PROFESSIONAL TIPS – Dennis Palumbo by Leigh Lundin Traditional mysteries with clues fairly presented started me on a lifelong romance of the genre, enjoying the chase, the puzzle. Whereas I’m not fond of hinging a story upon so-called ‘psychological clues’, I appreciate the art of profiling and the psychology of well-drawn good guys and bad […]

UNFINISHED BUSINESS by John M. Floyd Question: How do you feel about stories with unresolved endings? Rick DeMarinis, in his book The Art and Craft of the Short Story, says: “Chekhov, Joyce, Sherwood Anderson, among others less well known, created a new trend: the open-ended story, the story in which plot is almost nonexistent and […]

TRIPPING 90 (part one) by Steven Steinbock My last two columns had been written in haste a week before they were posted. At the time I was preparing for a cross-country road trip with my son. Nate starts school at the University of Washington in Seattle this fall. Some kids have security blankets. Others have […]