writing
Cole Porter & Sherlock Holmes, Misbehaving
Whenever I set out to write one of my 1920s novels, I first choose the location, then rummage around to see who was there at the time. I’ve come across some fascinating characters that way–characters in both senses of the word: Sabine Baring-Gould in Dartmoor; Dashiell Hammett in San Francisco; Marshal Lyautey in Morocco—real life,…
Read MoreHistoricals: escape, or…?
[A piece I wrote for Crime Reads, an excellent daily blog, about writing Island of the Mad and historical mysteries in general…] The historical mystery is a curious thing. Why worry about a crime that took place decades—centuries—ago? Surely it’s been long solved, with both victim and villain moldering in their graves. The past, after…
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 MoreWriting by design
The summer theme at the Santa Cruz public library this summer is Reading by Design. Come join us at the downtown branch on July 20, 6:30-8:00 PM, as I talk about the design of a mystery from idea to final publication: how does research work in, how much do I know about a story before I write…
Read MoreLockdown: Guadalupe Middle School
The Lockdown tour begins tonight, at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale. And it’s making me realize that talking about Lockdown during this tour is going to be tricky. You can’t miss the suggestion that it’s about a school shooting—if the title doesn’t give it away, the cover art will—and yet, that’s not what it’s about.…
Read MoreLockdown: the purity of story
Lockdown is a novel built on a foundation of six short stories that were published between 2001 (“Paleta Man”) and 2008 (“The House.”) Some of them appear almost unchanged in the novel, while others were divided, transmuted, changed in stress and mood. Two stories disappeared almost entirely, with mere vestiges in character. What I found…
Read MoreThe building of the Unbelievable
Every two years, Venice explodes in art. Even more art than its usual visual treat, that is, with the opening of Biennale, when every decaying palazzo is turned into a gallery, every house overlooking the Grand Canal has a blue man on a balcony or a huge hand holding up its wall. I hadn’t intended…
Read MoreThe OTHER Laurie King: Folly
This is a blast from the past, a post I wrote in 2010 about a book that’s currently on sale for $1.99 from your friends at the Kindle company, here. Folly is one of my standalone novels–the other Laurie King–and it’s interesting to see that it, like the upcoming Lockdown, is essentially a meditation on…
Read MoreThe OTHER Laurie King: Califia’s Daughters
“The other Laurie R. King” is my series of reflections—as we approach the publication of a distinctly non-Russellian story, Lockdown—on why I write books that aren’t Russell and Holmes. Stories that just push at me until I have to step outside Mary Russell’s time and place. For other posts on the topic, click here. The first…
Read MoreLockdown: the proof is in the reading
Despite being theoretically on holiday on the island of Hawaii, I’ve spent most of the past three days working on the proof pages of Lockdown, which the publishers would like back on Friday, thank you, despite being toastmaster at a crime conference or working on various projects for my many overlords. I finished today, although my…
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