Book talk
Ringing the Changes
The Book Club have been looking at Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers for their December read. This 1934 novel, featuring the aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, is something of a Christmas story, although it opens on New Year’s Eve up in England’s fenland countryside. Now, much as I love Dorothy Sayers, I have to admit that…
Read MoreDulce et Decorum
100 years ago, the Great War was in its dying week. Wilfred Owen was killed on the 4thof November. All the commanders-in-chief agreed the war was over–but on the ground, the struggle went on, and on. I wrote a novel, Justice Hall, about a young officer, and included sections of his war-time journal: Justice Hall,…
Read MoreThe Boys & Girls of the Banned
As I said yesterday, I’m honored to be a sort of banned author myself, having been told in the early days of my career that certain bookstores in Salt Lake City (oh, those Mormons again!) were selling A Grave Talentunder the counter, since it was about a lesbian detective. (Or maybe it was because I…
Read MoreReader guide for ISLAND?
Now, most of you won’t have even glimpsed an ARC of Island of the Mad yet. But Random House would like to do a discussion guide at publication, and since some of you will have scored an early read, I thought you might help me crowd-source the guide. So: as you read, did anything in…
Read MoreSetting as Character
I’ll be doing a workshop on Setting for the good folk at Litquake next Saturday (assuming my voice returns–I have to say, conferences like Left Coast are just super for sharing: favorite writers; plot ideas; viruses…) so I’ve been mulling over the settings I use in my books. I haven’t used New York (yet…) even…
Read MoreSeattle Friday
I’m having such fun with this book tour, I think I’ll set off up the coast today and drop by the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, then swing past the University bookstore, before ending up with a reading and talk at the great Third Place Books. Come and join us!
Read MoreTakeback Tuesday: taking back justice
Today is pub day for a book I’ve been involved with for the past year or more: Anatomy of Innocence is the brainchild of Laura Caldwell and Leslie S.Klinger, both lawyers, both friends of mine. Laura is the director and founder of the Life After Innocence clinic at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, which…
Read MoreRace, gender, and responsibility: the face of Billy Mudd
There’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 MoreAgainst violence
I’m involved with a fundraiser and program to help stop violence against women. First, there’s a Russell Basket. This includes a signed hardback of The Murder of Mary Russell, a copy of Dreaming Spies, and one of the gorgeous big Dreaming Haiku posters, all in a handsome Random House book bag. They’re requesting a $75 donation,…
Read MoreJane Steele: Reader, I murdered him.
We loves us some Lyndsay Faye here on Mutterings. Her Timothy Wilde trilogy has been one of my favorite worlds to explore in recent years, while the author herself has become one of my favorite people. Lyndsay now has a new world, publishing next April: a deliciously wicked tale that starts as a riff on Jane Eyre…
Read More