Lisa Gardner’s Top Five Writing Tips When I started my career as a suspense novelist, I was seventeen years old. I wrote my first novel on a shared computer in the college computer lab during my free time after my classes, homework and work-study job were all completed. Basically, I drafted three unpublished novels in […]
The Top Ten Screen and TV Swindles Lying is what humans do, often and with zest. But lying on a grand scale—propagating an elaborate swindle or scam, grifting, conniving, and deceiving for illicit gains—is a rare skill. When we see such a display of social-engineering artistry, in fiction or in real life, a reluctant […]
DVD Review: The Night Of The Night Of is an HBO miniseries based upon the British series Criminal Justice. While the basic plot and many pertinent storyline details remain the same, the Americanized version comes into its own as a commentary on the U.S. justice system. The Night Of succeeds in Americanizing the source material while […]
Top Ten Gifts to Give a Suspense Writer… With Christmas approaching, let the angst begin. What should you get the mystery or suspense writer on your list? You know, the one who’s perpetually late because the voices in her head speak over the buzzing of the alarm. Or the one who has ink stains […]
Vig by R.G. Oram He just sat there, waiting. Sitting with his back gently resting on the chair. Hands on the table pressed together in the shape of a pyramid. His eyes looked straight at the two-way mirror. He was smiling at whoever observed from the other side, wanting them to witness his confidence, to […]
Mrs Hudson’s Olympic Triumph: Fifth in the Mrs. Hudson of Baker Street Series (Paperback) It is 1896. Mrs. Hudson and her colleagues are traveling to Athens to attend the first Olympiad in more than 2000 years. Indeed, Holmes is to participate in the foils competition as a member of Great Britain’s Olympic team. But the […]
TOP TEN MOST TERRIFYING GHOSTLY TALES TO READ THIS AUTUMN (Part II) Some people think of Ray Bradbury as a science fiction author, others as a writer of weird tales, and still others as a writer of nostalgia. None of these labels adequately categorizes a man whose work defies genre labels. It is far better […]
9 films that influenced Stranger Things Stranger Things returns to our screens this month as Netflix’s nerd-friendly smash hit stops by for a second season. The Duffer Brothers’ binge-worthy behemoth came out of nowhere last year to become one of the video-streaming giant’s most successful shows. While millions of fans from around the globe […]
Canadian Noir? Eh? Much has been made recently of the quintessentially sunny Canadian personality. Our impossibly handsome prime minister loves selfies with the common folk and our favorite word is sorry, even when someone steps on our toe or slams the door in our face. Today, it seems, Canada is all things bright and beautiful, […]
From Hidden Tunnels to History…Eight Ways to Get Your Non-Food Kicks in Chinatown Chinatown, even for many Chinese-Americans, has become a bit of a necessary evil. So-and-so is in town and they want to have dim sum, have to have dim sum. It takes forever for your group of twenty to individually trickle into the […]