TALKING WITHOUT WORDS by Deborah Elliott-Upton In the Sixties, everything was “groovy.” In the Seventies, that cutie you were hanging with was “smoochie.” In the Eighties, everyone and everything was termed as “awesome.” In the Nineties, we were all wearing “bling.” And in the 2000’s, we’re too busy with our Smart Phones texting something like […]

BEAT COP or So, here’s a new thought about long story titles by Rob Lopresti Recently I read a story by Peter Turnbull in the March/April issue of EQMM. The title is “The Man Who Took his Hat Off to the Driver of the Train.” It was an interesting piece but I’m mostly concerned with […]

FAN MAIL by Melodie Johnson Howe I get fan mail. Some for my writing, but most from having been an actress. Let’s face it, a sexy actress. All of my movie fan mail is from men. The fan mail for my writing is from women. Most of the women want to know if there will […]

TAX TIME AND F. SCOTT FITZGERALD by Janice Law 1 March and tax time approaches. As I tote up my slender profits, my thoughts turn to George Harrison’s funny song and to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Most people of a certain age will recall “The Taxman,” but Fitzgerald strikes a chord with writers, specifically short story […]

CONE of SILENCE by Leigh Lundin From the BBC, we learn of the President’s new-fangled SCIF secure communications tent set up in hotels. As dedicated writers of political intrigue, we jumped on the opportunity to update our latest thriller with this knowledge. We soon learned the President discovered a few problems during his visit to […]

MURDER, TEXAS STYLE by John M. Floyd For quite a while now, I’ve been thinking of doing a column on a movie that I really liked but that nobody else — at least nobody down here in my end of the forest — seems to have heard much about. It’s Blood Simple (1984), the first […]

THE IDEA by Steven Steinbock “Dad, is that the column we were talking about?” “What column?” “The Criminal Brief column. The one when you had the idea in the car that you told me to write down.” “What?” “Dad. The day before yesterday. You were driving me home from Cam’s house and you said, Sam, […]