The Thursday blat
Okay, for those of you who haven’e2’80’99t done the New Yorker’s Laurie King/Mary Russell crossword, you really should. Not only is it a way of telling them (them being my publisher) that you’e2’80’99re paying attention to LRK’e2’80’99s books, but you can actually win a mystery cruise trip that sounds pretty fun. I mean, what’e2’80’99s not to like about leaving to driving to a man in a uniform for five full days, sitting in a deck chair and catching up on your stack of reading? Anyway, since you’e2’80’99ve probably missed buying the magazine itself, you can copy it from the New Yorker site. The link is here. If that doesn’e2’80’99t seem to work let me know and I’e2’80’99ll put up another.
The ladies over at the blog called Lipstick Chronicles (that is, http://thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com) are having a grand time hashing out the male/female question as it applies to crime writing. Laura Lippman’e2’80’99s been the guest the last two days, and a couple of masculine types will be brought in to lend balance (although I know Harlan too well to fall for his Hard-Boiled act. The guy’e2’80’99s a dad, with a sheepdog, yet. He writes in coffee houses, and even his baddest villains can’e2’80’99t bring themselves to curse beyond ‘e2’80’9cDamn’e2’80’9d. See what happens when you tower over six feet? People think you’e2’80’99re tough.)
Where was I? Oh yes, sorry, the six synapses of my brain that have survived The Tour thus far ceased firing for a minute. I’e2’80’99m off today to the mystery writing conference in Corte Madera, for which I shall have to pull together said synapses to present a keynote address tonight. Maybe I’e2’80’99ll try the same method that worked so well at the launch, and get the audience drunk.
I am sure that those of you who have persisted with this on-the-road blog are sick of the details, as am I. Life will return to something resembling normality after Tuesday, when at long last I open the first draft again and see what kind of mess THAT is in.
But my idea was to give you some kind of idea of the life of an author on book tour, and I think I’e2’80’99ve managed that.
Thanks for sticking with me.
I couldn’t get the link to the Lipstick Chronicles to work; the url I found is http://thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com/
Thanks for sharing all the road trip details with us — gruelling seems to weak a word to describe what you’ve been through! Do let us know how the Corte Madera conference goes — and I hope you find The First Draft to be inspriational when you get back to it!
I really enjoyed the road trip details.It’s nice to have a first hand account of what an author must go through to promote her book. Very informative as I, one day, hope to have to endure the same rigorous schedule – God willing.
Good luck with the first draft & settling back to “life as usual”. You must be exhausted!
couldn’t get the crossword link to work either – really excited about it though.
Congrats! (Working at a camp I wasn’t able to finish the book as fast as I would have liked…. But finish it I did!) I’m having fun with the crossword right now.
I really want to know what happened in those “three weeks in Japan” now!
I couldn’t open the crossword link either so I did a little net surfing and found the actual link here (http://www.subscriberdirect.com/the_new_yorker/laurie_crossword/crossword.pdf)
It’s a pdf file so you just have to click to open and print. Nice=)
I’m so happy there is an online version! I am completely poor this week and couldn’t go and get the magazine. Good luck to everyone=)
Dear Laurie,
I loved the crossword puzzle – a challenge and an education. I also loved the advertisement for Locked Rooms in the July 4th New Yorker. It will definitely go in my scrapbook. Keep blogging us about your adventures as a writer, on the road and in front of the computer. I hang on to every word.
thanks a lot for the crossword and the link, they dont sell the new yorker around here. im going to save it for later, with a huracan coming its good to have something not battery powered to do!
The crossword was fun indeed 🙂 GOod luck with the continuing road trip!
The crossword was fun..Thanks.
The chatter about male/female writers was interesting and echos dinner table conversations about books, movies and a variety of other issues.
Laurie-
thanks for sharing some of your trip enegy with all of us. CA is a bit far for us midwesterners! Have enjoyed traveling vicariously.
Puzzle was fun!
kay
I just finished Locked Rooms and loved it. I would love to go on a mystery cruise and have you be the host with the mystery. Any chance of that?
It is a bit late to be asking this, but I just noticed that then when and where of your appearance today at Cody’s bookstore here in Berkeley is perhaps a bit unclear.
On your own website — https://laurierking.com/events.php — it states: “Cody’s Books (4th Street store), Berkeley, CA, 7:00”
However, on Cody’s website — http://www.codysbooks.com/calendar/calendar.jsp#king — at the bottom of the nice paragraph to the left of the lovely photo, it states: “7:30 PM at Telegraph Avenue”.
I hope folks don’t miss you by going to the wrong store. I’m betting that the Cody’s website is the accurate one?
Hoping to see you today…
I haven’t read Locked Rooms yet, because I’m in the final throes of revising my dissertation and have been working 15-hour days on that. Can someone tell me if the crossword contains any spoiler for it? I’ve read all the other books.
Thanks,
B