PAST FUTURE by Deborah Elliott-Upton Monday night I spent an evening with Maya Angelou. Okay, so it wasn’t just the two of us. It was the two of us and about another couple of thousand, give or take a few. Listening to her, it seemed as if the two of us were having a conversation […]

COMFORT FOOD by Rob Lopresti I am at the start of what appears to be my fourth cold of 2009, and don’t get me started on what a treat that has been. But when I was home sick with number 3, and cranking up a can of chicken noodle soup and breaking out a box […]

TAGS by Melodie Johnson Howe The piano mover arrived today. He had on a faded tee shirt and Bermuda shorts. I noticed a tag was sticking up from the back of his shirt. It was the tag that declared the wearer’s size and instructed him on how to wash his newly acquired garment. I knew […]

BACKSTORY BLUES by James Lincoln Warren I have taken two creative writing courses in my life. One was at my alma mater, UTSA. That one was a poetry course. The second one was a screenwriting course I took through UCLA Extension. I took the first for three elective credit hours toward my bachelor’s degree and […]

PROFESSIONAL TIPS — JACK KEROUAC by Leigh Lundin Hey man, those of you who dig the Beat Generation and especially, like Jack Kerouac, man, this column is for you. I live a few minutes from the Kerouac house in College Park, a nice but not too pretentious suburb that Orlando swallowed, but still manages to […]

DADDY, WHERE DO STORIES COME FROM? by John M. Floyd Do you ever read a story or novel and wonder how the author came up with it? What in the world did he or she hear, or see, or read, or dream, that triggered the idea or ideas that led to the finished product? Okay, […]

The Mystery Blogosphere is a wonderful place for old friends to gather and for new friends to meet. One of the people I’ve had the pleasure of befriending online is my Friday counterpart at Murderati, J.T. Ellison. Early each Friday morning, just as Bandersnatches is being posted here at Criminal Brief, J.T.’s column, Comma Sutra, […]