Dashiell Hammett earned his place in literary lore many times over, for amazing fiction but also for presenting the quintessential “lady walks in” opener. The Maltese Falcon kicks off with a scene borrowed into cliché. Secretary Effie Perine leans into PI Sam Spade’s office and says: “There’s a girl out here who wants to see you.” Plot summaries barely mention Effie, and when…… Continue reading Show Some Love for Effie Perine
Tag: Writing
Behind: “Uprisings at Cap d’Antibes”
There’s nothing like a good, old-school revolution to get a story going. Great or small, a lightning coup or decades in the making, needed change or epic tragedy. Revolution, for better or worse, is essentially human. The idea of a revolution wriggled into my brain some time back. In my fiction usually a form of natural order wins…… Continue reading Behind: “Uprisings at Cap d’Antibes”
Behind the Short Story: “Whorling”
Albert Einstein–you know, he of the supercomputer brain–once dished out this observation on the universe: “Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.” Well said, but only half said. Sure, gravity doesn’t make people weak-kneed in love, but some force does, internal or external. Einstein didn’t name the cause because he didn’t know it. No one does. Love, a mystery.…… Continue reading Behind the Short Story: “Whorling”
Behind: “Dark Days for the Professor”
Southern lit. Family conflict. Race and social issues. Push-pull of tradition. Sense of belonging to place, like it or not. I don’t write it. Or at least I hadn’t until earlier this year. So it’s a thrill that my “Dark Days for the Professor” has been included in NWMG’s Southern lit anthology Not So Fast. So…… Continue reading Behind: “Dark Days for the Professor”