Writers are great shirkers, as everyone suspects and all writers know. Our patron saint is Bartleby of Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener, whose great refusal, “I would prefer not to,” is our battle cry against the world of workaday drudgery. For why work when you can write? Of course, it takes discipline and craft, those […]
Category Archives: Fiction
Dangerous Secrets Reveal The Truths In A Marriage – “My Darling Husband” By Kimberly Belle
Rewriting real-life tragedy I have led what most people would consider a charmed life. I grew up solidly middle class, in a nice home with two loving parents and a slew of beloved pets. I am college educated, financially comfortable, a happily married mother to two healthy children who’ve grown into kind and thriving adults. […]
Ski Weekend (Excerpt)
Ski Weekend (Excerpt) We’re almost to the foothills when the trouble begins. Flashes of red and blue light up the stormy night sky as police cars hurry along the side of the snowy mountain highway. My heart does this flip-floppy, somersaulty thing in my chest as I watch them line up, blocking the path […]
Six Survival Thrillers That Will Make You Question Your Own Life
Ever since I was young, I have been obsessed with survival thrillers. Whether they’re nonfiction tales rooted in unbelievable yet true, real-life situations or fantastical made-up fictional scenarios, the stakes don’t get any higher in storytelling than life or death adventures. These types of stories never fail to make us ponder our own existence since […]
Exclusive with Shawn Nocher, author of A Hand to Hold in Deep Water
Exclusive with Shawn Nocher, author of A Hand to Hold in Deep Water By Emily S. Martin TSM: What provided the inspiration for your book? Shawn Nocher (SN): The first chapter was originally a short story written years ago in a workshop. Over the next decade, I spent a lot of time imagining an entire backstory […]
The Problem of the Pandemic Novel
THE PROBLEM OF THE PANDEMIC NOVEL Catherine Ryan Howard On March 27, 2020, Ireland went into lockdown having had a total of just over 2,000 coronavirus cases in a population of five million or so. There had already been a rash of restrictions – the government had announced that pubs were to close mere days before […]
Celebrate Harry Potter’s Birthday in Style
Celebrate Harry Potter’s Birthday in Style By Anna Shura July 31st marked the beloved wizard’s 41st birthday. (Yikes, does anyone have an anti-aging spell?) As a self-proclaimed huge Harry Potter fan, I give these items a stamp of approval, and I may or may not have all of them in my shopping cart already. […]
Excerpt From “LOST OASIS” by R Lawson Gamble
Excerpt From “LOST OASIS” by R Lawson Gamble After digging into steaming heaped plates of tangy soul-satisfying Mexican food, the friends leaned back in their chairs to contemplate the possibility of dessert. Zack sipped the dregs of his margarita and eyed his friend. “What else did you learn today? I’ve heard nothing to suggest a reason for […]
Three Sherlockian Poems
Three new selections from our ongoing series of Sherlockian Poems: A Rare Friendship, The Dark Valley of Fear, and Breakfast at 221B Baker Street. A RARE FRIENDSHIP To the Memory of Arthur Conan Doyle All this was a long time ago. They lived together, day and night, in heat and winter, as if […]
Poetry: Sherlock Holmes and The Closed Room Murder Mystery: The Vicar’s Last Homily
The Hound of the Baskervilles Redux A Versification The Baskerville Estate Near the Moors and Grimpen Mire of Devonshire (As Envisioned by Nathalia Mikhalchuk, 1907) Chapter One: Introduction to the Moors:“When the wind blows cold o’er the moors at night” (“Tam Pierce” English Folk Song) The skies they were ashen and sober, […]
Excerpt: Enemy Queen by Robert Steven Goldstein
Excerpt: Enemy Queen by Robert Steven Goldstein It was palpable the moment I entered the North Carolina house. The place felt completely different. I stood, confused and motionless, trying to assimilate how the ambiance could have veered so drastically in so short a time. I’d been gone for two weeks. Sydelle and I had each […]
Poetry: Sherlock Holmes and The Closed Room Murder Mystery: The Vicar’s Last Homily
Is Sherlock Holmes Awake? A dismal night in London town, a world that’s turning upside down, no hope of help from kin or crown – Is Sherlock Holmes awake? For I heard the Professor’s plan, the Colonel saw me when I ran, but Holmes will help me if he can – Is […]