MONDAY SCHOOL by James Lincoln Warren It’s interesting, the tidbits you pick up when you’re engaged in research. My primary detective series takes place in the latter 18th century, and during a recent foray into source material, I encountered the following passage: “Some of the clergy in different parts of this county, bent upon attempting […]

X WHY? Part II: MALE POV by Leigh Lundin A few weeks ago, James suggested I write an article or two about getting inside the head of the opposite sex. When I first began writing, I didn’t know we were expected to write from the viewpoint of our own gender; I merely picked the viewpoint […]

LONG STORY SHORT by John M. Floyd I’ve often heard writers of nonfiction complain that they’re the Rodney Dangerfields of the literary community. Not that they don’t sell a lot of books and articles (because they do) or that they don’t make money from their writing (because they do). Their complaint is that they sometimes […]

Listening Briefs by Steve Steinbock Last week I used this forum to discuss that rare interface of mystery short stories and audiobooks. I complained at how the Tantor Media adaptation of the MWA anthology The Blue Religion – nearly all audio-anthologies for that matter – lacks a table of contents. I broke down and bought […]

PIECE BY PIECE by Deborah Elliott-Upton 1 While I am going through withdrawal symptoms by not having access to the internet (a long story), I’m finishing two baby quilts for twin boys born in Paris, sons of my daughter’s friend Allison and her husband Eric. Like my writing, these quilts were first sparked by an […]

NO, BUT I READ THE TV SHOW by Robert Lopresti Steve Hockensmith is one of those scary talented guys. He writes regularly for Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Plus he writes novels, good ones. And for several years he wrote the film column for Hitchcock’s. Obviously this couldn’t go on forever. […]

Melodie Johnson Howe is taking a well deserved break from blogging today, just in time for us to welcome back crime fiction historian Barry T. Zeman and his informative series concerning Queen’s Quorum, the definitive list of important mystery short stories. READING QUEEN’S QUORUM-CONTINUED The First Golden Era by Barry T. Zeman As this article […]