One of my favorite bloggers, The Passive Voice, reposted a piece about novel therapy: British libraries offer full bibliotherapy services, including recommendations and exhaustive reading lists based on condition, to anyone, at every library in the U.K., at no cost. Experts say books featuring characters or people that share a patient’s struggles can be an…
Read MoreNeck deep as I am in a first draft, nonetheless I’m due to extricate myself this week from the blizzard of paper scraps that is my study to appear in public, face scrubbed and carrying on normal conversation (as opposed to muttering vague bits of dialogue under my breath.) Thursday night I’ll be in San…
Read MoreSo, what’s a book to you? Electronic ink on a screen? Or paper, black ink, and the texture of the cover against your fingers? The words are the same, right? Sure—but the experience isn’t. For just under 70 years, the Folio Society has made “editions of the world’s great literature, in a format worthy of…
Read MoreThere’s been a lot of talk recently about race and diversity in fiction and movies—a controversy over casting a black Hermione, the question of Shadow’s race in American Gods, the troubling lack of actors of color in the nominations its for this year’s Oscars (#OscarSoWhite). And this month, the VBC have been talking (among other things) about…
Read MoreNews—and yes, it is new, brand new. A story: Stately Holmes A Christmas Conundrum by Laurie R. King “Stately Holmes” was…well, not exactly commissioned. Suggested? Demanded? –by my friend Barbara Peters of Scottsdale’s Poisoned Pen Books. Well, Barbara was hoping for a full novel by that title, but I decided it was better matched for…
Read MoreFor a chance to hear about the new stories, before anyone (well, anyone but my editor…) read on… I started my college life at a California junior college called West Valley, located near my home in Saratoga. I had no money, no job, and no idea of what I wanted to do–which made community college…
Read MoreOnce upon a time there was a man born in India, educated in England, working in Africa, who was hired by a visiting American to help set up a new college and program at the newest jewel in the crown that is the University of California. When Noel King came to Santa Cruz, most of…
Read MoreThat shriek that rattled the country just before 10:00 pm EST was me reacting to the sound of my name from the podium at the Agatha Awards: Malice Domestic’s choice of Best Historical Mystery is Dreaming Spies, by Laurie R. King! I was nominated for an Agatha once before (for The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, in 1995) and…
Read MoreOne of my favorite times on the recent tour for Murder of Mary Russell was the launch, when friends near and far gathered to celebrate the publication–and to admire the amazing donning of Victorian garb by Caroline Bellios, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Fashion and assistant director of the Fashion Resource Center at SAIC. I got in…
Read MoreToday (or yes, maybe Tuesday…) is the birthday for the man who changed the English language, William Shakespeare. There’s a fascinating article over on the New York Post about the near-disappearance of all that genius (thanks to The Passive Guy for the link), where only the determination (and financial commitment) of two friends led to…
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