The AFTER DARK RULE by Leigh Lundin This week I was distressed by a horrifying story out of Chicago. Intrigue writer Laura Caldwell (author of The Rome Affair and The Good Liar) had her teeth shattered in an attack and robbery while she was jogging. I know readers and writers wish her well in recovery. […]

STORIES ABOUT STORIES by John M. Floyd There’s no accounting for personal tastes. Whether the subject is fashion, entertainment, food, politics, you name it . . . we all have our prefer- ences. But in the publishing world, one thing that I find interesting — and a bit surprising — is that so many readers […]

COFFEE WITH A BANDERSNATCH by Steve Steinbock As I write the opening paragraph of this week’s Bandersnatch column, I’m sitting at my desk in the attic on the third floor of my Maine home. There’s very little bare space on the surface of the desk. In fact, if I wanted to bring a cup of […]

IT’S ALL CHEMISTRY by Deborah Elliott-Upton Basically, chemistry is taking specific elements and combining them with others and waiting for the reactant to create a new product. Add something to something else, add some heat or cold. Use a catalyst. Follow precise rules and you will achieve a specific result or product. Change the procedure […]

THE GRAND ALLUSION By Rob Lopresti I feel like Humpty Dumpty today. Well, no I don’t. I tell a lie. But if I did feel like Humpty Dumpty how do you think I would feel? Fragile? Shattered? Full of bad cholesterol? I have been reading The Oxford Dictionary of Allu- sions, by Andrew Delahunty, Sheila […]

HELL IN PARADISE by Melodie Johnson Howe There has to be a hell in paradise because if there weren’t one there’d be no reason for writers exist. The day before the Tea Fire (Montecito/Santa Barbara area) my doctor put me on steroids. When I asked him what the side affects were, he told me I […]

ONCE UPON A WOO-WOO by James Lincoln Warren A few days ago, I got the following in my email: Dear MWA Members: Hot News!, Barry Zeman, Chair of the MWA Publication Committee, just received word that MWA has reached a tentative agreement with a leading publisher for the 2010 MWA Anthology, to be edited by […]