FIRST IMPRESSION by Rob Lopresti Steve D. Rogers did a wonderful job last week analyzing the opening of one of his short stories and that reminded me that I had been thinking about doing a similar job on a short story I read recently. So, here goes. Sam Geddes placed the faded “Clerk Wanted, Inquire […]

Usually, we avoid straightforward plugs for selling books here on Criminal Brief, but as all proceeds from the sale of Carolyn Haines’ new anthology—featuring some of the most important writers of crime fiction in America—are going to a worthy charity, and as it also is exactly the sort of book CB was founded to encourage […]

GOING TO ANY LENGTH by James Lincoln Warren I spent the last several days attending Left Coast Crime here in L.A. I signed up too late to be assigned a panel, and that’s perfectly cool with me—the main reason I go to crime fiction conventions is to catch up on old friends and to make […]

MUSICAL MYSTERY by Leigh Lundin Several of us wrote about music recently. I hadn’t intended to continue the, em, theme but an internet musical mystery too intriguing to resist is circulating on the web. In late December, a surreal clip less than a minute long appeared on YouTube submitted by ‘iamamiwhoami’. A second appeared and […]

FANDEMONIUM by John M. Floyd Fan·de·mo'·ni·um (noun): Wild and disorderly conduct by those who enjoy your fiction. Okay, so it’s not a real word. It is, though, what we as authors would like to create — or at least we think we would. Writer rooters Who are our fans? Certainly our mothers, hopefully our other […]

THIN MOTIVES by Steven Steinbock Last week I got to talking with you about character motivation. Knowing that this would be a busy week, I’d planned on sending the Criminal Brief Managing Editor a fun but fluffy column about words. But fluff and light will have to wait. The subject of motivation has remained with […]

BRANDING by Deborah Elliott-Upton Brand n. 1. A trademark or label. 2. The make of a product thus marked: a popular brand of soap. 3. A mark indicating ownership, burned on the hide of an animal. 4. A mark formerly burned into the flesh of criminals. 5. Any mark of disgrace; stigma. 6. A piece […]