“Humankind cannot take too much reality.” ~T.S. Elliott I love it when a grizzled detective on Dateline or 48 Hours shakes his head in amazement and says to the interviewer, “This crime is so twisted. You can’t make this kind of stuff up.” As a mystery writer, I can’t help but think, Oh, but we…
Tag: guest blogger
Editorial love and the question of who hires whom … by Laura Lis Scott
So infinity scientists walk into a bar. Editor—This is very unbelievable. Infinity isn’t a real number. Nobody will believe this. And what does the bar look like? What kind of bar? Irish bar? Modern slick bar? Dive bar? Give us some details! Are you traditionally published? Are you indie? In many ways, it doesn’t matter,…
A Study in Scarlett (Or: Can I Be Sued For Writing That?) Part 2 of 2 … By: Chuck Greaves
Yesterday we discussed defamation. Today we’ll cover two related concepts that can also expose a writer to liability, as well as some defensive strategies that writers may wish to adopt. “Right to Privacy” simply refers to the right of an individual to be left alone in her personal affairs. As with defamation, privacy laws vary…
A Study in Scarlett (Or: Can I Be Sued For Writing That?) Part 1 of 2 . . . By Chuck Greaves
You’ve heard the horror stories. Scarlett Johansson sues acclaimed French author Grégoire Delacourt for invoking her name in describing a fictional character. A jury awards Jesse Ventura $1.8 million against the estate of American Sniper author Chris Kyle over Kyle’s account of an alleged barroom brawl. Novelist Haywood Smith suffers a $100,000 jury verdict for…
Returning to the Horror of it All … by F. P. Dorchak
After I released Voice last year, my thoughts once again turned to something I’d been considering for a while… Short stories. Now, I’m not an award-winning anything (I’d always wanted to be some kind of a William F. Nolan— who at one point claimed to have published everything he’d ever written—but I’m not…), rarely known…