AN HOUR IN PURGATORY by Rob Lopresti Ladies and gentlemen, we may see a world record set here today. Mr. Lopresti is attempting to squeeze a fourth weekly blog entry out of a single week of vacation. The smart money says it can’t be done. The dumb money has already been spent on lottery tickets. […]

THE LETTER A by Melodie Johnson Howe In The Scarlet Letter, the character Hester Prynne is burdened and shamed by the letter A. But at least she got a little nookie on the side, (as much as Hawthorn and the puritans allowed her) to earn her adulteress label. I too am burdened by that notorious […]

ONWARD AND UPWARD AND THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE by Janice Law More literary spelunking this week with a descent back to 1910 and the birth of Lady Molly, that’s Lady Molly of Scotland Yard should you have a number of titled lassies on your speed dial. She was one of the later characters created […]

FLORIDA CRIME NEWS by Leigh Lundin William Dillon Melbourne, Florida.  Thirty years ago this month, William Dillon of Brevard County, Florida was convicted of first-degree murder based upon eyewitness identification, testimony from the handler of a scent-tracking dog, claims of a jailhouse snitch, and testimony of a girlfriend. Everyone was wrong. The ‘eyewitness’ had only […]

A LITTLE HELP FROM YOUR FRIENDS by John M. Floyd A couple days ago I got a message on Facebook from my old writing buddy Fran Gatewood. She told me her husband Larry had just returned from a business trip and brought her a copy of John Grisham’s collection of short stories, Ford County. Reportedly, […]

KINDLE MY SHORTS by Steven Steinbock I finally broke down – or in this case, a better metaphor might be melted-down – and bought a Kindle. I looked at other options, and am still not 100% sure I made the right decision, but so far I’m happy with it. Other products have touch screens, color, […]

EASY READING by Deborah Elliott-Upton Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne is best known to most high school students as the author of The Scarlet Letter—probably with a vision of Demi Moore (from the movie version) rather than the writer who created her character, the adulteress, Hester Prynne. That’s probably how […]