DEPARTMENT OF ODD SOCKS – VII by Rob Lopresti Last year was a bad one for the police in western Washington state, where I live. Six officers or deputies were killed in three incidents in just over two months. The Seattle Times recently had a very interesting article in their Sunday magazine about the first […]

HOW TO BE A DETECTIVE by Robert Benchley

LIE, LADY, LIE by James Lincoln Warren Probably long before Bob Dylan violated the rules of diction with his ballad “Lay, Lady, Lay” back in 1969’s Nashville Skyline, people seem to have lost all awareness of the distinction between “lie” and “lay”—two completely different words with different meanings. Not too long ago I watched a […]

CLOSE SHAVE by Leigh Lundin Geologists believe Florida was not originally part of North America. They postulate when Pangea split into the supercontinents of Gondwana and Laurasia, the land destined to become Africa deposited Florida upon North America as if scraping mud from its shoes. That may explain Florida’s propensity toward weirdness, which I’ve documented […]

A MATTER OF TIMING by John M. Floyd Question for the day: What does fiction writing have in common with stand-up comedy? (Sure, it has to be entertaining, if you want to keep your audience. But what else?) The answer is timing. If you study the routines of successful comedians — Seinfeld and the late […]

HYPERBOLE KILLS by Steven Steinbock This past Monday I fell victim to a series of unpleasantries. After a delightful Left Coast Crime Convention in Los Angeles, I had a painless five-hour flight to the East Coast. Then, my two-hour layover at Newark Liberty International Airport turned into a nine-hour headache. Continental Airlines, it seems, lost […]

CRIME SCENE SKILLS by Deborah Elliott-Upton “Brain tip: Read Books! This teaches your brain to quickly absorb lots of information. Books boost your vocabulary and critical thinking skills, and help with memorization skills.” —Games for the Brain: CRIME SCENE This week, I was busily writing a short story that was literally being dictated by my […]