Laurie R. King

Looking at the family letter I always write during the Christmas season, I found myself trying to remember: what did I do this year, anyway? I know I had a book out, but… So I looked back at my calendar, and found that yes, I was a bit busy:
In January, I was still wielding my machete amongst the tangled undergrowth in The Bones of Paris, the rewrite that wouldn’t die. Because I was both late and determined, my work-weeks edged up into the high seventy-hours, as I lived on the dining room table (the only place I could spread out a manuscript.)
February saw my twentieth birthday as a published writer—a still-published writer! Our Grave Talent celebrations included my thank-you to libraries, the places that gave me such a boost in the early days. Ten libraries received a book-club-in-a-box from me, along with my sincere thanks.
March continued the Library Extravaganza with my Puget Sound trip: a talk at a library with a river running under it, another on a Sound-crossing ferry, and a pair of talks to a great collection of island dwellers.
April, home of National Library Week, saw our annual library contest. Great entries, and the winner, with a fabulous Kate Martinelli story, was Sabrina Flynn. Her story lurks here.
May was Malice, that grand conference celebrating the classic mystery, which asked me to be guest of honor. I was, truly, honored. May was also one of the best events I’ve ever been involved in, Higher Mysteries with Zoe Ferraris, Sharan Newman, Julia Spencer-Fleming and me, talking about how we use religion in our crime fiction. Podcasts of the event, along with individual interviews of all four of us, are here, or you can watch the video, here:

June began the countdown to The Bones of Paris with images that give background to the book—its Pinterest board is here.
July saw giveaways—and a new and original video, from Team LRK!
August was busy. Every day we posted a snippet from Bones, an image, and a reflection on that image (they’re collected here.) At the same time, I was enjoying an English summer with my family. (Research, all of it. Especially the pubs, and feeding the swans, and the day at Blenheim…)
September, after ten more days of teasing snippets-and-photos, The Bones of Paris came out

—and thank you very much, it did nicely with sales and reviews. I also had the usual fantastic time at BoucherCon (next year—Long Beach: sign up now!)
October: Seattle Sherlock was a blast, including festivities, wild costumes, and interviews.
Thurber House, Columbus was just as much fun. And at last, the short story Hellbender was e-ified.
In November, I buckled down to writing, since the new novel is due in late January. In the meantime, Team LRK got a new e-project up: the two thesis projects from my dark, distant past, academic work that contributed so much to my writing over the years. It’s here.
December was mostly quiet and work, the first draft taking form and the pages accumulating. It was capped by a nice Christmas present, when my friend Les Klinger won the court case he started because of the second Sherlockian anthology we were putting together (details are here).
And I think that tomorrow, I’ll talk a bit about what I expect in 2014.