We are trying to persuade a large local bookstore to let us put together a selection of Jewish-themed mysteries that they could feature in time for the Jewish holidays in the fall. My people, we buy a lot of books, and come the holiday-season, with all that family togetherness, we tend to get a little desperate for distraction. A novel with Jewish themes, I figured, would go some way toward lessening the guilt we’ll feel for burying our heads in books, rather than in the bosoms of our families. And it’s not like it’s hard to come up with a...

Years ago, when F&M was but an infant Felony, we signed up for a small-press fair, and were given a booth next to a publisher that specialized in “transgressive” fiction. Their booth was staffed with many lavishly tattooed 20-somethings, who snarled winningly at the passers-by about how gritty and edgy their books were, unafraid to walk the mean streets, treading the fine line between sci-fi and the reality that dares to speak its name. Our booth was staffed by me, sitting in front of a pile of Margery Allingham paperbacks. At the time I was fat, and definitely over 40…