D-Day: – and + 1
June 6, 2009
D-Day: – and + 1
65 years ago tonight, my husband, S C Wright, was the radar officer in the code room on the HMS Apollo. He decoded the message that announced the June 6 commencement of Operation Overlord. The Apollo lay in New Haven, a port in Wales. They were told to sail for Portsmouth. The Apollo, a fast […]
READ MOREJune 3, 2009
Are the Cubs a Giant Boil?
Chicago’s book fair, which is always the first weekend in June, will take place June 6-7 this year. I’ll be taking part in a panel on the Chicago Cubs at one p.m. on June 6; a lot of Chicago crime writers will be talking about crime fiction (if you’re going to talk about crimes, just […]
READ MOREMay 31, 2009
The murder of Dr Tiller
Dr. George Tiller was murdered in church this morning by an anti-abortion fanatic. Dr. Tiller’s clinic in Wichita, Kansas, was one of three in the country where women could receive late-term abortions. He and his clinic have been targets of violence for years. This morning, he was murdered in front of his wife, who was […]
READ MOREMay 30, 2009
Galleys
Today I received bound galleys for Hardball, which is always an exciting time in the life of a book. It’s a strange time, too, because it represents a kind of final separation between you and the work you’ve lived with for a long time–it’s in print, it’s thrilling, but the book no longer belongs to […]
READ MOREMay 29, 2009
Photo Finish, cont
II Wayland Davenport had died the same year as my client’s mother. Poor Hunter, Senior, losing his wife and his father at the same time. His mother Mildred was still alive, though, living in a shabby apartment complex in Lincolnwood. When I rang the bell we began one of those tedious conversations through […]
READ MOREMay 23, 2009
Photo Finish ( A V I Warshawski story)
Note: I’ve been juggling a few too many things lately to work on my alchemy story, so I thought I’d post a story I wrote a few years back that was published in the now-defunct Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine and is almost never anthologized–I hope you’ll find it new to you. I When […]
READ MOREMay 16, 2009
Their Eyes Were Watching God
A friend of mine is a librarian in the Chicago system. She’s actually second-in-command at my favorite branch, the Bee branch in Bronzeville Recently, the librarians made a retreat. In one of their workshops, they were each asked to speak for ten minutes on a book that had changed their lives. My friend chose Their […]
READ MOREMay 13, 2009
Vampires
“It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.” This is the captivating opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. If you want to write a bestseller and are too lazy to think of anything original yourself, you are pretty well guaranteed success if […]
READ MOREMay 8, 2009
New York: Hardball and Dorothy
I’m back from New York, where I spent an energizing morning with my publishers, talking about plans for the publication of Hardball, the next book in my V I series. It will be on sale on September 22, and, given how whole years seem to go by while I’m blinking, that’s pretty much just around […]
READ MOREMay 3, 2009
Potpourri
I hope everyone saw The Bookwitch’s tribute to Pete Seeger, who turns 90 today. It’s Sunday night in Chicago; I leave for New York early Monday. I’ve been proofing galleys for my upcoming novel, Hardball, all weekend, and I’m bleary-eyed but now must pack. I’m meeting with my publishers this week to talk about how […]
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