SNOWSTORM IN KAIFENG by Steven Steinbock Last week, the Jewish community of southern Maine had planned an evening of storytelling and stand-up comedy. I was asked to participate. I’m no stand-up comic, but I do tell stories, and occasionally perform stage illusions. According to the Chinese calendar, The Year of the Rat had just begun. […]

ALL THE MONEY by Deborah Elliott-Upton The phone rang and I was surprised to hear a male voice asking if was Deborah Elliott-Upton, the writer. I usually don’t get business calls at that particular number. When I answered, “Yes, I am,” he said he’d gotten my name and number from another writer who thought I […]

LIFE, IN 500-WORD SLICES by Rob Lopresti I have a cold and last night it provided a dramatic soundtrack in the form of a cough that was keeping me and probably my wife awake, so I moved to another room where I have a Barcalounger. This big, ugly chair has the wonderful ability to let […]

GIRL TALK by Melodie Johnson Howe Girlfriends are major necessities in the lives of women. Women by our very nature and the way our brains work need to talk. Express our emotions. We must explain how we feel. Even if we have to go over and over and over the same territory. Our need to […]

Mr. Joseph Addison, editor (along with Mr. Richard Steele) of both The Tatler and The Spectator, has long been deemed one of the most gifted English prose stylists of all time. Because all writers long to move their readers, and insofar as those readers also long to be moved by what they read, I asked […]

BLOGOSPHERE by Leigh Lundin So I’m in this Orlando bar and Terrie Moran’s there and one of her eyes isn’t quite focusing right. The bartender glares at me, mumbling, "Don’t you even think about hittin’ on her," and I go, "Hey, dude, that’s her hand on my thigh." When I go to the restroom, she […]

LITERARY VS. GENRE by John M. Floyd Several years ago, a fellow mystery fan mentioned something I found interesting. She told me she’d just finished James Lee Burke’s Edgar-winning novel Cimarron Rose, and said it was one of the best literary mysteries she’d ever read. A “literary” mystery? I wasn’t even sure you could use […]