I’m over at Booking Mama today talking about themes. And pirates, naturally. Visit me here.
Read MoreHow can you not love a place that not only helps kids write, but does so by selling pirate gear, space travel supplies, and spy equipment? Here in the world of Laurie R. King, every new book is a chance to pay it back, to dedicate fundraisers for projects related to that year’s novel. In 2011, it’s 826…
Read MoreThe last two Russell & Holmes novels—A Language of Bees and The God of the Hive—were fairly serious crime novels, their light-hearted moments few and far between. When I agreed to do a third series novel in a row, I agreed, but with the proviso that this one would be fun. A romp. A farce,…
Read MoreI’m in Lisbon today, or at any rate, I’m over at Go Lisbon! talking about my time in Lisboa. Do drop by for a visit to one of my favorite cities.
Read MoreBecause I have a couple extra ARCs of Pirate King, I’ll be giving one away this Saturday to someone who has sent in a submission to the Parrot King illustrated story contest. It’s a drawing, not a best-of prize, and since at the moment we only have four (if you mailed one and it’s not…
Read MoreI, and Russell in her turn, found myself on the road to Cintra, where the Portuguese royal family lived, and the nobility’s castles sprang up like mushrooms. (“…then loaded upon a fleet of decorative if rickety wooden carts and aimed at the hill under whose side Cintra sheltered.”) Cintra itself is a highly decorative town,…
Read MoreI love libraries. I adore them, always and continuously. My abiding affection had a boost last night, with an event in the Sunnyvale (CA) library, where some of the staff remembered me as part of an event—oh, how many years ago could it have been? Thirteen? Fourteen?—with Sisters in Crime authors. This time it was…
Read MoreI arrived in Lisbon towards the end of March, when it was still half winter, (“I was thinking, perhaps, the botanical gardens?”) and set out to explore the city. Lisbon is built on hills—correction: Lisbon IS hills. Residents plan their routes not on direct point-to-point, but following the contours around, or taking one of the…
Read MoreVery well: I had my place (Lisbon) and my local character—and what a character Fernando Pessoa turned out to be. (“a poetical individual. It being 1924, and the weedy, artistic look being all the fashion even in this distant enclave, there were several melancholics who fitted the description.”) First of all, as Mary Russell describes…
Read MoreSometimes, the story comes before the setting—that is, I decide to write a story set in a specific place (and if you’re one of those who wondered about the Japan adventure mentioned at the start of Locked Rooms, yes, I’m going to Japan for the research next year.) But other times the story shapes itself…
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