# decline fall (news sources) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 1 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover decline fall. Page: Feed: --- ## [See You in the Funny Pages](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/see-you-in-funny-pages.html) _2026-08-30 · Joseph S. Walker · SleuthSayers_ I started collecting comic books when I was about eight, and for many years took the hobby very seriously indeed--witness the twenty or so longboxes in my basement. Keeping up with the weekly grind of new issues eventually got to feeling too much like work, but by that time collected editions had become more popular, and many of the shelves in my home are filled with them. My first comic For… ## [If You Don't Know Your Burro from a Burrow](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/if-you-dont-know-your-burro-from-burrow.html) _2026-08-29 · John Floyd · SleuthSayers_ For today's post, I'm updating and expanding a column I wrote for the Criminal Brief mystery blog many moons ago. If you never saw that post I'm not surprised, and if you did see it and still don't remember it, I don't blame you. I barely remember it myself, and I wrote it. But some of the points it illustrated seem to be as applicable to our writing and to our use of language now as they were… ## [Fleming. Ian Fleming](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/fleming-ian-fleming.html) _2026-08-28 · Jim Winter · SleuthSayers_ Sketch of Bond by Ian Fleming for the Daily Express Bond. James Bond. He is one of the most iconic characters in both cinema and English literature. But many speculate who was Bond really? Some say Ian Fleming himself. Some say Sydney Reilly, a legendary operative for SIS in the years between both World Wars. Some have even suggested Christopher Lee, Fleming's cousin and MI6 operative during World… ## [REPOST: This Is The Way We Avoid Writing...Avoid Writing...Avoid Writing...](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/repost-this-is-way-we-avoid.html) _2026-08-27 · Brian Thornton · SleuthSayers_ Dear Sleuthsayers faithful - today was the first day of the new school year (hey, I don't make the rules, or set my district's calendar to this absurdly early date to begin the new school year), and so I'm re-posting a favorite I originally published here back in 2018. Hope you enjoy it, and before you ask, as a matter of fact, NO, I DIDN'T get any writing done today, thankyouverymuch! \* \* \* \* \*… ## [Decline & Fall](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/decline-fall.html) _2026-08-26 · David Edgerley Gates · SleuthSayers_ I mentioned in my last column that I’d been reading Gibbon’s famous history of the Roman Empire , Decline and Fall , which I’d never tackled before. I’ve never read Herodotus, either, on the Peloponnesian War, or Xenophon’s Anabasis , two other celebrated histories. I know them only by reputation. There was a time, of course, when both of them were regularly taught, and in the original. It was the… ## [You Don’t Need to Commit Murder to Have a Fabulous Author Website!](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/you-dont-need-to-commit-murder-to-have.html) _2026-08-25 · Barb Goffman · SleuthSayers_ Last fall I realized my website was nearly a year out of date. How did this happen? Well, after many years of using a software program that I found easy to use, my website company had discontinued it, and I'd had to "upgrade." The new program, I was assured, would be simple to use. Ha! It was so not simple (at least for me) that I let my website languish. Eventually, I reached out to a member of… ## [As time goes by](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/as-time-goes-by.html) _2026-08-24 · Chris Knopf · SleuthSayers_ I made the mistake of going back to read some of my favorite hard science fiction novels, most of which had been published in the late 20th century. Brilliant, inventive works as they are, the writers got some of the science wrong. Not their fault, the updated information had yet to be discovered. Sadly, some of the undergirding plot lines depended on these false predictions, which caused the… ## [On-The-Nose Dialogue](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/on-nose-dialogue.html) _2026-08-23 · Stephen Ross · SleuthSayers_ One of the most iconic lines of dialogue in movies is from Jaws , 1975. "You're gonna need a bigger boat." Sheriff Brody's retort reveals his sense of humour in the face of terror, and his understatement as to the size of their adversary. Brody isn't literally suggesting they head back to shore and procure a larger vessel. "That's a big shark. We're going to have a lot of trouble catching that."… ## [The Human Condition](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/the-human-condition.html) _2026-08-22 · Melodie Campbell · SleuthSayers_ This month, I'm pleased to welcome one of my fellow Mesdames of Mayhem, Hope Thompson, to this blog. I was particularly intrigued by the topic today, The Human Condition . You'll see how this post complements my post for next month, How Important is Plot? Take it away, Hope! The Human Condition by Hope Thompson Do you ever read books and immediately forget the plot? As the weeks and months and… ## [Angry Joe Writes A Letter](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/angry-joe-writes-letter.html) _2026-08-21 · Joseph D'Agnese · SleuthSayers_ Months ago, my wife and I were invited to a community fundraiser event that would take place sometime this fall. At the beginning, the emails were somewhat vague because the people organizing it were just feeling everyone out. If they could get a group of writers to commit, would we consider attending to this quasi-literary, quasi-fundraiser thingie for a good cause? We said yes. Throughout the… ## [Save with community-voted codes (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/brk8VAsd2dEB) _2026-08-21 · **Sponsored**_ Search thousands of community-verified coupon codes — 100% free, no account needed. ## [The Enemy](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/the-enemy.html) _2026-08-20 · Eve Fisher · SleuthSayers_ When you read / write enough literature, you realize that almost all of it involves overcoming an enemy. So pick a good one. There's the villain, the betrayer, the bully, the sociopath, the serial killer (of whom I am sick unto death), the false friend, the false lover, the rival, the Cain to one's Abel, and all the variations on the theme. The enemy is the source of tension, that keeps everyone's… ## [You Are Entitled to Read My Story](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/you-are-entitled-to-read-my-story.html) _2026-08-19 · Robert Lopresti · SleuthSayers_ I am pleased as punch to report that the September/October issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine features "Was That So Hard?" my 45th story there. And since my first appearance in that august journal was in 1981 I can boast an average of exactly one story a year. (We won't discuss how many years I submitted stories there before they bought one.) The idea for this story came from Not Always… ## [Double Dealing](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/double-dealing.html) _2026-08-18 · Mark Thielman · SleuthSayers_ One reason I always liked going to the courthouse was the snippets you'd see or hear while passing down any random hallway. Pick a floor, get off the elevator, and wander. Think of it as trolling for dialogue. Or sometimes it's handed to you. A while back, I was looking at a probable cause affidavit. A PC affidavit, is a document in which a police officer sets out the reasons why the officer… ## [How does my garden grow?](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/how-does-my-garden-grow.html) _2026-08-17 · Elizabeth Zelvin · SleuthSayers_ I think often these days of the famous closing line of Voltaire’s 1759 novella Candide : Il faut cultiver notre jardin . (“We have to cultivate our garden.”) Candide is a satire better known to modern Americans from Leonard Bernstein’s 1956 operetta of the same name. Its protagonist, a naive young optimist, learns through horrific life experience that he can do nothing about war, famine, plague,… ## [The Power of Prepositions](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/the-power-of-prepositions.html) _2026-08-16 · Leigh Lundin · SleuthSayers_ The Power of Prepositions by Leigh Lundin Aladdin, getting along in years, found he was unable to pitch a tent as he had done in his youth. Smart as well as lucky, Aladdin still kept his magic lamp and, frugal with his wishes, one remained. He rubbed his lamp. When the genie appeared, he begged him. “My camel can no longer thread the needle. Can you cure my erectile impotence?” Genie said, “I can… ## [Whoa, Look at THAT!](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/whoa-look-at-that.html) _2026-08-15 · John Floyd · SleuthSayers_ So far this summer, I've spent a lot of time on the computer, especially when it's hot as blazes outside, and at least some of it's been productive. I've written and submitted a lot of stories and SleuthSayers posts, I've done some research for future stories, I've read and sent a bazillion emails, etc. But I have also wasted a lot of time. I'm good at wasting time. My most recent time-waster is… ## [The Gingerbread Man](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/the-gingerbread-man.html) _2026-08-14 · Stacy Woodson · SleuthSayers_ In June, Level Short released Wish Upon a Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Fairy Tales , an anthology I edited with Michael Bracken. The stories range from light-hearted to noir. Fellow SleuthSayers, Joe Walker , Barb Goffman , and Michael Bracken , share insights about their amazing stories in previous posts and are worth checking out. Deb Goldstein , Tom Milani , and Andrew Welsh- Huggins… ## [When Writing Historical Fiction: It's Better to Travel](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/when-writing-historical-fiction-its.html) _2026-08-13 · Brian Thornton · SleuthSayers_ (It's mid-August and I am enblow deep in end-of-summer projects. Haven't forgotten my promised follow up installment on celluloid Hammett. Will have that for your next go-round. In the interim this is a repost from a while back. Still useful. Hope you enjoy! - B.T.) \[Elmore\] Leonard was originally no more a man of the West than was the Ohio-born dentist Zane Grey. While a kid in Detroit, Westerns… ## [John Crowley](http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2026/08/john-crowley.html) _2026-08-12 · David Edgerley Gates · SleuthSayers_ I’ve been reading Gibbon’s history, Decline and Fall , at bedtime, and I was going to write a SleuthSayers column about it, but over the weekend, John Crowley died. He would have found it entertaining, to hear about the Gibbon. He would have thought it appropriate . \[ CROWLEY ’S HAND & MANUSCRIPT\] I met John in Lenox , Massachusetts – introduced by our mutual friend, the bookseller Matt Tannenbaum…