NIGHT VISION by John M. Floyd This week I’m straying a bit off the short-story path, to a place with dim lights and reclining seats and the smell of overpriced popcorn. The subject’s still suspense fiction, though. As I’ve said before in this column, I believe that most readers of mystery/suspense/crime stories also enjoy movies […]

LISTENING TO SHORTS by Steve Steinbock It’s summer. Or at least that’s how it feels here in Maine. Time to put on your shorts, and put some shorts in your ears. I’ve written about audiobooks more than once in past installments of “Bandersnatches.” I’m doing it again today. In fact, there’s enough to say on […]

THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES OF 2007 by Deborah Elliott-Upton In another column, I wrote of the 2007 issue of The Best American Short Stories. This week I received the 2007 issue of The Best American Mystery Stories. Carl Hiaasen is the editor and Otto Penzler the series editor. Penzler notes mystery writers frequently ask […]

I WAS MILES AWAY by Robert Lopresti Kate Long is an award-winning songwriter from West Virginia. She is also a journalist and you may have heard her commentaries on NPR. Last month she performed a concert in my part of the world and also conducted a creative writing workshop. With her permission I am going […]

THE LITERARY CRAFT? by Melodie Johnson Howe The following are two descriptions of short story writing courses being taught by Stanford University online that were sent to me via e-mail. I’m pleased that they are teaching the short story, but some of the terminology they used gave me pause. Here is the first one. Fiction […]

TWO KINDS OF STORIES by James Lincoln Warren There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don’t. —Robert Benchley’s “Law of Distinction” I was at a cocktail party some time ago and was in conversation with someone I had […]

DEATH ‘n’ TEXAS by Leigh Lundin "Earlier this month, hundreds of people witnessed a moving display of justice and compassion at the Innocence Project’s annual benefit in New York. While pianist Jonathan Batiste played “What a Wonderful World” at the close of the event, two attendees got up on stage to dance, but not just […]