Laurie R. King

Award-winning, bestselling, thought-provoking mysteries

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The Wisdom of 71 Writers

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I’m a self-taught writer, in that when it comes to fiction, I mostly learned by reading a million stories.  Naturally, I took the basic writing classes in school, and I do have a lot of How-To guides on my shelves, but I’ve never done any advanced courses in how to be a writer.

So it always astonishes me, when I’m asked to teach a class or give a workshop on mystery writing, to find that I do actually have something to contribute.

I’m not sure I’ll ever write my own handbook, beginning to end, but I have been involved with two handbooks now, and have loved both of them.  More of my own words made it into the 2013 Crime and Thriller Writing, but that doesn’t mean I’m not on every page of the new MWA handbook, How to Write a Mystery.  After all, I first proposed the book, back in 2017.  I helped MWA’s Publications Committee choose Lee Child as editor, I worked with Lee and the committee to narrow down the list of invitees, I edited all the pieces and helped shape the “Tips” contest.  And yes, I wrote one of the chapters, on The Rewrite. I’m amazingly proud of it, this collection that Booklist starred and called

“a writing guide that readers and writers will turn to again and again.”

We’re holding various group conversations about the handbook over the next few weeks (see the times and participants here) but on Monday the 26th, the day before How to Write a Mystery publishes, Lee and I will be talking on our own with Barbara Peters at the Poisoned Pen about this amazing book.  Do join us, on the Pen’s Livestream (register here) or on their Facebook page.

And if you write, or know someone who does, you can get a copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz (which I’ll sign, if you like); your local Indie; Barnes & Noble; or Amazon.

A Russell-King Twitter conversation

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Saturday morning (or afternoon, or evening depending on your zone) Miss Russell and I will have a Twitter conversation that you, her reading public, may listen in on.  You can look at her feed or mine–@mary_russell or @LaurieRKing–and we’ll be using the hashtag #RussellKingChat.

Some years ago, my friend and co-editor Les Klinger valiantly attempted to conduct a similar conversation with her, which ended up in the very first of our “inspired by Sherlock Holmes” anthologies, A Study in Sherlock.  Here is how that one went:

A STUDY IN SHERLOCK: AFTERWORD

Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger

The following is a transcript of a conversation conducted via Twitter between Leslie S. Klinger (whose Twitter address is @lklinger) and Mary Russell (@mary_russell) in the fall of 2011. Klinger is the editor of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Russell is a theologian and investigator, who married Mr. Sherlock Holmes in 1921. Her memoirs appear as the “novels” of Laurie R. King–The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, et cetera.

(Les Klinger) @mary_russell Am editing w/LRKing “stories inspired by SH” & wd love an interview w/him or you. OK 4 LRK 2 giv me yr contact info?

(Mary Russell) @lklinger No, my literary agent Ms King does not have permission to give you my private contact information.

(LK) @mary_russell But wouldn’t u prefer to talk in private?

(MR) @lklinger “Private” conversations undergo changes in the mind of the interviewer. I prefer that such exchanges be on public record.

(LK) @mary_russell U want me 2 interview u on Twitter?

(MR) @lklinger I do not wish you to interview me at all, but clearly that is not an option.
(LK) @mary_russell We could call it a Twinterview.
(MR) @lklinger Mr Klinger, if you wish my participation, I must ask that you refrain from whimsy. And excessive abbreviations.
(LK) @mary_russell Sorry, Ms Russell. Okay, no whimsy, & I’ll keep the questions suitable for all eyes.
(MR) @lklinger I should hope so. And I prefer “Miss.” Now, may we proceed with this conversation? I have an experiment awaiting me.
(LK) @mary_russell First, how does Mr Holmes feel about having inspired the creativity of more than a century of crime writers?
(MR) @lklinger My husband does not care to discuss his feelings.
(LK) @mary_russell OK, how do YOU feel re his having inspired 100 yrs of crime writers? People other than (sorry must make this 2 Tweets)
(LK) @mary_russell—than Dr Watson were telling Holmes stories even as the originals were coming out. Why do u think they felt that urge?
(MR) @lklinger They admired Holmes. They wished to speculate about him. So they made up stories.
(LK) @mary_russell That’s it? Just a desire for more?
(MR) @lklinger Nicholas Meyer (your friend?) claimed that Dr Watson was such a great writer, others saw the stories as a challenge.
(LK) @mary_russell But NM was explaining why he wrote his books & doesn’t speak for others. I’m not even sure I believe his excuse.
(MR) @lklinger I said claimed. I met Meyer when he was young. I think he wrote them through frustration with a mere 60 published tales.
(LK) @mary_russell Does it bother u that writers make up fictions about your husband? Some of their stories are pretty outrageous.
(MR) @lklinger I was young when I realised that since Holmes was seen as fictional, by contagion I would be so viewed as well.
(MR) @lklinger Thus I have lived a long life with one foot in the real world and the other in the world of being perceived as a fiction.
(MR) @lklinger My own literary agent, Laurie King, claims that it is necessary to categorise my memoirs—mine!—as novels.
(MR) @lklinger And since I expect that you will now ask how that makes me “feel,” I will admit that the sensation of being fictional is—
(MR) @lklinger—is indeed peculiar. What our—Holmes’s and my—friend Neil Gaiman calls the sensation of being “the idea of a person.”
(LK) @mary_russell Neil is one of those contributing to this current volume—which we’re calling A Study in Sherlock.

(MR) @lklinger I grasp the reference to the initial Conan Doyle story, but this assumption of first-name familiarity jars, a bit.
(LK) @mary_russell Publishers, you know? This is the modern world. & you are after all American.
(MR) @lklinger Half American, and I retain very little of the accent, or attitudes.
(LK) @mary_russell Back 2 the questions. How did Dr Watson react? Some stories came out while his were still appearing in The Strand.
(MR) @lklinger Uncle John had many shouting matches down the telephone with Sir Arthur, demanding solicitors be hired. To no avail.
(LK) @mary_russell Well, we know what Shakespeare thought should be done with lawyers.
(MR) @lklinger That may be a bit drastic. Some of my best friends have lawyer relatives.
(LK) @mary_russell And, um, I’m a lawyer. At least during the day.
(MR) @lklinger I know you are a lawyer, Mr Klinger. That was my feeble attempt at humor. We are also very aware of your New Annotated
(MR) @lklinger—Annotated Sherlock Holmes. An excellent attempt at scholarship, which will do until Holmes’s own notes are published.
(LK) @mary_russell May I ask when that will be?
(MR) @lklinger No need to worry, Mr Klinger, it will be several more years.
(LK) @mary_russell Right. So Dr W was upset, but not Holmes?
(MR) @lklinger Holmes learned long ago to leave the shouting to Dr Watson. He finds it best to stay aloof of the literary world.
(LK) @mary_russell Some stories in this collection are less about Holmes than about people affected by Dr W’s stories. Do you approve?
(MR) @lklinger One might as well approve of breathing air, as of people falling under the spell of Sherlock Holmes, even secondhand.
(LK) @mary_russell So you do understand the appeal of the Sherlock Holmes stories over the ages?
(MR) @lklinger My dear young man, of course I understand their pull. I was captivated by the stories long before I met the man.

(LK) @mary_russell Speaking of captivation, may I ask about your relationship with Mr Holmes?

(MR) @lklinger No. Oh dear, Mr Klinger, ominous noises from the laboratory require my immediate attention. Good luck with your book.

(LK) @mary_russell Just another couple of questions, Miss Russell. May I ask, what is Mr Holmes doing these days?

(LK) @mary_russell Miss Russell?
(LK) @mary_russell Thank you, Miss Russell.

 

Laurie’s all over the place!

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Tonight (Wednesday) I’ll be having a Facebook Live conversation with my good friend Les Klinger (in LA), for Murder by the Book (in Houston)—here.

And I’ve dropped in on TWO blog sites for guest posts:

I’m playing with my friends on Jungle Reds (Maine, Texas, CA, Key West–you name it), a bunch of women talking about Feisty Women, i.e., Mrs Hudson—that one is here.

And on Career Authors, I have a craft-oriented piece on writing supporting characters, here.

Join me, for one or all!

Riviera Gold events

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Well, this has been a week. Ten days ago, I wrote a post here about pouring bronze (a key element in Riviera Gold) but when I went to do a follow-up, marking a week before the publication date, well…

I wrote about it on my newsletter this week (here, if you didn’t see it) so I won’t do it again here, but I will say that I hope you are all safe, well, and not only listening, but hearing ways that we can all make things better.  Events of the past months have made community even more important. I thank you for being a part of mine.

So: Riviera Gold.

I’ve signed a bunch of books, for Bookshop Santa Cruz and Poisoned Pen Books.

They both have a few unsold—or they did when I last talked to them—so you can still order one from them. (links are at the bottom)

But this book’s author events are all either virtual or written. Some are guest posts on blogs and sites—like this Q&A I did with the Rogue Women blog. I’ll post links on my Facebook author page and every so often here on Mutterings, in case you’re interested in what I have to say about “Feisty Old Ladies,” or “Professional Beauties,” or even “Keeping a Series Fresh.”

I’m doing streaming events—two Saturday, first with a group of Sherlockians called the Red Circle, then with Poisoned Pen Books, and on launch night (Tuesday) I’ll be with Bookshop Santa Cruz. (You have to sign up for the Bookshop one.) You can watch the bookshop talks at your leisure, wherever you might be.

Watch for the Riviera Gold Bookclub Kit, here. Recipes, fun notes, and photos, to go with your discussion.

And while you wait for launch day, you can do the Riviera Gold crossword puzzle by long-time friend and cruciverbalist Marjorie Tucker, here. (answers on Tuesday)

Keep safe, keep sane, keep reading…

 

Riviera Gold (excerpts etc here) comes out June 9, and is available for pre-order (signed) from Bookshop Santa Cruz or Poisoned Pen—or from your local Independent bookshop, or Barnes & Noble/Nook, or Amazon/Kindle, or CD or audio.

Or—the following excellent Indie bookshops will sell you a copy with a very beautiful signed bookplate in it: Book Passage, Mysterious Books, West Portal Books, Third Place Books, and Murder by the Book.

Giveaways–You ALL Get…Me.

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Prizes–you ALL get prizes!

Well, not keys to a new car-type prizes, but me on your screen. And honestly, isn’t that every bit as exciting as a new car?

As a reminder, we’re raising funds for the Bookshop Santa Cruz Keep Kids Reading program, to hand books to low-income kids at their school lunch program drive-by pickups. When the accumulated funds came to certain marks, I promised:

$100—Laurie reads Lewis Carroll’s “The Jabberwocky” (illustrated, it’s above, or here!)

$250—Laurie reads Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussycat” (with illustrations) (and it’s here.)

I’ve tossed in an Extra Added Bonus of a downloadable/ printable/ sharable Illustrated Edition of “The Owl and the Pussycat” AND for the scholar in your shelter-in-place household, an Annotated Edition of “The Owl and the Pussycat,” equally sharable.  Both of those are here.

$500—Laurie reads “Mrs Hudson’s Case.” And since Anonymous just brought us up to $500, I’ll be recording that soon.

But then:

$1000—Laurie reads two chapters of Riviera Gold

Not sure I’ll have to do that last one, unless you all are particularly determined, though if we do blast past $1,000, I’m sure I’ll find some other goodies for you.  Any requests?

The GoFundMe fundraiser page is here.

The Quiet

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The streets of the world are still, other than the occasional idiot who decides that the chance of driving 95 mph down the center of New York is just too good to pass up. Citizens look out their windows, astonished, as distant hills come into view, the waters of Venice and Paris are looking weirdly like rivers, and goats are trimming the village hedges in Wales.

My house is on a hill.

I live surrounded by trees, my driveway has been taken over by a flock of turkeys, and the neighbors’ driveway camera filmed a trio of mountain lions strolling past.  So it’s quiet, sure–but I hear the freeway. It’s the one thing I don’t like about living here, that constant hum. I don’t see it, I don’t smell it, but it’s there, from five in the morning until late at night.

Not this month.

This month I have to actively listen to be aware of freeway noise. And in a happy-Easter Zoom meetup with my English family, those who live under the flight path to Heathrow said that it’s weirdly quiet, like the days after the Icelandic volcano when workers at the Manchester airport held a football game on the runway.

I miss things, yes, oh very yes. I hate not snuggling with the grandkids, not meeting a friend for coffee, not going to events that celebrate the book. Though I am so very grateful that none of us are ill, that we don’t have to line up for free groceries, that none of us work in a hospital. And I’m about to start writing the next book without a study (which is currently our community workout studio.)

Wish me luck.

So, how are you doing?

Join Russell & Holmes…

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The auction to name a character in the next Russell & Holmes story closes Wednesday.  I would so love to give Second Harvest a nice big sum for their drive-by groceries program, which feeds workers left hungry by the quarantine.
And frankly, going strictly by past auctions at BoucherCon and the like (rather than my own opinion, which is more along the lines of “Um, you’d pay WHAT for that?“) $1500 is something of a bargain.
However, I’m going to ask you anyway, to help me nudge it up a little. If you can’t bid, send it to someone who might be able to. If you don’t know anyone specifically, maybe post it in hopes of catching the eye of a reader who can?
In any event, I thank you, I hope you, your family, and your friends are all safe and well-fed.  
Until midnight Wednesday, you can bid here. 
(https://www.32auctions.com/character)

Violence & Women, in Crime Fiction

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Tonight’s my online conversation with Charlaine Harris and Dana Cameron, a fundraiser for the Pixels Project that fights violence against women. We’ll be talking about—well, knowing us, we’ll talk about all kinds of things, but mainly about women and violence in crime fiction.
As part of the Pixels fundraiser, they’ve put bundles up for sale from each of us. There are only 3 of mine left, but Charlaine and Dana have some, too, and they look pretty tempting. That page is here (scroll down).
 
Our conversation begins at 2:30 East Coast time / 5:30 Pacific time, live-streamed here.
It will last about an hour, maybe longer if things get wild. Join us, and tell all your sheltering-in-place friends!

Video meetup

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Well, it’s been an… interesting month, hasn’t it? Two weeks ago, I was in San Diego for a conference. Today, I’m not sure any of us will ever travel again…

So, in that spirit, we’re embracing the virtual reach-out. Yesterday I spent a very brisk hour of keyboarding with a chat with the Beekeeper’s Apprentices FB group, and Saturday I’ll join my friends Charlaine Harris and Dana Cameron to talk with the Read For Pixels project to raise money to fight violence against women./

The video chat will be live on Saturday afternoon (my West Coast time) and available later–on YouTube, here.

But in addition, the Pixels project is also offering goodie-bag donations, here. (Mine is a hardback of Island of the Mad, an ARC of Riviera Gold, and a number of mini-posters from various books.)

 

This promised to be an interesting event, for a great cause. Put it on your calendar, tell your friends, and read more about the Pixels project, here.

You, Too, Can Become a Beekeeper’s Apprentice!

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The next Russell & Holmes book (Riviera Gold) will be out June 9, five months from today!  So to mark the occasion, today the Community of the Like-Minded Reader is branching out into a new Facebook group we’re calling The Beekeeper’s Apprentices:

It’ll be a free-ranging group, discussing and posting and gossiping about, well, pretty much anything with a vague link to my own writing. Which, you’ll admit, leaves a fairly wide range.

I encourage you to check it out—here.  You’ll need to reply to a pair of really tough questions in order to prove you’re not a bot (Your favorite LRK book? & Do you agree to play nice?) but once you’re in, you’ll find a lot of friends, both old and new.

And you’ll find me, fairly often. It’s where I’ll let you know before anyone else when something is happening, or when I have Advance Reading Copies of Riviera Gold to give away, or if there’s a tour coming up…

So click over here and join me on the BAs!

If you'd like to hear about my upcoming events and publications, sign up for The Buzz, here.

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