Yesterday morning, news reached me that the woman who had picked me from a pile of obscurity had died. 92 year-old Ruth Cavin, the legendary Ruth, who started her career at the age of sixty and overnight seized the heart of the publishing industry; whose eye went to the essence of a book’s strengths—and weaknesses;…
Read MoreWell, that’s about done and dusted for 2010: anyone ready for a new year? I’ve never been much for New Year’s Resolutions—who needs to start a clean slate with a cloud of threat and incipient guilt over her head? But taking down a heavily marked-up calendar whose dozen images you know by heart and replacing…
Read MoreTo everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. When I was new at this business of writing novels, I was also a young mother. Which meant that if I had free time, I wrote. If it was a school day, I wrote. If it was a weekend and my…
Read MoreThis is my favorite time of year. One of the pleasures of late fall is the view out my window, of a single tree, probably a liquidamber, that becomes scarlet as soon as the frost hits it: To my amusement, I realized a couple of years ago that the people on that side of the…
Read MoreI’ve been quiet here on Mutterings for several months, I know. I didn’t realize that I needed a sabbatical from posting until I took a break, and it went on. And on. After five years here, I was feeling that I’d said it all before. A sensation that’s bad enough when it’s connected with a…
Read MoreAs I said yesterday, 2011 looks to be all-Sherlock, all the time in LRK-land—and it will start in January, when I go to New York for the annual dinner of the Baker Street Irregulars and sign copies of: The Grand Game, Volume One Eds. Leslie S. Klinger and Laurie R. King The Grand Game is…
Read MoreEleven months ago, I went to New York and came home with a Secret Handshake and a Code Name. Well, actually I went to the annual dinner of the Baker Street Irregulars and was given the great and unexpected honor of being made an Irregular (investiture name: “The Red Circle.” Which is a Conan Doyle…
Read MoreYou need another hint as to the natty gent’s identity? Here’s a photo of me (looking quizzical, which is quite appropriate) with his bronzed version (no, that’s not a euphemism for drunk.) It was taken in March:
Read MoreThis is what I’m doing today. Taking this: down the hill and into town and putting it into a box, where some nice person will pull it out later today and other nice people will stow it in various trucks and a plane, and some time tomorrow my editor in New York will hold it…
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