July 2, 2012
Deaccession
This is a year of deaccession for me. Libraries and museums use the word deaccession to mean gleaning from their collections. I’ve been sorting through clutter; two weeks ago I […]
READ MOREJune 13, 2012
That Was Then, This is Now
My mother’s father died when she was sixteen; I never met him. He was a doctor in Roodhouse, the small town in downstate Illinois where he grew up. During World […]
READ MOREApril 23, 2012
Darraugh Graham Rebrands Himself
The Board of the company formerly known as “Continental United” spent a great deal of money on an image and branding consulting firm in order to come up with a […]
READ MOREMarch 29, 2012
On Weapons
Shortly after publishing my third book, I met a private detective who came to a reading at Kate’s Mystery Books outside Boston. The detective told me her practice is a […]
READ MOREMarch 15, 2012
Sara Paretsky Day at the Chicago Public Library
The Chicago Public Library declared March 14 “Sara Paretsky Day.” They made a wonderful event of it, putting up posters in all the branches, and getting Mayor Rahm Emmanuel to […]
READ MOREMarch 11, 2012
Name That Corporation!
Did the first Breakdown contest frustrate you because you had to be a U.S. resident with a Facebook page? Here’s your chance to enter and win no matter where you are […]
READ MOREFebruary 21, 2012
What is Too Political for Fun?
Every time I publish a book, I know I’ll get some angry letters, and readers response to Breakdown proved no exception. “I just threw away my hardcover copy,” one reader […]
READ MOREFebruary 12, 2012
A Farewell to Arms, or at least to Touring
I was on the road with my new novel, Breakdown, from the first of January until February 2, so I substituted little snippets on Facebook for my blog. Being on […]
READ MORENovember 29, 2011
Good News on the Budget Frontiers
My native state, Kansas, has so little money that the governor cancelled the state arts program, tried to eliminate all funding for family planning, slashed budgets for judicial support staff–putting […]
READ MORENovember 24, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving
To all friends near and far, new and old. I am grateful for another year with such good friends, grateful for my cousin Barb and her intrepid spirit, serving in […]
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