CHASING MOONBEAMS by Steve Steinbock I realize that the title of today’s Bandersnatches sounds like something borrowed from a Fred Astaire movie or a Cat Stevens song. I’m also following up on Deborah’s Femme Fatale column from yesterday which waxed on climate in fiction. But I actually found myself doing that very thing — chasing […]

IT’S RAINING WORDS by Deborah Elliott-Upton It isn’t misting or drizzling, but a sincere and earnest downpour of rain is attacking my office windowpanes this morning. Some say it’s a great day to take a nap, catch up on TV programs we’ve recorded or even read a book. For me, it’s one of my best […]

FAST FILM by Rob Lopresti My nephew Chris Messineo is a filmmaker. That’s not what puts dinner on the table, but it is his passion. He started OffStage Films four years ago with two friends and this month they premiered their lucky thirteenth film. Thirteen films in four years? How do they manage it, you […]

Melodie’s taking a travel day and invited novelist and newspaper columnist Jane Heller to sub for her. As some of you probably know, I’m a typical American sports fan, and my first love was baseball, a sport that figures prominently, by the way, in short mysteries—among which I may single out the works of Ellery […]

INTERSTITIAL SPACE or; A Sentimental Journey by James Lincoln Warren Chapter 1. Hurry Up and Wait The ball may be over, but Cinderella’s carriage hasn’t quite turned into a pumpkin. I’m sitting here in the waiting area of Gate D-23 at Thurgood Marshall Baltimore Washington International Airport waiting for the boarding call for the first […]

BOUCHERCON by Leigh Lundin I am impressed. I’m at Bouchercon, the conference in Baltimore named after Anthony Boucher and I am learning a lot while having a ball. Thanks, James, for persuading me to attend. I also thank Dale Andrews, author of ‘The Book Case’ and a nominee for the Barry Award for short story, […]

A CLICHÉ A DAY . . . by John M. Floyd Keeps the readers away. At least that’s what an editor told me, and I would think she’d know. The funny thing is, even though most editors, writers, and readers know and recognize bad writing — dull plots, uninteresting characters, POV shifts, repetitions, inaccuracies, grammar […]