PLEDGE DRIVE by James Lincoln Warren About a week and a half ago, Rob wrote about reading tie-in books related to television series. An auspicious topic, for without the advent of the tie-in novel1, a great organization would never have come into being. You might think that I am referring to the International Association of […]

X WHY? Part III: FEMALE POV by Leigh Lundin It’s a psychological suspense story. Teased by her sister and other girls, beset by a lack of self-esteem, she opts for mammoplasty without the knowledge of her husband, is drawn into an affair, and becomes embroiled in a murder plot. A few weeks ago, James suggested […]

STORYBOOKS by John M. Floyd As a rabid reader of both novels and short stories, I’m always excited when I hear that a favorite novelist has come out with a book of short fiction. Not just an entry in an anthology, mind you, but a collection of his or her own short stories. Both kinds […]

OUT OF TIME by Steve Steinbock Crap. I just looked at my watch and saw it was Thursday, and I haven’t written my Friday column yet for Criminal Brief. That’s not entirely true. I don’t wear a watch. I have one of those magnetic personalities that somehow cause wristwatches to have really short life-spans. I […]

THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING by Deborah Elliott-Upton The cable guy comes to my house today. We’re moving everything over to cable: the TV service, the phone and most importantly to me, the Internet service. I’ve been without Internet for a couple of weeks now and it’s been harder than I imagined. Not having […]

A FINE ITALIAN HAND by Rob Lopresti Sitting on my table is a book called Delitti Folk, published by Delos Books of Rome.  It is a mystery, just published, and the author is listed as Robert Lopresti. That’s pretty interesting, because I don’t speak (or write) Italian. This is my first experience with being translated.  […]

UNRELATED MATTERS by Melodie Johnson Howe I will be teaching a fiction workshop at The Santa Barbara Writers Conference from June 21 to June 26. This is one of the premier writer conferences in the country. For those who don’t want to take the workshops they are offering a special package to attend all the […]