“The more I describe it, the more vague it gets.” — Shūji Terayama, Pastoral: To Die in the Country (1974) I love this quote, but (perhaps appropriately) the more I think about it, the less specific it gets. Essentially, it's about the inadequacy of descriptions or labels. Suppose I ask you what grief feels like.… Continue reading More Information = More Mystery
At the top of Devil's Lake Despite the lack of reporting, I'm still going on my Friday adventures. Most of the photos from my Shawnee trip were lost in a tragic OneDrive accident that also claimed a lot of my work on the re-edit of The Opening Night Murders. I had a backup of the… Continue reading Not much to report
Today marks the release of All the Crime in the World: Locked Room Mysteries and Impossible Puzzles from Across the Globe, edited by Gigi Pandian and Tom Mead, and I'm delighted to have my story "The Fourth Guest" included among its fourteen original impossible-crime tales. This is a particularly exciting anthology for fans of locked-room… Continue reading All the Crime in the World Is Here!
I sometimes fall into the trap of thinking of children's murder mysteries as stepping stones—books that get young readers interested in the genre before they graduate to the "real" mysteries as adults. The Big Bad Wolf Murder reminded me how unfair that way of thinking is. This is simply a well-crafted mystery, regardless of the… Continue reading The Big Bad Wolf Murder
I ended up ordering the next proof of Goodnight Irene. I think it's done. I love the imagery and the colors. I might be uploading this and removing the old Irene sooner rather than later. Editing on The Opening Night Murders is going slowly. Today was productive nonetheless. I outlined a new scene and made… Continue reading Editing update: The Opening Night Murders 2.0
James Scott Byrnside 