A fork in the road

You may have noticed that The Burrow has been unusually quiet. That’s because I’ve been working on a new project that requires a whole new public face — that “fork in the road” in the title. I’ve decided to try a new genre — historical mystery/intrigue. It’s a booming genre,…

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Murder U.S.A., a mystery anthology

Excerpts from both Doha 12 and South are featured in Murder U.S.A., a new anthology of  excerpts from new and established mystery/thriller authors now available free wherever ebooks are sold. In Washington, D.C., an image on the screen of a cell phone connects a nationwide terror threat with an unknown anthrax…

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Publishing the Second Time Around, on Murder Lab

The Murder Lab blog just put up Part 1 of The Second Time Around, my accounting of what the second-time publishing experience was like for me. Some things changed, some didn’t, and as in life, it wasn’t always the right things that changed or stayed the same. If you’re interested…

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Kristen Elise: Making Science Thrilling

[Note: this is a departure for me in two ways. One, I rarely write about writing. Second, the Burrow’s never hosted a guest writer before. But Kristen Elise, author of The Vesuvius Isotope, has done something I signally failed to do in three attempts: write a thriller that involves science….

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Criminal Element: Addicted to Addicted Detectives

Stazione Centrale, Milan, 2007

Once more, I’m consorting with the Criminal Element. This installment is a think piece about why so many literary detectives are addicts. Crime fiction is cheerfully described as an addiction by many of its fans, including such diverse personalities as Sigmund Freud and Woodrow Wilson. Just as neurochemical addicts have…

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Criminal Element: What’s in Your Museum?

Stazione Centrale, Milan, 2007

I’m back among the Criminal Element again, this time with a story about antiquities smuggling: Our story begins with a pot and a pig. In 1970, an Italian man working on a canal near Naples discovered a remarkable piece of crockery: a 27-inch-tall, double-handled chalice or krater, black with red…

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Intelligence vs. Spies

Stazione Centrale, Milan, 2007

spy  (spi) NOUN: pl. spies  (spiz) An agent employed by a state to obtain secret information, especially of a military nature, concerning its potential or actual enemies. One employed by a company to obtain confidential information about its competitors. One who secretly keeps watch on another or others. (American Heritage…

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