WHO KILLED LAURA FOSTER? by Leigh Lundin When they dug up the poor girl’s grave, they found Laura’s decomposing body. She had been stabbed multiple times until one of the strikes slipped between her ribs piercing her broken heart. According to a newspaper at the time, an autopsy found she was enceinte– she was ‘with […]

WRITE WHAT YOU LIKE by John M. Floyd Throughout the sixteen years of my so-called career as a writer, one of the pieces of advice I’ve heard most often is write what you know. And I agree with that, at least in theory. The more familiar you are with a subject, the more believable you’re […]

CHOICE WORDS by Steven Steinbock Not long ago I had the pleasure of reading a paperback original science fiction novel from 1964. The book wasn’t bad. It was a decent story despite numerous fairly deep plot holes. The author was clearly having enough fun writing the book that he didn’t care that it was imperfect. […]

THE TRUTH ABOUT FICTION by Deborah Elliott-Upton “Fiction is easier to write,” a nonfiction writer told me. “You can just make everything up as you go.” “True,” I answered, “but, in nonfiction, don’t you just collect the facts?” In the end, we agreed neither fiction nor nonfiction was “easier” to write, just different and depended […]

BOY KILLS GIRL by Rob Lopresti I haven’t written here about folk music in a while, so let’s talk a bit about that great American tradition, the murder ballad. Specifically the popular type that follows this pattern: Boy invites girl to take a walk/ride Boy kills girl Boy is jailed/hung/threatened with damnation Why done it […]

In honor of the Vancouver games, here is a mythological account of the origin of the Olympic Games as recounted by Pindar, a Greek lyric poet of the Fifth Century B.C. —JLW THE ORIGIN OF THE OLYMPICS by Pindar1 Of that light in the life of a man before all other deeds, that first of […]

THE ANGEL IN THE ROOM by James Lincoln Warren Janice, the skinny blonde Muppet who plays guitar for Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, is famous for uttering embarrassing statements at the exact moment that every other Muppet in the room shuts up: “Look, Mother, it’s my life, OK? So if I want to live […]