Happy campers all around

And the Monday winner for this week in March is Kathleen in Philadelphia’e2’80’94Congratulations! Both Greg in NJ and Philip in SF have their winners’e2’80’99 copies of the bound galley of THE ART OF DETECTION, and are no doubt head-down in them as I write this. Have fun, you three, knowing what happens before anyone. Well, maybe not absolutely anyone, but before lots of people.

We’e2’80’99ll do another drawing next Monday, and the Monday following, and on until May when the hardbacks will be starting to peep their little heads above the ground and nobody is interested in an advanced reading copy any more. If you’e2’80’99re not on the LRK newsletter mailing list, sign up by going to LaurieRKing.com and clicking on the menu bar, or zip over here.

(The problems with newsletter links that you’e2’80’99ve commented about I’e2’80’99ve been forwarding to Maggie, who does the wizardry for me but who’e2’80’99s been swanning around in Europe for Left Coast Crime. She’e2’80’99ll be back this week and will check links. Someone asked about the long autobiography, too, but I can’e2’80’99t see any problems there’e2’80’94its link is on the site’e2’80’99s The Author page, beneath the main essay. Anyone else having problems with the web site, links not working or anything?)

Weekends often prove to be fruitful, work-wise, without much email or any business calls, and this weekend was productive indeed: just short of 8000 words over the two days, that’e2’80’99s about 30 pages (this section is heavy on the dialogue) and it brings me to the beginning of the end, at 230 pages of first draft. The rewrite will bring this to 300 or so, since my firsts are little more than an expanded outline with usable sections. And considering it’e2’80’99s a first and therefore by definition clumsy, stupid, unbalanced, and basically unreadable, this is good, really good. I’e2’80’99m a happy camper this Monday.

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8 Comments

  1. Vicki Larson on March 20, 2006 at 4:48 pm

    I am home nursing a cold and indulging in a re-read of “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice” while inserting “O Jerusalem” where it belongs. I interrupt for coughing and sneezing, but mainly I am in heaven. Thank you for these many hours of delightful entertainment. It is more than that, really, but hard to explain to anyone (my husband) who does not wallow in the imagination and its curative powers, both physically and emotionally. Thanks again.

  2. Anonymous on March 20, 2006 at 5:21 pm

    Being an ornery old woman, I think I’d rather see your first (awkward, clumsy, needs-lots-of-work)draft than to sample galleries of a finished novel. Go figure! In fact, seeing a first, then a second draft would be very instructive. Am I alone in this? Is there any chance you might post a page or two of first draft, then second draft (any novel … not necessarily your new one)? Iris Lady

  3. dementedslinkybrain on March 20, 2006 at 11:20 pm

    In a totally un-related topic, I read this in my local paper and it reminded me of something I’d read (and re-read, rinse, lather, repeat) in the Beekeeper’s Apprentice about the connection between Chemistry and religion:

    The headline is: ‘e2’80’9cChemist-poet bridges gap between science and art, Nobel Prize Winner Roald Hoffmann to lecture, read here this week, Edmonton Journal March 20, 2006

    The short article is here:

    http://dementedslinkybrain.blogspot.com/

    PS Mitchell

  4. Chris on March 21, 2006 at 9:59 am

    I’m currently opting for the easy ‘pulp’ fiction of another, (very different)writer named King…Then I intend to re-read Night Work in preparation for both my upcoming trip to SFO and the pleasure that will be the savouring of The Art of Detection. Oh, to make it last a whole week, but I suspect that three or four days will be all I will manage to stretch the enjoyment out too…

    And no, I still haven’t decided if I can be patient enough to wait for the PPP edition!

  5. Anonymous on March 21, 2006 at 6:57 pm

    Hey, everyone, there’s a really good new mystery author out there. His name is Brian Freeman, and his first book is IMMORAL. Check out his website: http://www.bfreemanbooks.com Try it. You’ll lkie it! Iris Lady

  6. AlyssC01 on March 21, 2006 at 7:34 pm

    I’m busy with A monsterous Regiment of Women at the moment which a good friend posted for me all the way from the other side of the country. Thanks for your Mutterings Ms. King!! It’s great reading a bit behind the cover so to speak. 🙂 Baie Dankie as we say in my country!!
    Alyss

  7. Anonymous on March 21, 2006 at 10:56 pm

    Since people are recommending other authors ….

    I’ve just discovered a wonderful series, with a 1920’s heroine in Australia, by Kerry Greenwood. The main character is Phrynne Fisher (Phrynne pronounce to rhyme with briny, per the note in the author’s bio.) These are great — so far I’ve read two. Poisoned Pen Press seems to be releasing them here in the US.

    Note: she has a lover, so there is some sexuality — not steamy sex scenes, but the lover is prominent in the two I’ve read. I mention this in case there are those who would be off-put.

  8. Elaine McC. on March 23, 2006 at 3:05 am

    Hi Laurie,

    We’re almost out of the rainy season here in California, so many more bright, happy days should be heading our way.

    Here’s a diversion for you from an Edinburgh, Scotland website:

    Surgeons’ Hall Museum
    Nicolson Street
    Edinburgh

    T: 0131 527 1649
    W: visit website

    Conan Doyle and Joseph Bell – The Real Sherlock Holmes
    The Royal College of Sureons Edinburgh

    When: Sat, 01 Jul 2006 to Thu, 26 Oct 2006
    1st July – 26th October 2006
    Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859. He studied medicine at the university and was taught clinical practice by Joseph Bell, later President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Bell’s extraordinary powers of deduction in diagnosing patients’ ailments were the inspiration for Doyle’s greatest fictionals character – Sherlock Holmes.
    The exhibition covers Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s period in Edinburgh and the life and medical family of Joseph Bell. The exhibition will include letters between Conan Doyle and Joseph Bell, held in the College archives and never before shown in public.

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