After the excesses of the past couple of weeks, when I wrote and deleted countless furious posts, I was for a time written out. Now I feel slightly hung over. However, regularly scheduled programming will resume shortly. I just wanted to say that I really like you guys a whole lot. Some blogs would have…

Huge relief. Great pride. Dawning hope. Yes. We can.

Every year in early October, my county holds an Open Studios for its artists, when people can wander around studios, buy things, talk to the artists, and generally enjoy the gorgeous autumnal sunny weather and have an excuse for hanging out with friends. My agent usually comes down from San Francisco for one of the…

If you missed the talk on politics and fiction that Rick Kleffel, Karen Joy Fowler, and I did on local KUSP radio last month, here’s the link. And because it’s politics time in the U. S. of A., here’s a superb essay by Rebecca Solnit (thanks to Ron Hogan at Galleycat) on the whole man/woman…

While the Republicans talk a good fight, the Democrats are on tenterhooks, waiting for a 2008 version of the Zinoviev letter to drop from a great height onto their heads. The Zinoviev letter was an early 20th century dirty tricks scandal (mentioned in Touchstone, in case it’s sounding familiar.) Four days before the 1924 general…

Eighteen months ago, I looked at the 2007 calendar and realized that I was not going to be published that year, for the first time since 1993. The mystery world tends to work on a yearly basis, with publishers happiest when they can schedule a regular offering from their authors. Not having a book out…

Saturday at BoucherCon a number of us left the convention. Not through protest, you understand, or because there wasn’t enough going on there (hah!) but because the event planners had decided to add a library outreach, and share the riches of the convention’s crime writers with the city residents. Back in June, Ruth Jordan (blessed…

I’m not finished posting about BoucherCon 2008, but I have to say that one of the high points of Friday was the business meeting. Now, before you picture LRK clutching a well-loved copy of Robert’s Rules of Order, it was entirely for selfish reasons that I enjoyed the meeting: vote was taken, and BoucherCon is…

Friday: Breakfast with Picador editor. Spend an hour at the IACW table thrusting hot-pink flyers in the hands of everyone going past and exhorting them to join. Cycle through the bookroom signing copies. Hook up with Hollywood agents. Go to business meeting, vote for San Francisco as 2010 site, passes: That means LRK is guest…

Thursday began with a squeak and ended with a squeal. When I staggered down to the hotel’s informal breakfast/snack/happy hour space for coffee to inject into my veins, I startled two Loyal Readers who weren’t expecting an individual they knew by photographs to materialize down the steps. Fortunately, I’d done my hair since doing a…