TAKE A SEAT by Deborah Elliott-Upton In my “Writing & Marketing the Short Story” classes at the local college, I could tell who would be the best writers from the moment they chose a seat. At first, I thought it was a fluke when the students who would write the most interesting stories chose to […]

TRIPLE FEATURE by Rob Lopresti Today I want to introduce you to three videos. They are all very short so don’t bother microwaving the popcorn. This is what a fan looks like Sam lives in England. She likes the novels written by Diane Chamberlain, my sister. Oliver also lives in England. He likes Sam. Oliver […]

WORDY by Melodie Johnson Howe Derivations aside, there are certain words that I find, odd, irritating, or just plain ugly sounding. I know this stems from my childhood when I was learning to read and pronounce words. Vocabulary was not easy for me and I remember having to be tutored. Looking back I think I […]

WEEKDAY UPDATE by James Lincoln Warren In the last few months, I’ve promised to keep the Gentle Reader informed regarding my progress in a few ventures, not because I think that any of you are particularly obsessed with my life, but because the progress of those ventures may be of some small assistance to others […]

CASEY ANTHONY TRIAL Caylee Anthony by Leigh Lundin Three years ago this month, a devastating drama began in Orlando now playing out in local court. I pay scant attention to local news, but details stick in my mind from the early days of a family residing at the ironically named Hopespring Drive: Caylee, a missing […]

POLICE STORY by John M. Floyd Now and then I re-watch—or discover, if I’m fortunate—a movie that is both entertaining to me as a crime-fiction fan and instructive to me as a crime-fiction writer. I’ve done columns on a few of them over the past year or so. One was Double Indemnity, another was Blood […]

YOUR CHOICE by Steven Steinbock She-Who-Must-be-Obeyed (who paradoxically refers to herself on this forum as Steve’s Wench) stared at the stack of old review books on the kitchen counter. It had gotten so high that in a process of literary mitosis had become two stacks before her very eyes. “Hon,” she said. (That’s “hon” which […]