BRAIN WAVES by James Lincoln Warren I was privileged to be personally acquainted with the late Dennis Lynds, who was perhaps the most important writer of detective fiction of his generation. Certainly he was one of the most important writers of short crime fiction. Den was the man who really introduced the concept of social […]

X WHY? Part V: Deep in the Heart of Texas by Leigh Lundin Travis Erwin is hard to miss. In person, he’s 6’5 Texan and he has about 600,000 fans and friends, many on the internet, where you’ll find one of his stories. He has another in the Range ‘Riters Anthology and is slated to […]

GROUP THERAPY by John M. Floyd One of the things I remember from “Jurassic Park” was Sam Neill watching the dinosaurs from a distance and saying, “They do move in herds.” Well, so do we. Not many of us humans enjoy being alone too often — it’s more fun to band together. Especially with others […]

A MID-SUMMER RESOLUTION by Steve Steinbock Okay, folks, you’re hearing it here first. I’m working on a story – a fiction story. I’m going public about it, which may turn out to be my undoing, but I throw caution to the wind. Regular readers know me as the one regular Criminal Brief columnists who isn’t […]

THEIR WORDS COUNTED by Deborah Elliott-Upton The past two weeks I’ve been mostly traveling the highways. As much as I love seeing new places and meeting new people (and I really do), I’m a bit frazzled and writing this column on Wednesday, the 25th of June, designated as National Columnist Day. The notation on my […]

WHY I’M NOT RICH Or, why I write mysteries, instead of bestselling New Age memoirs by Rob Lopresti About ten years ago, one lovely August afternoon, I was riding my bicycle home from work. I remember turning the corner near the South Campus of Saint Joe’s Hospital, thinking about the songs I was going to […]

REEL MEN, WOMEN REEL, REEL WRITERS by Melodie Johnson Howe I went to see Sex and the City the other night with my girlfriends. Oh, God, where do I begin? There were parts of the movie I loved, including the satirical scene with a naked man who was too gorgeous; and the camera lingering lovingly […]