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…

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,…

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….)

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…

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…

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,…

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,…

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…

Just in time for Mothers Day, an article telling us that, if stay-at-home moms got a monetary compensation for the 90-plus hours a week they work, it would average $117,000 a year. (Ninety plus hours a week, by the way, if she manages to get 8 hours sleep a night–big if–leaves said Mom with 20…

I reached New York (read: Manhattan) for the first time on the Monday night of the Memorial Day Weekend, 1993. The next morning I set off in a taxi (admission: in fifteen or more visits over the intervening years, I’ve never yet been on the subway) to the Flatiron Building and St Martin’s Press, to…