NON-FICTION
Columns
I've been very fortunate (and rather proud) to have been invited to contribute regular on-going columns on a subject I have a real fondness for -- crime and detective fiction -- for two very fine publications, Blue Murder, and Mystery Scene, arguably the mystery reader and writers' bible.
Blue Murder, of course, is now sadly defunct, but over the years, I've also done a column where I rambled on about music AND crime fiction for Crime Spree, and for aI was few short years, to indulge in another passion of mine: bicycling. I served as the bicyclist columnist for the short-lived Valley Sports and continued "The Bike Beat" column in the North County Sports, a quarterly San Diego Magazine.
Currently, I'm still doing columns, as well as occasional features and reviews for Mystery Scene, and am contributing occasional back-up items for Reflections in a Private Eye, the official newsletter for The Private Eye Writers of America.

Mystery Scene (2003 --)

When Mystery Scene's new editor Kate Stine first invited me to contribute a regular column to Mystery Scene, I jumped at the chance. I'd been reading Mystery Scene off and on for years, and I'd come to regard it as the premier magazine for those who read and write crime fiction, a sort of bible for the biz.

My first "Eyewitness" column appeared in the Winter 2003 issue, and it made its debut at the 2003 Left Coast Crime convention, which was D.L. and my first "official" crime con together as a couple. Since then, I've also been asked to write several feature articles and reviews for them.

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2004

  • 2003

    Crime Spree (2005-06)

    When I first met the 'Spree editorial staff at the Toronto Bouchercon, it soon became apparent we all shared two equally strong passions: crime fiction AND music. And then inspiration struck. “Hey, how about a regular column that combined the two?” I asked.

    “Yeah, how about it?” they answered back.

    And so, this column was born. Each issue, I'll be prowling my record collection (and yours, hopefully) for songs from the world of pop, folk, country, rhythm, blues, soul, rock and who-knows-where, that somehow deal with our favorite subject: crime.

    The Bike Beat: Valley Sports News & Review (2004) & North County Sports (2007)

    In May 2004, I started writing for Valley Sports News & Review, a quarterly tabloid that celebrated amateur sports here in California's Antelope Valley, with a heavy slant towards youth. I did a regular bicycling column, The Bike Beat, and started another column, Silver Screen Sports, with the intention of reviewing video and DVD releases of sports movies. Unfortunately, the paper only lasted four or five issues, although a few years later, Ed's son Bradley, who had relocated to San Diego, gave it another shot, launching a new paper entitled North County Sports, and I was invited to revive my column. Again, the paper was short-lived, but the columns gave me a chance to write about cycling, a true passion of mine (although I've never felt the need to don spandex to prove it).

    The Blue Murder Years (1998-2001)

    		 My column, which we never quite got around to giving a title, appeared in every issue of Blue Murder, the late, lamented web-based mystery magazine, starting with Number 2. When editor David Firks invited me to contribute a column, after reading my posts on Rara-Avis and DorothyL, I was flabbergasted.

    Me?

    Write a column? But you know what?

    We had a ball, and it was great while it lasted.

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