Hellbender Archives - Laurie R. King

The OTHER Laurie King: a PI with a difference

May 5, 2017 by Laurie King 7 Comments

I’ve been writing a few blog posts about “the OTHER Laurie R. King” (see the rest here) that talk about why I write those stories that aren’t inside the Russell & Holmes universe. In some cases, the world Russell inhabits is a little too whimsical for the theme I want to explore. Other times I get tired of breathing 1920s air. Or there may be a voice in my head that’s strong and sure and definitely does NOT belong to Miss Russell. And then there’s genre: sometimes the limitations of the traditional mystery begin to chafe.

Which brings me to “Hellbender,” a story I wrote a few years ago for Gardner Dozois and George RR Martin, an “urban noir” piece for a collection called Down These Strange Streets.

It’s a PI story, classic in its gumshoe hard-talk and bottle-in-the-drawer beginning—but far from usual in its protagonists.

I looked across my desk at my new client, wondering what she’d say if I fished out the bottle and offered her a drink.

Might be a little early in the morning, I decided. Might be a little straitlaced.

…

At that, I raised my eyes to hers. They were big and blue and welling with just enough tears to get the message across, but not enough to threaten her makeup. The color had to be some kind of an implant, I thought—although you’d swear her hair was a natural blond.

Interesting fact: People of her kind just weren’t born blond.

…

Interesting fact: People don’t know just how many of us there are. Oh, you may think you do, and you can bet Uncle Sam does, but it didn’t take very many bombings and riots before even the government could see that playing things down might be a smart idea. Once the Supremes turned in their decision regarding our human status, the feds were ready, and pretty much everything about us went away: numbers, characteristics, identities. There’s even the occasional Web rumor that says we’re nothing but a myth, which is fine with me.

And then when his client starts talking about gills…

When genetic engineering, politics, and religious fanaticism meet tough-guy P? Definitely the other Laurie R. King.

“Hellbender” is up as an e-story, for Kindle or Nook

Vanishing shorts

January 18, 2016 by Laurie King 9 Comments

Two weeks from today, on Feb 1, a number of my e-short stories will be coming down, vanishing, going underground (except, of course, if they’re already on your reader.) king_beeke_9780345529930_h-203x300 These stories won’t be for sale again until Random House publishes my collection of Russell & Holmes tales in October (as an ebook, though possibly, eventually, as a print book as well. We don’t have a contract for that yet.)

The e-stories going out of, er, print (?) on February 1 are:

Russell’s War

Mary’s Christmas

Mrs Hudson’s Case (Kindle, Nook, and other)

Beekeeping for Beginners

Cover-5-201x300 My other self-published shorts won’t change: Mila’s Tale, The Mary Russell Companion, Laurie R. King’s Sherlock Holmes, My Thesis Being…, and Hellbender will all remain for sale as ebooks (and, in the case of the Sherlock Holmes essays, in print.)

Got it? Good.

Happy Hallowe’en!

October 31, 2013 by Laurie King 1 Comment

So, Laurie’s been posting a lot of weird stuff this week: now that it’s Hallowe’en, is she going to get truly disgusting?

Fear not, the creep factor in today’s post is along the theoretical and long-term lines.

The story “Hellbender” contains elements of genetic manipulation, in which DNA of one species is blended with that of an entirely different species. It’s one of those pieces of fiction that seems far-fetched, until…

Until you read about the glow-in-the-dark mice, whose genes have been mixed with those of jellyfish.

Pharming (farm+pharmacy) and transgenes are no longer fiction, but fact: not only corn that contains its own insecticide (which may or may not be contributing to the bee problems in the world) but higher organisms as well: mice that produce human drugs, cows with non-allergenic milk, goats whose milk can be used to produce bulletproof vests.

There’s even a center for Post-Natural History, a museum documenting the myriad ways in which people have changed the genes of the natural world.

And maybe even themselves, as Mike Heller finds in “Hellbender.”

Enjoy your spooky All Hallows, and be careful of that genetically modified candy corn.

“Hellbender” is here.

More All Hallow’s

October 29, 2013 by Laurie King 2 Comments

(Now! With fewer disgusting pictures!)

So, you read yesterday’s post on taxidermy and you think you’d like to try it yourself? Great! You, too, can be a forensic anthropologist. All you need is something that’s died, and a handful of these:

(From here.)

(You can get a beetle kit, or other taxidermy supplies, online. Of course.)

Some years ago I did a lecture for the great summer mystery writing conference at Book Passage north of San Francisco, where one of my co-lecturers was Dr. Alison Galloway, a professor of anthropology at UC Santa Cruz. Dr. Galloway was filled with enthusiasm for her subject, although she did admit that she’d left a number of her slides at home when she found out that she would be in the slot immediately before lunch. Forensic anthropologists identify bones, then identify the nature of the death, and then present the evidence necessary to prosecute murders (as early as 1897) and war crimes. If you’d like to see just how bones led to one conviction, you can follow the Smithsonian’s evidence, here.

Police labs, natural history museums, and taxidermists around the world have been using the Dermestid beetle for generations (Scotland’s comments, here–-they’ll even do a project for you!) since a colony of the creatures will clean off pretty much anything above the bone. However, this means that if they’re hungry enough, they’ll chew their way through wood as well.

I hope Harris Stuyvesant checks his trouser-cuffs when he gets home…

LRK does creepy in:

The Bones of Paris, here.

“Hellbender”, here.

All Hallow’s, creeping on little (stuffed) feet

October 28, 2013 by Laurie King 4 Comments

One of the characters in The Bones of Paris is an artist whose work includes taxidermy. His is a somewhat kinkier version of the Victorian…artist?…Walter Potter, whose work includes scenes like this:

(You can read more about him here.)

But lest you think Paris is without its stuffed creatures, I bring to your attention Maison Deyrolle, for all your taxidermy needs. (here or, in English, here.) Looking for a rhino’s head?

Or maybe a flock of owls to chase away the mice?

L440xH248_jpg_P1050735_Medium_-7ba9f

What I’d really love is to wallpaper a room, maybe in beetles.

I wonder if Harris Stuyvesant made it into Maison Deyrolle, in 1929?

LRK books for All Hallows:

The Bones of Paris, here.

“Hellbender”, here.

All Hallows, all the time

October 27, 2013 by Laurie King 2 Comments

Halloween is fast approaching, and since I’ve had both bones and weird stories on my mind of late, here’s a fun All Hallow’s video that Harris Stuyvesant might well have seen during his time in Paris:

My own Paris Bones are here, with excerpts & extras.
And the spooky urban-fantasy PI of “Hellbender” is here.