Sara Paretsky's Blog, page 21

Long Overdue

Last night I did something I should have done 20 years ago: went for a ridealong with the Chicago Police Department.  V I Warshawski has a prickly relationship with cops, but intense loyalty to her police officer father, Tony.  The Chicago police have been uniformly generous in their response to my work, even when it hasn't flattered the department, and even when I've gotten my facts wrong.  It's been high time that I learned enough about their job to write about them with deeper...

Art, 2, Market, Zero

When the Pulitzer Prizes were announced last week, there were two wonderful surprises.  The Prize in Editorial cartooning went to San Francisco's Mark Fiore, and the Prize in Fiction went to Tinkers, by Paul Harding, published by Bellevue Literary Press, a tiny press in California.

I've been watching Fiore's animated cartoons for three years now.  He does a great job of nailing the politics and issues of our times.  He's self-published on his own website, and he tried to sell an app to Apple. ...

Reeling and Writhing

Tony Kushner was speaking on the University of Chicago campus the other night.  He's a very animated speaker, interesting to listen to, and incredibly thoughtful.  The University theater is staging his play, Illusion, in a truly riveting production.

In between listening awestruck as he delved into Shakespeare and Brecht and why universities should not offer undergraduate theater degrees, I also felt an unexpected kinship with some of his ways of thinking about writing.  "I run from things,"...

And the Winner Is…

I turned in my manuscript, I went to Crimea, I had my tooth implant–but I haven't forgotten the Book Title Contest.

First, the bad news.  My editors preferred Body Work, but I don't get a walk-on role.  Or maybe V I, my Avatar, is doing it for me.

Now the good news. There were two titles that seemed to me to work really well for this book:  Naked Truth and Home Front.  Two people suggested Naked Truth, Deb Steppe and Peter the Unknown.  Genne from Jersey suggested Home Front. All three of you g...

Why I Can't Write a Book Every Year

One of the questions I get almost every place I go is a request to describe my work day.  When I was young, it was action packed.  I wrote 4000 words a day, practiced my music, went to theater or movies with my husband, made family dinners with his three sons.  I even tutored in an after-school program.

That was then, this is now.  Over the years, various parts of my body have stopped functioning, some from age, some from a car wreck I was in 5 years ago.  My day now starts with my exercise...

In England and Crimea

This is a very long post, about my trip abroad, so I've broken it up by date, and you can read a bit at a time.  Sadly, I don't have pictures of all the places I visited.

February 13-16, arriving in England

I got in late on a chilly damp Saturday and lounged for a day or so.  Unfortunately, I came with a bad cold and wasn't up to getting to the theater, although there are quite a few plays that I wanted to see. A new coffee bar has opened about half a mile from my hotel, with the best...

Crimea

Just a quick note to say the English tour was wonderful; I loved the Watermill, a crisp clear day where we saw swans and other waterbirds.  The venue itself was beautiful.  Everywhere I went I found an interesting place and people, but I'll write more when I'm back in Chicago.  Right now I'm in Crimea, with my cousin who's a Peace Corps volunteer.  We spent the day hiking in an old cave city that dates back 1400 years, used successively by Mongol invaders, Jews, and Crimean Tatars.  I'll...

Getting Ready for the Road

I'm trying to pack, trying to pull myself together for the road.  I suffer from separation anxiety, and the further I'm going, the longer I'll be gone, the greater the angst.  My dog isn't helping.  She went into the back room where I'd set out my suitcases, sniffed them, then went back to the main bedroom where she has curled her big body into a tiny melancholy ball.

I remember when flying was exciting for all the good reasons.  When I first moved to Chicago, I had a calico cat who traveled w...

PotPourri, including a chapter from the new book

I leave on February 13 for my UK tour of Hardball.  Kerry Hood,

Kerry Hood chaperoning Sara on the Cam

who is the Toscanini of publicity, has me covering as much of England as we can manage in a week.  I hope that I'll see some of the UK readers who've been posting here along the way.

New Book

I love the titles people have been suggesting for the new book. I think I have enough to go on, and will let you know before I leave for England which one seems to work best.

James Thurber once wrote, "The ...

Liu Xiaobo, Prisoner of Conscience

On December 23, 2009, the People's Republic of China condemned the poet Liu Xiaobo for the crime of "inciting subversion of state power."  The trial lasted less than three hours, and the defense was not permitted to present evidence. Two days later, on December 25, Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison and two years' deprivation of political rights.

Mr. Liu's alleged crime was the co-authoring of Charter 08, which, inter alia, advocates free speech and the end of single party rule.

The...