Laurie R. King's Blog

In an attempt to compromise between saying nothing and saying everything (with fury and outrage), I’m going to post once a week: a series of citizen responses on Facebook and Instagram, Wednesdays. Some live videos, some recorded, others graphics, individual or with others. Because this is a community, and in 2025, we need to be…

One of the joys of writing a long-lived series is the community that grows up around it. Which means I get letters like this one—a particularly appropriate post, since June, 2024 is the centenary of when Russell & Holmes were in San Francisco working on the events of Locked Rooms: Hi Laurie, sort of an…

Well, April was certainly busy. Two conferences, two Beekeeper’s 30th celebrations, all the flights and hotels and chatter those involve—and, I even wrote a bunch of new words. Not here on Mutterings, unfortunately, maybe I should fix that. As you may know, last year I decided to celebrate the anniversary of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice with…

Saturday sees the first in the Laurie Loves Libraries celebrations of the Beekeeper’s 30th birthday! This one’s a hybrid event, where I’ll be in my study talking with gathered patrons of the Williamsburg Library—and, with people online. I have to say, Williamsburg (headed up by the fabulous duo of Avery and Allison) really threw itself…

Today through Friday, you can pre-order THE LANTERN’S DANCE (in hardback, Nook, audio, or large print) from Barnes & Noble FOR 25% OFF the shown price. You need to sign up as a Rewards member (it’s free) or you can get 35% OFF If you’re a Premium member. (This might be US only, not sure.)…

As we’re on the edge of being able to get our hands on an actual finished copy of The Lantern’s Dance (Feb 13) I thought this was a good time to look at one of the last pieces in the process of getting a book from the author’s mind to the reader’s eyes: Marketing and…

New year, new opportunities…new Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes coming soon! With The Lantern’s Dance going on sale next month, my publisher and I thought it might be fun to hold a Castle Shade readalong, to remind us all of where our dynamic duo are coming from and to set us up for the new…

Welcome to 2024: New year, new calendar, new thoughts. I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions, but around this time last year, I said that I wanted to focus on what has come to be known as “Swedish death-cleaning”—a rather noir term for dealing with all that stuff your kids won’t have any idea what to…

I used to always have a Christmas tree.

Sometimes we would cut one en famille at one of the local tree farms, other times we bought it from a sales lot. Certainly when the grandkids were tiny, that was part of the fun.

But then the lads grew a bit, and had their own tree to decorate, so I handed over some of the favorite decorations and shifted to poinsettias, with lights but not the decorations, which tend to snap the branches.

What about you? Do you still wrestle a real tree through the door and into the stand? Or is your tree stored in a box during the year? Or, do you do something else entirely to mark the center of the Christmas room?

 

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Those of you who’ve been following my Mutterings in recent months will have a good idea of why a book takes such a lllooooonng time from first draft to hardback on the shelf—but even my editor had to admit that it felt early to be talking about the NEXT Russell after Lantern’s Dance. But no, it isn’t that early. And so yes, we did talk.

Not that normal people like you will be anything but frustrated to think about a book you won’t see until 2025, and not that there’s much to say about it, but if I’m to write a book whose first draft is due in 4-5 months, even a non-outliner like me sort of needs to know what’s going on, in general terms.

And, it turns out, so does the Penguin Random House sales department.

So for them, and for you, here’s a vague idea.

It’s going to be about Uncle Jake.

Remember Uncle Jake? There’s one story about him and the throwing knife he gives a very young Mary Russell, called “Mary’s Christmas.” It’s the first story in the Mary Russell’s War collection (Holmes’ Christmas story, “Stately Holmes,” ends the book) and I’ve long wanted to do something else with Russell’s black sheep uncle.

Now I get to.

And, if you need to jog your memory (or maybe haven’t read it in the first place) you’re in luck because for this month only, I’m giving away an illustrated edition of the story as a free download, here. Enjoy!

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