Loading coal

From Dreaming Spies:

While the Colombo-bound passengers and day-trippers jostled noisily down one set of gangways and the coal and coconuts streamed up another, I retired to a deck-chair with my book. Holmes glowered down at the teeming dockside below. I pointedly kept my eyes on the pages.

Steamers were filthy, no way around it. All that coal burning in the depths came out in the smokestacks, and steamer guides of the period often urge the traveler to leave any precious or light-colored garments in the hold lest they be irrevocably stained by the combination of the all-pervasive smuts and the clammy effects of salt air. Of course, loading coal was done at every port, and was even filthier for those tasked with doing the job.

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23 days until Dreaming Spies! Other posts about writing and researching the book can be seen here, or you can read a long excerpt here

You can pre-order a signed copy from Poisoned Pen Books or Bookshop Santa Cruz, and unsigned or e-books from IndiebooksAmazon/Kindle, or Barnes & Noble/Nook.

My upcoming events are here.

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4 Comments

  1. Jackie Byars on January 25, 2015 at 9:07 am

    I know these daily tidbits are part of an elaborate marketing campaign, but I am enjoying them anyway.

    • Laurie King on January 25, 2015 at 9:22 am

      Hi Jackie, glad you’re liking them, although I’m not sure how “elaborate” my “campaign” is. Mostly these posts let me satisfy my academic side, since my publisher doesn’t let me put footnotes into my novels…

  2. K on January 25, 2015 at 11:26 am

    Fascinating. Please continue to share your footnotes! I would never see them without your academic sleuthing. The fast-motion here serves to highlight the ant-colony-choreography of their cooperative work. Though saddening, it is also beautiful. Are all civilizations built on the backs of the poor?

  3. Vicki Saunders on January 26, 2015 at 4:08 pm

    I, for one, absolutely love the academic side, from the theology to the history. It’s all my cup of tea. And to have it with a strong woman on top of the Sherlock Holmes that I grew up reading about–it doesn’t get any better.

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