Andrew Sullivan’e2’80’99s essays at the back of TIME magazine are often the best part of the whole 75 pages. A week or so ago (Jan 23) he wrote ‘e2’80’9cWe Don’e2’80’99t Need a New King George’e2’80’9d, which you can access, sort of, on the TIME web site. But since it appears to need a subscription, here’e2’80’99s…

Tomorrow marks a year since this blog started, an experiment to see if I could bear the additional demands of a regular, newsletter-style communication with the people who like my books. I always hated getting roped into the kids’ newsletters at school, since it seemed that no sooner did we finally get one issue off…

Q: Jaimee asks, I was wondering if you have ever thought of writing a travelogue or a memoir? Your descriptions of locale throughout all of your books are fascinating, and through your blog I have really enjoyed your personal stories about your experiences (such as the cockroach story). Reading your books tends to make me…

Q: Kay asks, Laurie-I’m wondering when you write a series (if, in fact, you meant to) do you visualise several books into the future, or do they come to you one adventure at a time?PS Loved Cat’s Paw–there were elements of Russell in there! A: Elements of Russell in the story of a middle-school basketball…

Okay, that’s enough questions for this month. If you haven’t asked yours yet, could you save it for the first of March? Thanks. Q. Mousie writes, I had thought of a question last week, but being incredibly forgetful, I forgot it. So the question I ask to substitute for my previous question is: Does Russell’s…

As we seem to be coming up to the first of the month (whatever happened to January?) I’m open to questions again. If you have something to ask about writing in general, or about LRK’s writing in particular, or indeed, about any other topic that catches your fancy, I’ll do my best to answer, or…

Gung hai fat choy, to you all. It’s the lunar New Year, which makes it appropriate that we talk about beginnings. Some beginnings are quiet and inexorable. Others take rather more work. The beginnings of TOUCHSTONE are proving to be the latter. Then again, with three main characters whose voices need nailing down early on…

First to check in on the ART OF DETECTION front is Fran from the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, who says: Laurie R. King’s fans who are eagerly awaiting her latest Mary Russell novel might, at first blush, be saddened by the fact that The Art of Detection is a return to her Kate Martinelli series, but…

There’e2’80’99s an articulate essay on the art of editing over on M. J. Rose’e2’80’99s page, do take a look. At the moment, however, I’e2’80’99m more concerned with the raw material that will eventually go under the editorial pencils. Yesterday I was working along as usual, paddling my little boat of narrative laboriously through the shallows…

Okay, that’s final. It’s the end of civilization and proof positive that This Country is Going to Hell in a Handbasket. Because I’m getting a little concerned that an aging Land Rover as the sole form of transport for three people, two of whom are over eighty, is not a really great idea, I went…