WHAT’S IN A WORD? by James Lincoln Warren Etymology is the study or description of how words evolve. Its own etymology starts with the Greek etymon, meaning the literal sense, or “true” meaning of a word as opposed to its figurative applications. There has been some discussion of the word gothic here lately, so let […]

FLORIDA CRIME NEWS by Leigh Lundin A writer in Florida never has to run out of material. Often, news stories reflect stupidity, sometimes on the part of officials, but in recent weeks, crime news has become scary. Florida recently experienced home invasions, and the second could have been as fatal as the first. Winter Garden […]

A HUNDRED EASY PIECES by John M. Floyd Well, maybe not easy. But the work involved was the fun kind. What am I talking about? Well, today is an anniversary of sorts, for me. Not in terms of time — it’s been not quite two years — but in terms of the number of weekly […]

RANDOM ACTS by Steve Steinbock Last week I lamented the sad demise of the word Random, which I thought at the time had become new youth slang for anything useless or idiotic. I was hoping to be able to tell you, like Mark Twain, that reports of the death of randomness were greatly exaggerated. But […]

DEFINING MYSTERY by Deborah Elliott-Upton While nursing a cold this past week, I found myself drawn to cuddling up in bed and doing nothing more vigorous than hitting the television’s remote button. With my head pounding, I wasn’t up to reading, but I knew I could listen to a movie. Of course, the problem with […]

LIFE IS SHORT. ART IS LONG. by Rob Lopresti Two weeks ago I wrote about a judge who died back in the 1920s and ended by saying that “Thanks to the wonders of the written word and the World Wide Web we can still read his thoughts and deeds eighty years later.” If I seemed […]

Today and next Tuesday we are treated to a two-part essay by David Dean. David’s short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, as well as a number of anthologies, since 1990. His story “Trial by Fir”’ was nominated for a Shamus Award in 1995, and “Ibrahim’s Eyes” won the EQMM Readers Award for […]