I 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…

This 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…

Yeee-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…

I 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.

By 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…

Now, 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…

Had 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…

Even 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…

The copy edit process can be looked upon as an intensified writing course: all the things one does wrong, sliced up with two colors of pencil. Sins of commission, sins of omission, repeated again and again until the weary editor sighs in despair. I’ve written nearly twenty books, a handful of short stories, and a…

So the options are: 1. He pulled on a hat and buttoned up his coat, then let himself out into the cool, silent morning, luminous in a way he’d only ever seen in this country. 2. He pulled on a hat and buttoned up his coat, then let himself out into the cool, silent morning,…