My mother, peace be upon her, was a gardener. When she and my father retired and moved down to a house on the property my husband and I bought, the two acres of land around the old house filled her with joy. She shaped it, debated which kind of raspberries were better for our area,…
Read MoreBack in the Dark Ages when I was a stay-at-home-Mom with a secret hobby (because really, the income generated by my writing was so far beneath minimum wage it couldn’t be considered a job) it was difficult to justify the hours spent at the task. I tended to sneak away and scribble as a slightly…
Read MoreI wrote TO PLAY THE FOOL beginning in the winter of 1994. In January of 1995, when my husband was off in China, my mother fell and broke both her wrists. For five weeks and three days (but who’s counting?) she had plaster from fingertip to armpit, and could do nothing for herself. If she…
Read MoreThis from the blog of friend, beloved writer, and BoucherCon 2007 Great High Panjandrum, Dana Stabenow: I can’t imagine anyone who enjoys reading who wouldn’t want to come to Bouchercon in Anchorage this year. I’ve blogged about it on the website, including for the bouchercon virgin where I walk you through just one day of…
Read MoreYeee-haw! Whoop-de-do and hot-diddley-damn. I sent the copyedit back yesterday, making the deadline in spite of–well, of course there were problems, this book has had nothing but problems. And despite it all, I like the book. I love the book, the characters, the setting(s), the story lines, the way it all turned out. The copyedit…
Read MoreI appreciate all the help with the Cornish dialect. I’d like to say thanks in the book to:Annie, Carlina, Corgimom, Dave, Kerry, and Phil the Badger for their help with the Cornish tongue. That okay with you guys? Let me know if you’d rather I use another name for you.
Read MoreBy the way, it being September (it IS??) the Virtual Book Club is now open for discussion of TO PLAY THE FOOL, the second in the Kate Martinelli novels. If you don’t know this book, it’s an extension of my BA thesis on the Fool, and features a holy fool who lives and works (if…
Read MoreNow, here’s where the weird side of the writing life comes in. I have experts who have helped me make a (fictional, I assure you) bomb, repair a smoking Morris, and give my characters places to sleep on a train. But what about accents? On the off chance that we have an expert in the…
Read MoreHad to laugh at the idea of the process coming easy to Laurie King on Meg Cabot’s blog (Hi Meg!) Hollow laughter, you understand? Sickly and trailing off into a deep sigh. Because you know something you never, ever want to do with a computer? Well, yes, that too, but with a piece of your…
Read MoreEven a copy editor has to eat, and it’s summer, after all. So here’s a recipe that can go nicely with that Polenta recipe I gave you a while back, or by itself. And it’s a great way to use a few quarts of those gorgeous small tomatoes any gardener is drowning in, producing a…
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