Mystery – February 24

“Diane, it’s 4:10 in the afternoon at the scene of the crime. Here’s something we haven’t seen before: a mount of dirt. Approximately a foot and a half in diameter. On the top is a gold necklace with a gold heart. Correction, half a gold heart. At the base of the mount of dirt is a torn piece of news print. Written with the words, which appear to be in blood: ‘Fire walk with...

Mystery – February 23

“When I was reporting crime . . . I never had the sense of clockwork conspiracies, or some kind of imposing order of evil. What I sensed was things just sort of falling apart. That’s my sense of how crime works, that it’s not any kind of calculated evil driven by the devil, but just control disintegrating. Things fall apart and happen out of stupidity and carelessness.”- John Sanford, who...

Mystery – February 22

“If someone really interests you, you’ll learn about them yourself.”- Richard North Patterson, born this date in 1947. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist sets out to learn about someone who really interests him/her after their first encounter.

Mystery – February 21

“He dreams about being wanted and desired. So he changes people into beings who want and desire him.”- William Petersen, performing as Will Graham in Manhunter (Hannibal Lecter’s first film), who was born on this date in 1953. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is laughed at for explaining a transgressive person’s true motive.

Mystery – February 20

“One is what one has the nerve to pretend to be.”- Alan Furst, born this date in 1941. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist’s nerve to pretend to be someone else fails half-way through the bluff.

Mystery – February 19

“I have gotten to a point in my life where I don’t want to have dinner with someone I don’t like.”- John Frankenheimer. born this date in 1930. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist must share a meal with someone s/he dislikes.

Mystery – February 18

“If the storytellers told it true, all stories would end in death.”- George Pelecanos, born this date in 1957. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist tells an untrue story to avoid hurting a vulnerable crime victim.

Mystery – February 17

On this date in 1847, Edgar Allan Poe was awarded $225 in damages — plus 6 cents for legal costs — in a libel case in which Thomas Dunn English called him “thoroughly unprincipled, base and depraved . . . not alone an assassin in morals but a quack in literature.” Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist must defend her/himself from charges about her/his character that are...