by ROBIN BURCELLYou can never have too many handcuff keys.How do you make the police procedure in your mysteries or thrillers seem authentic? Below are some of the mistakes and overused tropes I’ve seen in books that usually pull me out of a story. The good news is that not everyone who reads...
Last week in Budapest, under cover of darkness, the team moved quietly into position in Martyrs' Square. They had one purpose: grab the life-size bronze statue of former Prime Minister Imre Nagy, and make him disappear. The Hungarian Parliament building(Image Credit:...
S. Lee Manning: Something wicked has crawled out of a box where it has been locked up. Something evil has dressed itself up in Sunday best and is strolling down Main Street, smiling and nodding, as if everything were normal. Something ugly is sunning itself on top of the rocks, when it used to...
A dark confession: though I was born in the ‘90s, I have an awful weakness for ‘60s TV spy shows. I got hooked on Get Smart, devoured The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and – most recently – started zooming my way through the original Mission Impossible TV series. Settle in for a few...
June. Love is in the air, weddings abound, and this month's topic is "love and the single spy."And that begs the question: Is it possible for spies to have a love life? I can only imagine this is a balancing act for the real-life spy, especially when the stakes are high. But what about their...
FOUR DAYS. FOUR HUNDRED PHOTOGRAPHS.by Sonja Stone100 hours doesn't seem like much, does it?I've just returned to sunny Arizona after a long weekend in Oregon. I went to the University of Oregon to see a theater production--Mother Courage and Her Children. The performance lasted for three hours...
S. Lee Manning: I have an affinity for jazz, France, and spies, so for my post this month, I chose to celebrate someone who combined all three.Many people know that Josephine Baker was an American jazz star, celebrated in France, who in her later years worked for civil rights.Did you also...
By Francine MathewsThe news that a jet had crashed today outside of Moscow, killing all seventy-one people aboard, reached me as I deplaned from a red-eye in Denver this morning. Red-eyes combine two things I truly dislike: disrupted sleep and air travel. I'm the sort of fragile buttercup who...
by Sonja StoneBABY STEPS.I'm such an all-or-nothing thinker that the thought of 'baby steps' immediately prompts a bout of eye-rolling. However, having recently completed my new year's goals, I realized that simply rewriting last year's goals onto this year's calendar doesn't seem to be getting...
by Sonja StoneHomemade costumes? Yeah, I'm *THAT* mom.Literary costumes? So much the better!Miss Clavel (and Madelines!)I loved Halloween as a kid. I'd spend weeks planning my costume, hours trudging through the neighborhood collecting sugary loot, then days lying to my parents about sneaking...
