RADIO FLASH by James Lincoln Warren Saturday evening I drove up into the San Fernando Valley to attend Bill Fitzhugh’s annual gumbo party for members of SoCal MWA. This involves driving over the Santa Monica Mountains through the Sepulveda Pass along the notorious 4051, and then a good stretch on the Ventura Freeway until arriving […]

DUMBED DOWN by Leigh Lundin According to an article from a few years ago, the American vocabulary is about two-thirds that of an educated citizen in the mid-1800s. A glance at a school primer (pronounced with a short i rather than long) shows the readers of the time to be considerably more difficult. Even compared […]

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION by John M. Floyd As readers and writers, we talk a lot about the importance of choosing appropriate names for fictional characters, and the fact that those names sometimes (if the author is extremely fortunate) go on to become a part of our language. The same might be said for fictional settings. […]

DEAD RINGERS AND HUMDINGERS by Steve Steinbock This week Rob wrote a wonderful piece on pastiches in which he referred to Dave Zeltserman’s “Julius Katz,” which is the lead story in the newest issue (Sept./Oct. 2009) of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. I had hoped to devote today’s column to reviewing that issue. It’s a humdinger, […]

HUNTING by Deborah Elliott-Upton I’m on a manhunt. Or maybe it’s a woman I’m hunting. I’m not sure yet. I’m not even sure if this is the protagonist or antagonist. Hero or heroine? Killer, thief or kidnapper? My Muse has been ready to play at the oddest times. While chopping tomatoes for tonight’s tacos or […]

PASTICHE NUTS by Rob Lopresti The first time I ever saw the word “pastiche” was in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, back in the 1970s. In those days EQ used to publish a lot of stories that reflected on the past of the field and these included parodies and pastiches. Parody is a fairly easy concept. […]

The library where I work is engaged in deacquisition (a euphemism for discarding unloved books) and I came across a little volume by Frederic DeWitt Wells, entitled A Man in Court, published 1917. Wells, a New York City magistrate, wanted to explain the legal system to the common man. I read the first page and […]