CROSSFIRE of the VANITIES by Leigh Lundin War wages in the publishing industry. On the one hand, you have evil authors, agents, publishers, and reviewers locked in a conspiracy to prevent really good novels from being published and on the other side you find the ‘Indy’ self-publishers who right injustices in a battle for truth, […]

LOOKING WEST by John M. Floyd This week I’m straying, as I sometimes do, from the usual subject of short stories and the mystery/crime genre. The reason? I’ve been reading (gasp!) western novels. And I don’t mean novels about western civilization. I mean novels about the rip-roaring, wild-and-woolly American West of the late 1800s. And […]

MAN OF THE (WHOLE) CLOTH by Steve Steinbock Last week, when I was suffering from my case of Blog-Block , I was surprised that of all the topics I listed, the one that drew the most comment was my background in Bible. I get shy talking religion with people. I never know how they’re going […]

Today’s substitute teacher for Mrs. Elliott-Upton’s class says of herself: Lissa Merriman is a published writer of humorous greeting cards and horror short stories. Her work has appeared in cards for Dayspring and Oatmeal Studios, in New Romance magazine and in the online ezine “From the Asylum”. She has also written numerous local newspaper columns […]

THE WAY WE NOIR by Rob Lopresti Yesterday in this space Curt Colbert wrote about being the editor of Seattle Noir. I was one of the lucky writers he got to edit. Noir is often defined as “Life’s a bitch and then you die,” but I think that’s only half of the formula. The true […]

This week Akashic Books is releasing Seattle Noir. I invited Curt Colbert to tell us about editing this short story anthology. Next time I will write about my own story in the collection. Curt is the author of three novels about 1940s private eye Jake Rossiter. His Rat City was nominated for a Shamus Award. […]

I wanted to write a Memorial Day column for today, but as it was coalescing in my mind, I kept hearing the refrain, “In Flanders fields, the poppies blow …” In former days, wearing poppies on Veterans Day was common, even customary. That’s because Veterans Day was originally November 11, commemorating the end of World […]