Breakdown
July 14, 2011
Breakdown
Breakdown is the title of the new V I novel, which will be published early next year. In this excerpt, an old law school friend of V I’s has called on the detective for help, and V I is trying to find her. V I describes Leydon like this: Leydon Ashford was the first person […]
READ MOREJune 30, 2011
Twice their Natural Size
I was at a dinner recently for an organization that does important work in the arena of climate change and energy policy. In the middle of a conversation I was having with the woman who edits their main publication, a man came over to interrupt; for the next twenty minutes, the editor and I suspended […]
READ MOREJune 7, 2011
I am Not V I Warshawski
People often ask me how much like V I Warshawki I am, and I have to say, not at all. This morning I went out early to Lake Michigan with my dog, Callie. She went in after a ball that was too big for her to pick up; she kept batting it with her nose […]
READ MOREMay 29, 2011
Flash Fiction at Printers Row
Come one, come all. Test your storytelling against the world, or at least against other writers. Printers Row, Chicago’s literary festival, is taking place June 4-5, on Dearborn Street south of Congress. New books, used books, writers reading, readers writing–it’s all there! We Mystery Writers always have a tent, and this year on June 4, […]
READ MOREApril 30, 2011
Edgar Photos
I went to New York last week for the Edgar banquet, where the Mystery Writers of America did me the honor of naming me a Grand Master. It felt strange to join Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Rex Stout and Agatha Christie’s company, as if I were both old enough and distinguished enough for the honor. In […]
READ MOREApril 30, 2011
Edgar Grand Master-Remarks
The text of my acceptance speech for the MWA Grand Master Award is here–I’ll publish some photos from that magical exciting evening in a little bit. I went to my first Edgar dinner in 1982. I watched the icons of my reading life talking and joking, but I was painfully shy and didn’t try to […]
READ MOREApril 9, 2011
To F*CK, or Not
I just came from seeing Black Watch, a play about the famed Scottish regiment put on by the National Theatre of Scotland. The play is about the deployment of the regiment to the so-called Triangle of Death during the early years of the endless war in Iraq. It’s about why young men join armies, about […]
READ MOREApril 1, 2011
Home is the Sailor
I’m just back from a great trip overseas, touring in the UK for Body Work. I did a few posts on Facebook along the way but I’ll try to share a few highpoints here. Dogs. Knowing how much I missed my Golden, Kerry Hood from Hodder brought Maddy into central London one morning so that […]
READ MOREMarch 7, 2011
The Power to Destroy
America’s great first Chief Justice John Marshall famously wrote, “The power to tax involves the power to destroy.” Today, the power to refuse to levy taxes is proving a more potent tool of destruction. The arts in America cost roughly 29 cents per capita to fund. The arts did not cause our financial meltdown. Yet […]
READ MOREMarch 2, 2011
From chapter 30 of the New Book
From Chapter 30 of the book with no name My dreams were filled with Miles and Iva Wuchnik. Iva climbed onto the catafalque to lie next to her brother. The top of the tomb was so thick with blood that she had to do the backstroke to keep from sinking in it. Iva pulled the […]
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