The 2019 “Six-Word Mystery” contest sponsored by the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Mystery Writers of America drew more than 200 entries from ten states and three countries.  The results of this year’s competition were decided in December, and the winner is… me!  By th...

       A reader of Lethal Fetish and the other Riley mysteries asked me why I chose one of this Irishman’s haunts to be a Polish bakery—and how I crafted believable, immigrant dialogue (crafting realistic dialect is one of the great challenges in writing...

Last semester I taught an undergraduate course on crime noir, including films, radio programs, readings, and (of course) writing. 

Upon reflection, I think there were five things that the students realized—“lessons” about this genre and perhaps even life—along with wha...

The term femme fatale, used to describe a dangerous and alluring woman, originated in the mid-1800s and became a staple of noir mysteries in the 20th century.  Classic films might’ve justified an inverted “Me Too” movement led by Frank Chambers (played by John Garfield...

The cover art for Lethal Fetish, my upcoming mystery novel in the Riley series features sultry, salacious, even lascivious images.  Conor Mullen—my immensely gifted and creative artist—and I worked with various images to evoke the decadence that unfolds in the story....

          The challenge of scientific literacy is communicating knowledge in forms that are evocative, memorable and intelligent.  Stories engage people—and this approach drove a collaborative ventu...

             I previously wrote about a collaborative project with Dr. Anne Guzzo—an acclaimed composer in the Department of Music—to produce a chamber opera (How Science OPERAtes).  We are excited to announce that LOCU...

          Back in the 1960s, my family watched Art Linkletter’s television show, which included a segment in which he asked children questions or vice-versa.  This format gave rise to a series of books titled, “Kids Say the Darnedest Things.”  The notion was that the s...

Here is an intriguing email and my response (both somewhat abridged, so let me know if you’d like the full versions).  I showed the controversial image in question (Grasshopper in Cyberspace, Galina Lukshina, 2003) during a university presentation about my writing, whe...

          I bristle at the notion that basic science, which eschews the crassness of economic utility, is more virtuous than applied research, which pursues gritty questions and messy answers needed by farmers, nurses an...