A Memorial Day to remember

By Laurie King / May 26, 2008 /

My son was home, a civilian, for Memorial Day for the first time in years. His hair is now long enough to stand up when he gets out of bed—or rather, out of sleeping bag—and he no longer has to struggle to keep from modifying every noun with “fuckin’.” The annual Corralitos Padres Pancake Breakfast…

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The news from Mordor

By Laurie King / May 24, 2008 /

Friday the wind shifted so San Jose on the other side of the hill got our smoke, which was both a relief (we could breathe, and we could see where the smoke was coming from) and a curse (we could see where the smoke was coming from.) The smoke was coming from about a mile…

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Still here (cough cough)

By Laurie King / May 23, 2008 /

Still here, thanks for the good wishes. But a lesson reinforced: the news is after splash, not content. According to the television, my road is closed (much traffic for a closed road,) large parts of the population are evacuated (the fairgrounds Red Cross has twelve, although many horses,) and the flames are leaping at our…

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Life on the front line

By Laurie King / May 23, 2008 /

Thursday 6:30—the first phone call, from tight-voiced friend passing on the freeway, saying there is smoke coming from smack on top of us. Take cup of tea outside, look around, assure her that it is fog, not smoke, where we are. 7:15—the spouse’s caregiver phones, to say there is smoke. Sigh, repeat the outside trip,…

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Hot stuff

By Laurie King / May 22, 2008 /

Here’s what Laurie is doing today, friends–don’t you love the fire season? (My first rescue, after various two and four legged people? To make sure I have the current work on the memory stick in my purse….)

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The Blue Religion

By Laurie King / May 21, 2008 /

On May 23 we’re doing a TGIF giveaway of The Blue Religion, the new mystery anthology edited by Michael Connelly and published by the Mystery Writers of America. Included is “The Fool,” by yours truly, in which an old friend from the second Kate Martinelli novel makes his reappearance. We’ll give signed hardbacks to: A…

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Chabon and Crime

By Laurie King / May 20, 2008 /

Michael Chabon was nominated for an Edgar this year, for The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. He didn’t win, although the book did win SciFi prizes, it being a cop story set in an alternate universe, so it was nice of him to leave a prize for someone else. I’ve known Michael for some years, since both…

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La vida robot

By Laurie King / May 18, 2008 /

Three years ago (good heavens!) I posted about a story in Wired magazine concerning four Phoenix high school students who won a national contest to build an underwater robot, beating students from places like MIT. Wired has done a followup on the four, an article that just makes me happy. Oscar, Cristian, Luis, and Lorenzo,…

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…and Oxford and Bath

By Laurie King / May 15, 2008 /

Here are two additions for the list of UK events that I posted Monday—and if you’re thinking of coming and want to set up a meet with other Friends of LRK, we’ve started a get-together thread on the book club’s Meetup page. The new events are: June 9, 7:00 Bath Topping & Co The Paragon,…

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California(n) invades Britain

By Laurie King / May 13, 2008 /

Okay, you Brits—I’m coming! Yes, I have the preliminary schedule for my United Kingdom tour—a couple events have yet to be confirmed, but you can keep an eye on the events page to see if they manage to find a room for us. I hope people turn up, even if they don’t buy books it…

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