HOLLYWOOD MUSTS by Leigh Lundin Tony Harris wrote us about clichés used in movies, particularly thrillers and suspense, and today’s column grew out of that discussion. Many of the following examples come from Tony himself. Clichés Like the happy and sad theatrical masks from Greek theatre, clichés form a kind of shorthand to clue the […]

LONG LIVE THE KING by John M. Floyd My column this week is not specifically about crime/suspense stories or even about stories, but about a writer of stories. In fact it’s about the writer of some of the best stories I’ve ever read. I first heard about Stephen King in 1979, when a fellow reader […]

LUNCH WITH BOB THE BUILDER by Steve Steinbock National Novel Writing Month Last week I had lunch with Bob the Builder. To be more precise, I had lunch with William Dufris, the actor who provided the voice for the Nickelodeon cartoon character Bob the Builder. I met Bill over a decade ago at annual lobster […]

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW …is more time to read by Deborah Elliott-Upton “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman, American Theologian, Clergyman and Activist 1900-1981 This time of year I get […]

CRIME AND THE LITTLE MAN by Rob Lopresti My friend Marian recently sent me an article by Paul Johnson that appeared in the English magazine The Spectator. Near the end of the piece there is a wonderful story about the French painter Matisse. Apparently he was once asked who was his favorite American artist. “Monsieur […]

SPOOKING ME by Melodie Johnson Howe Recently I took a private tour of the CIA (thanks to Gayle Lynds) with a group of fellow writers. Here are some of the ideas and observations I took away with me. The CIA is a vast complex. Think huge then keep quadrupling it in your mind. Thousands and […]

WORDIES by James Lincoln Warren … dixeris egregie, notum si callida verbum reddiderit iunctura novum. –Horace … you will express yourself eminently well, if a dexterous combination should give an air of novelty to a wellknown word. — trans. by Christopher Smart (1722 – 1771) Happy your art, if by a cunning phrase To a […]