Posts by Laurie King
Russell’s War
Last year on the centenary of the Great War’s beginnings,I began posting young Mary Russell’s War Journal. Her weekly reflections about the War, her drive to do something more than just be a fourteen year-old girl, (her mother is raising money for the British air force) and her suspicions about German spies weave in and…
Read MoreMr Holmes
Today I did another of those bits of difficult research I force myself to pursue: I went to see Ian McKellan in Mr Holmes. Oh my, what an actor, slipping effortlessly between a vital 60 year old and a decrepit and confused man in his nineties. And the Sussex scenery is suitably gorgeous, the houses…
Read MoreOoh: Maps!
I love maps. I’m always thrilled to have the excuse of a story that just NEEDS a map at the front (because honest, nobody knows what India looks like, or England, so we have to put one in there, right?) Anyway, when I was in London in May, I was headed to the Victoria &…
Read MoreWe have a look!
The Art department just gave me the cover! So, what do you think? Yummy, huh? Pre-ordering a copy lets Random House know you’re excited: Signed from Bookshop Santa Cruz or Poisoned Pen Books Unsigned or ebook at B&N/Nook or Amazon/Kindle.
Read MoreThriller!
I’m off today to Thriller Fest in New York! (—and SO glad I wasn’t flying yesterday, when United Airlines was a parking lot.) This will be my first time at Thriller Fest, although I’ve been a member of ITW for a long time and I’ll know a fair number of the writers there. This is…
Read MoreMeeting Mamay
I can’t resist new life forms, particularly when they inhabit fruit and vegetable stands. The other day I wandered into the one in the Stanford shopping center, and spotted a soft, heavy football with a scratchy skin. It wore a nametag: Mamay. Hello, Mamay. Mamay is a Cuban native weighing two or three pounds, which…
Read MoreThis is Mrs Hudson?!
As you may have noticed (did you?) posts here on Mutterings have been both sparse and brief of late. Here’s why: First draft, 326 pages, with a strong beginning, wobbly middle, and an ending I absolutely adore. This is Mrs Hudson’s story (and yes, before you ask, I do fully intend to let Dr Watson…
Read MoreBBC Beekeeper
Several years ago, BBC Radio 4 did an adaptation of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. If you don’t know Radio Four, this is the radio station that covers not music, but the word: dramas, comedies, in-depth reports on news and history, it’s a genius source of wit and wisdom the like of which does not really exist in…
Read MoreKepler’s & Crime
The marvelous Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park has an upcoming: Afternoon of Chaos, Killing, Crime, & Kidnapping @ Kepler’s Now, that may sound somewhat exhausting, but if you’re a fan of crime fiction, and you’re interested in how we writers do our thing, come and listen to 1) Plotters vs Pantsers, 2) It’s Not Me,…
Read MoreCherry is to Japan as hawthorn is to…
In England recently, it was hawthorn season. In Dreaming Spies, Russell reflects on the resemblance to cherry blossoms: The …thick white hawthorn blossom overhead made me imagine for an instant that I was kneeling for a hanami, setting out a picnic beneath flowering trees.
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