I love Christmas stories. Well, I love Christmas in general, but stories set in country houses with decorated trees, and snow outside, and the smells of baking and the sounds of carols…all of that goes so beautifully with knives and poisons, doesn’t it? Christmas in its nature is a solstice celebration, an assertion of light…
Read MoreLaurie King is not, as regular followers of this blog will know, a writer who outlines her books before she begins them. Some people call this being a pantser (as in, by the seat of her…) but I refer to it as Organic, as opposed to the Organized outliner. (In our writing manual Crime and…
Read MoreOne of the most satisfying sounds of my earlier years was the rustle and thump of an envelope holding 300+ pages of manuscript as it dropped into the FedEx box. Of course, now that contracts no longer specify paper copies, the physical thump has been replaced by a tap on an icon. But it’s still…
Read MoreTomorrow will be my one and only event for Beginnings, which we self-published last month. Where else to hold it but my beloved Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ? Please come and see me and/or order books here to be signed at the event. Looking forward to seeing you and revisiting Kate Martinelli together!
Read MoreWhen you have a book that’s been around for 25 years, especially if it’s the first in a gratifyingly long series, the publishers tend to dress it in a lot of different ways. Funnily enough, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice didn’t strike the imagination of the in-house reader, who decided to pass on the paperback rights. They…
Read MoreThe other day I posted (over here) an image of the original cover proposal for The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, thanking the publishing gods that it went away in favor of the one St Martins Press ended up with. But a couple of you were curious about how that happened—so here’s that story. I first saw that…
Read MoreThis month, we’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. I wrote about the early editorial letters in my newsletter (There’s also a giveaway of the audio–here) and will be celebrating it in various ways at Bouchercon, the end of the month. But this early cover proposal from St Martins Press has always cracked…
Read MoreOnce upon a time, when Laurie King had some brown in her hair and people used telephones to talk into, the world was filled with specialty mystery bookshops. Most big cities had one—some, like San Francisco, had two—and they were an amazing place to fossick about and discover someone new. There are still a few,…
Read MoreAs part of my general research on the next Russell & Holmes novel, I re-read the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel Tender is the Night. And frankly, I found it very hard going. Meandering plot, puzzling metaphors, characters distorted to fit into the roles he needs for them. Start with his take on women. The book…
Read MoreThe sign of Really Having Made It: The sign of Well Not Quite So Great: Nobody got the right answer. Ah well, it was only $400, but clearly there were no mystery fans on Jeopardy tonight.
Read More