A Word From the Editor
This issue of Mysterical-E brings several fun stories. We are also proud to announce a new columnist, Anita Page, who will be taking a look at some classic films. We've also got our usual line-up of great features and columns by Gerald So and Christine Verstraete and interviews by Barbara Hodges. Enjoy …
Stories
I was on my way out of the Food Star shopping center, groceries in hand, when I noticed the boat, a wide-bottom aluminum boat, painted white, and maybe twenty feet long. It had an outboard motor hung on its stern, a trolling motor on a long handle lying along the …
Stories
I am standing in a bar. A woman stands in front of a jukebox and sways to the Bruce Springsteen tune coming from it. She wears a long skirt that falls from her hips and covers her ankles. It flows with her movements, revealing nothing, but promising everything. She has …
Stories
Somebody had to put a stop to it, this Happiness Month crap. Twenty-three working days in August, Talie counted as she got ready for work, the max possible. Dreading forced happiness had kept her up late, wondering if she’d have to take measures, what those might be, how severe. An …
Stories
The wakeup came earlier than usual. Maddy's eyes flew open at the sound of her baby crying. A glance at Howie showed him unaware, sound asleep. She took just a moment to watch him, making sure he was breathing. Sometimes Howie slept like a chainsaw, sometimes like a mouse. Maddy …
Stories
Mr. Three sat across from me blabbing about sizes of houses, square feet, front yards, kitchen countertops, neighborhoods, yadda yadda. “Kendrick Elementary is right in the neighborhood. Two kids you said? It’s perfect! I’m not saying the house isn’t pricey…” I just sat there and nodded along in character, a …
Stories
CASABLANCA: A film classic that has endured for decades. That suspenseful night scene as Rick and Ilsa said their tearful goodbyes at the airport is not easily forgotten. But have you ever wondered what might have happened to those star-crossed lovers? A shot rang out in the back of …
Stories
It was a dreary Monday morning in Manhattan; the sort of rainy, dark day that makes you wonder why you were still in Manhattan when you could be…..well, anywhere else. New York is a great place to be if you have the money to enjoy it. The shows, the museums, …
Stories
I hate Mondays. After the freedom and do-nothing feeling of the weekend, it’s back to work, and the sight of the next weekend is too far off in the distance to make a difference. Worse, my assistant Annie is off on Mondays, so I’m stuck in the office doing the …
Book Excerpt
BOOK EXCERPT: Dead Men Do Come back
Chapter 1 It all started with a cadaver. In the middle of the night. Sometime between the time of my last patrol along the Juneau waterfront and before the sun came up, two teamsters were pounding on my door at the Gastineau Mining Boarding House. In my dreams I …
Columns
BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET, directed by Mario Monicelli Cast: Vittorio Gassman (Peppe), Marcello Mastroianni (Tiberio), Toto (Dante), Claudia Cardinale (Carmelina), Carlo Pisacane (Capanelle), Tiberio Murgia (Ferribotte), Carla Gravina (Nicoletta), Memmo Carotenuto (Cosimo) This 1958 film set in post-war Rome is often referred to as a parody of Rififi. It’s …
Columns
TERMINATED TV: SUDDEN DEATHS AND LONG GOODBYES From May 16-20, many broadcast networks published their Fall 2016 lineups, which also meant they'd decided which of this past season's shows to cancel. In the best cancellation scenario, writers are notified well in advance, allowing the shows to flow smoothly into their …
Columns
Favorite Lines What better way to get into a hot summer read than to sample a few lines? For fun, this time around I asked several authors to share their favorite lines from their latest works. Here’s what they had to say. Husband and wife co-authors Mary Reed and Eric …
Interviews
Amy Bennett's debut mystery novel, “End of the Road”, started as a National Novel Writing Month project in 2009. It went on to win the 2012 Dark Oak Mystery Contest and launched the Black Horse Campground mystery series, followed by “No Lifeguard on Duty” and “No Vacancy”, which have both …
Interviews
An Interview With Richard Paolinelli
Born in Turlock, California in 1964, Richard began his writing career as a freelance writer in 1984 in Odessa, TX and gained his first fiction credit serving as the lead writer for the first two issues of the Elite Comics sci-fi/fantasy series, Seadragon. In 1991 Richard started his sports writing …
Reviews
Brooklyn Secrets by Triss Stein Erica Donato, Brooklyn girl, urban history grad student and single mom, is researching the 1930s when Brownsville was the home of notorious organized crime lords who the newspapers collectively called Murder Inc. She learns that even in rapidly changing Brooklyn, Brownsville remains much as it …
