Truth vs. Reality?

In her essay in yesterday's New York Times Book Review, Karen E. Bender talks about how writers transform the messy chaos of life into story. As I read the essay, I thought about a short story I wrote—“The Lie,” published in the first Murder New York Style—that introduced me to the pleasure and pain of time travel, and the odd power we acquire when we reshape the past.

Read more and join the conversation at Women of Mystery today.

Hard Questions, No Answers.

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The Newtown massacre; Malala Yousufzai, shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating education for girls; the death of the young Indian woman gang raped and beaten on a bus in New Delhi.

The news, which has become unbearable, forces me to consider the following question: Do we, as writers of crime fiction, reflect the violence in the world community, or do we contribute to it? You're welcome to join the conversation at Women of Mystery today.

I Learned it at the Movies

Can you keep audiences--and readers--riveted even when they know how the story ends? Two recent films prove that it's possible.

I share my thoughts on how they did it at  Women of Mystery.

What do you do with the rest of your life?

Philip Roth, 79, no longer wants to read, talk about, or write fiction. In a recent interview in The New York Times he said,  “I can’t face any more days when I write five pages and throw them away.”




 Elmore Leonard, 87, who recently received the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, was quoted in Publishers Weekly as saying: ‘The only thing I’ve ever wanted to do in my life is have a good time writing stories, and this award tells me I’m still good at it.’”

No argument there.


You can join the conversation on the subject at Women of Mystery.

Let's Hear it for "Malarkey"!

In the public interest, and inspired by Vice President's Biden use of "malarkey,"  I did some research and came up with a few more  synonyms for nonsense that you can shout at the TV the next time you hear a politician (fleshpresser) lie (draw a longbow). My favorite is rannygazoo, but for the full list you'll have to hop over to Women of Mystery.

In his 2009 interview in The Guardian, William Trevor, the great Irish novelist and short story writer said: “To me, writing is entirely mysterious. If I didn’t believe it was a mystery, the whole thing wouldn’t be worthwhile. I don’t know not just how something is going to end, but what the next couple of lines are going to be.”

I discuss Trevor's novella, My House in Umbria at Women of Mystery today.

A Hypothetical

In the course of doing research for an article, you come across a piece in which the author, Ms X, cites a source you’d like to use. You tweak her language, i.e. paraphrase her paraphrases, and omit any reference to Ms X. Thus you make it appear that this is your own work.

Is this plagiarism? I vote yes...

Read more at Women of Mystery