Posts by Laurie King
Starting Anew
[Note, please, that in one week, Back to the Garden will be on the shelves–in the USA, at any rate. You can find a long excerpt here. ] I turn 70 this year. The world is literally burning around us, I’ve had some energy-draining health issues, and there are books more than one series that…
Read MoreWhen Surf City was the Murder Capital
Santa Cruz, California, is a quiet town even now. In the 1970s, it was a community of retirees, Italian fishermen, and people associated with the brand-new University of California. It was (and is) a beach town that attracts year-round surfers and summer visitors to the beach and Boardwalk. In October, 1970, in the hills south of…
Read MoreWriting the Past: Free Love, Thumbing Rides, and Other Incomprehensible Habits
People think of Laurie King as a writer of historical mysteries, especially the 1920s, a time of short skirts, fast cars, and that exciting new tech, radio. Back to the Garden is set more recently than the 20s. It has two timelines: one now, the other flashing back to the 1970s. In 1972, a main…
Read MoreMy Thanks
…because in the publishing world, yes, these things do help.
Read MoreWho IS This Person on My Page?
In the spring of 2021, it was time for one of THOSE conversations. No, not with my kids; with my long-suffering editor. I’ve never been a writer who was satisfied with writing one set of characters, even if they are Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes. Plus that, the Russell series generally involves foreign travel research,…
Read MorePassing It On
I live in the hills, so when I go out, it’s rarely for just one stop. The other day my list of tasks included x-rays, fruit stand, and bookshop. Obviously, Bookshop Santa Cruz came first, and it would only take a minute because I was picking up a pre-paid order. But when I stopped at…
Read MoreThe Financial Ecosystem of the Writer
A while ago on the Facebook group The Beekeeper’s Apprentices, a discussion rose up about the ethics of buying second-hand books. Not old, out-of-print books, merely used books by active writers who are trying to make a living off their writing. The discussion in some ways runs parallel to another question I am sometimes asked:…
Read MoreMaking Sense of It (the edit)
As I’ve said any number of times, my first drafts are awful, more like expanded outlines than an actual novel. Mostly, they’re a way to confirm the machinery of the plot before I buckle down to craft a sensible narrative out of contradictory notes, half-baked characterizations, and half-seen sub-plots. (No modesty here: they really are…
Read MoreLaurie’s Writing Corners
My publisher asked me recently to give them a couple photos of my writing space, along with a short piece of writing, to use for their Instagram (@randomhouse) series called #WritersRoutine. But Insta posts aren’t meant for detail, so, for the insatiably curious (and for those who don’t have Instagram) here’s the photo of where…
Read MoreWhat’s Your Super Power?
Many skills mastered by others fill me with awe. Juggling, applying flawless nail polish, turning a quadruple back flip, walking the Appalachian Trail—my life will never include those skills. But by God I can fold a fitted sheet. Not only can I, I then package each set in a neat package, and store them in…
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