A frequent question in Laurie R. King’s email and events is, “How come you’re taking credit for Mary Russell’s Memoirs?” “My Story” began the explanation, and “A Case in Correspondence” continues it, with postcards, letters, and newspaper clippings dating to 1992. It would be 18 years before The God of the Hive saw publication, but…
Read MoreFor the question of how Laurie King came to publish Miss Russell’s Memoirs, “A Case in Correspondence” is essential reading: a series of postcards, letters, and newspaper clippings dating to 1992. Along with “My Story” (see yesterday’s blog post) the two additions to the Russell Memoirs go far to explain the eventual publication of the…
Read More“My Story”, a short story included in its entirety in The Mary Russell Companion, is the first part of the tale of how Laurie King came to have (and publish) the Russell Memoirs as novels. This excerpt (episode 9) also makes reference to a dwelling that will play a large role in next February’s Dreaming…
Read MoreIn the twenty years since the publication of the first Mary Russell memoir, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, many questions have been raised about that mysterious and previously unknown partner of Sherlock Holmes. Not the least of those questions has been: So why on earth are the books published as Laurie King novels? Now, The Mary Russell Companion endeavors…
Read MoreAn interesting aspect of having a long-lived and highly detailed series of stories about a set of characters is how those characters take on lives of their own in the eyes of their readers–even if they don’t belong to an already established world such as that of Sherlock Holmes. Circles within circles take form: Laurie King writes…
Read MoreAt long last, by popular request: new Russell swag on the Cafepress store. The Mary Russell Companion t-shirts, mugs, iPad cases, and Other Stuff: All about the world’s greatest detective …and her husband, Sherlock Holmes. Maybe your companion dog needs a Companion Shirt? Or you just want to be cool with water from a Dreaming…
Read MoreOne of the fun things I put into the Mary Russell Companion was a document written by my husband’s father, William King, regarding an intriguing possible overlap between the family of Laurie King and that of Mary Russell. William King laid the first telephone line into Lhasa; Sherlock Holmes, during the “Great Hiatus” following his…
Read MoreFabulous event coming on Saturday, an afternoon of crime, at Kepler’s in Menlo Park, CA: Mysteries & Thrillers, at each others’ throats. Ten great writers (or anyway, nine and me) getting down and dirty about crime–the list of writers is here, and this is the program: 1:00 The “Rules” of the Publishing Game: The Times…
Read MoreIt’s no secret that I have a weakness for odd plants. And a while ago I posted images of my front entrance, the thing that sold me on the house from my first step in the front door. But the house still manages to surprise me. When I got back from a trip to England…
Read MoreAmong other things, The Mary Russell Companion offers back-story for the dramatis personae of the Memoirs, including the quizzical Mr Goodman of The God of the Hive. Not that we can ever know quite how the man came to be as he was, but a previously unpublished short-short story, “The Birth of a Green Man”, appears…
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