I've been rereading "The Simple Art of Murder," Raymond Chandler's essay on the state of mystery fiction as it was in 1944. It's a super interesting piece. While some of the writers he references are no longer widely read -- or even read at all -- most of what he shares here is entirely thought-provoking and worthy of sharing.



I could pull a dozen quotes from this super piece. Two dozen. It's a little bizarre to me that so much of this essay resonates over 60 years after it was… Continue

So here I am, belatedly arriving to this party. And there's a part of me wondering just what the hell I'm doing. Between all the blogging and other types of reportage I do, between FaceBook and -- hold the phone a minute -- writing books, I'm not exactly sure where I figure I'm going to squeeze the time. But, realistically, there's an aspect to this social networking stuff that I find relatively irresistable. Maybe you do… Continue