Author Archives: somethingisgoingtohappen

“Writing About What You Want to Know” (by Janice Law)

An Edgar Allan Poe Award nominee for her mystery fiction, Janice Law has always also written mainstream novels and stories, so her perspective on fiction writing is wide. She has taught writing, and she blogs regularly on Janice Law, writer, … Continue reading

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“Does It Ever Get Easier?” (by Michael Z. Lewin)

An award-winning writer of novels, short stories, poems, radio plays, and stage plays, Michael Z. Lewin has the experience to speak knowledgably of the writing life. In his post this week he considers a writer’s need to connect with other … Continue reading

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“Discovering a Character” (by Melodie Johnson Howe)

Melodie Johnson Howe’s fiction has been recognized at both novel and short-story length with nominations for the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha, and Barry Awards. Though her output is not large, she is one of our genre’s most dependable writers in terms … Continue reading

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“The Human Condition” (by David Dean)

A contributor to EQMM for more than twenty years, David Dean has won the magazine’s Readers Award and been nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for his EQMM stories.  His significant body of work was accomplished while also serving as a full-time police officer, … Continue reading

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Causes in Fiction

With Labor Day just past and the political season heating up, I thought I’d revisit a topic I made a post about in June 2010, on EQMM’s forum. For many people Labor Day is now nothing but an end-of-summer day … Continue reading

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“Black Mask Magazine, Steve Fisher, and The Noir Revolution” by Keith Alan Deutsch

Keith Alan Deutsch is publisher and conservator of Black Mask Magazine, a publication that has a long-established connection to EQMM. He is also the co-author of several reference and scholarly books relating to Black Mask, hardboiled, and noir fiction. They … Continue reading

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“Edgar, Agatha, Hammett, Glauser—and Me” (by Mary Tannert)

Translators are the unsung heroes of the literary world. What they do requires not just knowledge of the language to be translated from but a writerly feel for the language they are translating to. Mary Tannert fits that bill. A … Continue reading

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“What is it about magic? Does the paranormal belong in mystery fiction?” by Elizabeth Zelvin

There’s been a big shift in readers’ perceptions of what belongs in the mystery and crime-fiction genre over the past decade. Here to talk about one area in which the boundaries have been expanded is Elizabeth Zelvin, who has recently … Continue reading

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On Editing

Bill Pronzini’s post on this blog, “Don’t Tell Me You’ve Got a Heater in Your Girdle, Madam!”, with its entertaining and instructive examples of bad crime writing, generated some dissenting opinions about one of the passages quoted. Several respondents felt … Continue reading

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“Don’t Tell Me You’ve Got a Heater in Your Girdle, Madam!” (by Bill Pronzini)

There can’t be many who know the mystery field better than Bill Pronzini. His fiction has earned him the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, France’s … Continue reading

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