We’re starting discussion of Monstrous Regiment of Women over at the book club, for which I wrote an intro I thought I’d reproduce here: In 1558, the Protestant John Knox wrote a treatise condemning the preponderance of female rulers in England, calling it “The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women.”…

My house in Oxford flooded this law week, along with most of England, and my family there was ready with inflatable dinghies, Wellington boots, and a cellar cleared of possessions. So I picked Dorothy Sayers’ The Nine Tailors off the shelf, since it had been a while since I re-read it. And I found that…

TOUCHSTONE is off to the gentle hands of my editor at Bantam, who will no doubt find further nudges and tweaks to perform before the manuscript goes to be typeset. But when she finishes her line edit, she will send it to the copy editor, not back to me, because the changes will be small.…

Roxanne commented on the cover, but what do the rest of you think? They were aiming at something non-genre, which I think just means it doesn’t have bullets or handcuffs on it. The image itself doesn’t tell you anything about the plot, but it does evoke a definite mood. I like the cover a lot,…

TOUCHSTONE is scheduled for a January 2008 pub date, which means it goes on sale December 26. So you can ask Santa for a book store gift certificate, and spend Boxing Day deep in the 1920s: It’s eight years after the Great War shattered Bennett Grey’s life, leaving him with an excruciating sensitivity to the…

The following is taken from a posting of Shannon Clarkson concerning the death of her partner, Letty Russell (it’s taken from the blog of PhD student Judy Redman): Letty Mandeville Russell, one of the world’s foremost feminist theologians and longtime member of the Yale Divinity School faculty, died Thursday, July 12 at her home in…

Once upon a time, a woman with two small children sat down and wrote the words, “I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him.” She eventually finished the book, and called it The Beekeeper’s…

The post the other day got me thinking about food. Then again, this time of year it’s hard not to think about food, as in our Mediterranean climate the cornucopia opens in June and keeps on flowing until the first frost in October. A drive to the Freedom post office to pick up my mail…

In following the discussion of THE BEEKEEPER’S APPRENTICE over in the Virtual Book Club, it has struck me that negativity can be the paprika enlivening your mashed potatoes. In a forum dedicated to one author’s work, especially when the participants know said author is lurking (LuRKing?) somewhere in the background, it’s not too likely that…

Peter Temple’s THE BROKEN SHORE just won the gold dagger from the CWA, and deservedly. I happen to like writing with the occasional bit I can turn over in my mouth and savor. (Happen to write that way too, oddly enough.) Not too many of them, mind, and there’s nothing more irritating than fancy writing,…