On Saturday I was asked to speak at the re-opening of one of the Santa Cruz libraries, this the Live Oak branch. I rarely say no to libraries, particularly those within driving distance, so I went, and talked about beginnings–of libraries, of readers (my early days of reading having been in the central branch of…

Apropos of the last flurry of blog/comments, the Telegraph has a project going, encouraging people to write a novel in a year (thanks to Sarah Weinman for the tip. ***In the meantime, I too have begun the novel for the year. Or at any rate, I’e2’80’99ve begun to push ideas around on my plate like…

A point of clarification, with the Bearded iris lady in mind. By saying that one is not required to produce a book before one dies, I am by no means saying one should not do so if one wants to. By all means write a book, write ten books, I shall be very happy for…

This makes the third and last installment of the January Ask LRK session. If yours didn’e2’80’99t appear here, it’e2’80’99s either because it was a personal question, which I’e2’80’99m not going to answer, or because it came in after my arbitrary cutoff day and will have to be repeated next month. And by the way, please…

Really, no more questions. If we don’t hit yours on this round, it’e2’80’99s not that we don’e2’80’99t love you, we just want to let you have another chance on the first of next month. Q: I was wondering why you, a straight woman, made Kate M a lesbian? It seems unusual to me. A: Unusual…

Okay, enough with the questions for now. I’e2’80’99ve answered some of your questions here, and will do another batch later in the week. If I don’e2’80’99t get to yours, save it for next month’e2’80’99s ‘e2’80’9cAsk LRK’e2’80’9d. Or you could look at the web site’s Frequently Asked Questions page. Q. MYNINKI SAYS: After a chapter or…

Happy New Year! Here in the Santa Cruz Mountains, some of my neighbors seem to have made a raid on Chinatown’e2’80’99s less licit businesses and come away with huge booming firecrackers. I suppose it’e2’80’99s an improvement on the shooting off of handguns–at least the only people in danger are the idiots lighting the fuses, not…

Those of you who get the newsletter already know this, but there’e2’80’99s now an excerpt from THE ART OF DETECTION THE ART OF DETECTIONon the web site, along with the cover art for the book and for the new short story, ‘e2’80’9cCat’e2’80’99s Paw’e2’80’9d. I’e2’80’99ll be posting more on THE ART OF DETECTION later in the…

Two bits of news to tuck under your Christmas tree or Hanukkah bush. One, following the example of JK Rowling, sometime after Christmas I’e2’80’99m going to post the first chapter of THE ART OF DETECTION on the web site. If you get the newsletter, you’e2’80’99ll know when. And second, as of the first of the…

The problem with writing a book around characters is that eventually, they have to have something to do. TOUCHSTONE’s protagonist is very clear to me, and has been for the eighteen months that I’ve been thinking about the book. I know his character, his history, his setting, but the events in which I shall immerse…