BANDERSNATCH ON THE ROAD (Part Two) by Steven Steinbock I left my little village of Yarmouth, Maine, three weeks ago. It was just days before the annual Yarmouth Clam Festival would begin. That’s when my village of just over 8,000 citizens becomes a forest of a hundred thousand sweaty bodies vying for fried clams, fried […]

BAD GOOD GUYS by Deborah Elliott-Upton Last week I wrote about the good bad guys, but sometimes it’s the bad good guys that court the Muse. Tucking my children into bed, they always begged, “Tell me a story.” The mother in me knew it was a ploy to extend their bedtime. The writer in me […]

NUMBER ONE WITH A BULLET by Robert Lopresti Today we are going to discuss the disgraceful trend in popular music that glorifies criminal activity, violence against women, disrespect for the police, and the abuse of illegal substances, such as bootleg alcohol— Oh, you thought I was talking about rap music? Sorry. Songs about bandits have […]

BETTE NOIR by Melodie Johnson Howe The handgun is one of the oldest props in Hollywood. When I think of a gun in movieland terms I don’t imagine a hard inanimate object that can, with one slip of the finger, come suddenly to life and blow someone’s head off. No, I remember the actors wielding […]

THE WRITER’S COOKBOOK (Part 4 of 4) and COVERING THE STORY (Part 1) by James Lincoln Warren Here’s the final part of The Writer’s Cookbook. Afterwards, I begin commenting on my recent good fortune in getting the cover story on this month’s AHMM by describing the genesis of the story. Part IV: The Last Chapter […]

POETIC SYNERGY by Leigh Lundin One of my tertiary characters was a noir poet who reads poetry over the radio. As such, she devises poems suitable to her dark personality, and so I attempted to draw upon my sophomore poetry class to cobble a poem or two together. It occurred to me afterwards that I […]

For our first ever Agony Aunt column, we welcome Anton Chekhov, perhaps the greatest short story author of all time. ASK ANTON by Anton Chekhov Dear Anton, How do you effectively evoke pity from the reader? Candace J., Bayonne, NJ When you describe the miserable and unfortunate, and want to make the reader feel pity, […]