star Sam Vimes, the head of his city’s police force, although he considers himself a typical street copper. While he is married to one of the city’s wealthiest aristocrats (he married her […]

ABOUT A WRITER & STUCK IN FRENCH by Melodie Johnson Howe A writer I knew, Douglas Munson, died a few years ago. She wrote mysteries under the name of Mercedes Lambert. In the eighties she and I were in a writers workshop led by John Rechy. Later we would both be published by Viking and […]

POSTCARDS FROM HEAVEN by James Lincoln Warren I’m a crime fiction writer, but my first love–the literary equivalent of the girl I took to the Senior Prom rather than the woman I married–was science fiction. And I have to say that the two writers that I really learned the most about short stories from were […]

BULLY PULPIT by Leigh Lundin My brother Glen is responsible for today’s column as well as the stitches in my side from laughing so damn hard. Last week, I’d written about insults and childhood thugs, and one of the nastiest was Lester (whose last name we won’t divulge to authorities) who could have whupped Scut […]

VIOLENT REACTION by Angela Zeman Excuse me, guys, but I’ve yet again been castigated—for the fortieth time (full disclosure, I’ve never actually counted)—for my “shallow” taste in fiction. As a way to forestall criticism, I usually claim to be a writer of, and believer in, ‘cheap entertainment.’ But I lie. I actually believe much of […]