Writers
Small businesses
This is Small Business Week, celebrating American entrepreneurs. Which makes for a nice irony, in that the business practices of Amazon against Hachette books has recently come to light. I am not published by Hachette, but many of my friends are, and many of the books on my shelves come from that house. However, contract…
Read MoreAll Laurie, all the time
A big Thanks! to everyone who came out to Books Inc. in San Francisco last night, we had a great time nibbling and sipping, and the stack of books I signed are on their way to the other Books Inc. stores, you’ll find them there soon. If the launch is any indication, this is going…
Read MoreHigher Mysteries podcast
My buddy Rick Kleffel has posted his podcasts of the Higher Mysteries panel, in which four top-ranking crime writers talk about using religion and theology in their work, on his web site, The Agony Column: “You’re all here for Tax Law 101, right?” —Laurie R. King For all the seriousness of her premise, Laurie R.…
Read MoreHigher Mysteries
Last month, you may recall, I urged you to drop what you were doing and come to listen to four fabulous ladies (or anyway, three fabulous ladies and me) talk about how we use religion and theology when writing crime fiction. There’s a podcast on its way, but the excellent video has just gone up…
Read MoreThe Mystery of a Good Event
What makes for a good event? Well, it helps when a moderator is working with three wicked smart women with lightning-fast tongues and a great sense of humor. And it also helps when the crowd is equally quick on their feet and genuinely interested in the subject. (This shows about half those who eventually crowded…
Read MoreHigher Mysteries, Santa Cruz style
Tuesday night finds me in rapt conversation with three other Ladies of Mystery, talking about how we use religion and theology in our crime fiction, and why. The panel will be podcast, and possibly videotaped (yes yes, I know they don’t use tape any more…) but if you’re anywhere in the vicinity, come and join…
Read MoreA book of books
Now, I know your To Be Read pile is already teetering and/or your e-reader is choking on its contents, but this one is special. It’s a book of books. John Connolly and Declan Burke came up with the idea of “The world’s greatest mystery writers on the world’s greatest mystery novels,” and although I am…
Read MoreCoincidence
Today is Writing Wednesday here at Mutterings, and the day’s topic is the role of coincidence in crime fiction. Some of you will guess by this that I’ve been reading Kate Atkinson. Her latest Jackson Brodie story, Started Early, Took the Dog, is the fourth in what is dutifully described as a series, following the…
Read MoreH.R.F. Keating
I was going to talk about research today, but HRF Keating has died, a friend and a writer I admired tremendously, and so this Wednesday’s Mutterings will be about him. I met Harry when I was a very new writer, at a conference in Scottsdale. A couple years later, he came to the Monterey BoucherCon with…
Read MoreNow we are six
I’m not a big one for anniversaries and birthdays (sorry, kids) but it occurred to me this morning that I started this blog in February, and indeed, when I went looking, I found that last Thursday, Mutterings turned six. Interestingly, my first post (here) was about the lack of women in book awards (based on…
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