MUSING ON SIGNINGS by Melodie Johnson Howe I have been to two book signings recently. Jane Heller1 and David L. Gersh are local writersand friends of mine. Jane’s new book, Confessions of a She-Fan, was published by a large New York publisher. David’s new mystery, Going, Going, Gone, was published by a small company in […]

EXPERIMENTAL MICE by James Lincoln Warren Last week I wrote about how outside circumstances may yield a result in which The best-laid plans o’ mice an’ men Gang aft a-gley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain For promised joy. (As Robbie Burns so eloquently put it.) And this directed my thoughts to how […]

WTF by Leigh Lundin The Mystery Place, home of Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock, has been having a writer’s (and readers’) discussion about profanity. Several of our genre’s foremost, John Betancourt, James A. Ritchie, Dick Stodghill, and Toni Kelner have weighed in on the subject. The consensus, as you might expect, is profanity should be […]

A.K.A. JOHN SMITH by John M. Floyd What’s your pen name? Bic? Paper Mate? Sharpie? Okay, I know that’s not funny. Pseudonyms are serious business to many authors, and some are far better known (Mark Twain, O. Henry, Ellery Queen, etc.) than the writers’ real names. A lady in one of my writing courses last […]

BOOKS R US by Steve Steinbock Behind the scenes here at Criminal Brief Headquarters, Leigh Lundin and I have exchanged a couple of observations about the mega-chain book stores. You know what I’m referring to: the one multinational online superstore and the two huge brick-and-mortar bookstore chains. I’m not going to bad-mouth any of them. […]

JUST FOR FUN by Deborah Elliott-Upton I’ve been more than distracted lately. My schedule, which is used to being hectic, has slipped past that into frantic. I’ve never been a fan of spring cleaning or taxes, and yet they’re both needing my attention – just as one deadline has backed up into another. And on […]

HOW TO MAKE IT WORK by Robert Lopresti In last week’s wisdom-fest I talked about the process by which creative work is done. I said there are two forces involved in the project. The Miner digs through your subconscious mind and brings out ore that the Jeweler then turns into something beautiful, or at least […]