The days before a book comes out are always an interesting time in a writer’e2’80’99s life. Interesting, you understand, in the Chinese-curse sense, which is accompanied by a vague sensation of fluttering panic and a specific awareness of panic because The Book’e2’80’94and last year’e2’80’99s book, at that–is going to overwhelm life for far too long…

What did I learn in Phoenix? Temperatures that would slay a wrestler if there was so much as a touch of moisture in the air are remarkably bearable in the desert, particularly when all one has to do is pass through the out-of-doors between one air conditioned space and another. Not sure I’e2’80’99d want to…

This post is early in the day even for me, I know, but I’e2’80’99m off to the Poisoned Pen conference in Phoenix, where it’e2’80’99s going to be 108 degrees’e2’80’94the mythic bird is surely aflame and ready to rise from the ashes. I’e2’80’99ll write Sunday and let you know what, in the end, I decided to…

The last posting generated a response from Jennifer, who wants to know about a day tour of the city before the San Francisco launch party for LOCKED ROOMS next week. What fun! (Now, if I can only remember what the book is about and where they went in it’e2’80’a6) Before you set off, you might…

The life of a writer is nothing if not varied. This weekend I’e2’80’99ve been cutting up pieces of paper one half inch by two and five-sixteenths. This is under the assumption, which may prove mistaken, that the little heavily-accented lady on the phone was telling me the size of the papers she needs, and not…

A while ago (on May 13th, if you want to dig it out of the archives) I wrote about the hormone ocytocin, which stimulates the response of attachment, whether it’e2’80’99s between mothers and newborns, between mates, or one’e2’80’99s pet Rottweiler. Now they’e2’80’99ve found another use for it–and I’e2’80’99m waiting to see who grabs it first…

Somehow or other I’e2’80’99ve managed to get myself involved in two conferences in the next few weeks, added to an already full schedule of rewrite and tour. For some writers this wouldn’e2’80’99t be a problem, because they could just pull a folder containing a syllabus out of their files and work off of that, but…

The new MOMA in New York is an interesting place, although the building itself had less of a personality than I had anticipated, and I don’e2’80’99t know that the light is as perfect as I would ask for, were I one of the painters hung there. Monet’e2’80’99s lilies looked pretty muddy to me. Still, one…

Ahem. The New and Improved Laurie King site is now up, including two new pages: Mary Russell’s World, on which can be found All Things Russell, and a press page, still in progress but with two pretty cool documents related to LOCKED ROOMS Please let me know how you like the changes.

A theological musing to start your day. Are human beings ephemeral works of art? Installations, shall we say, along the lines of an Andy Goldsworthy daisy-chain of leaves drifting in a stream? Or is our soul the equivalent of a bronze sculpture, guaranteed to be around until the earth falls into the sun? One argument…