Laurie’s Comments (group member since Aug 19, 2012)

Laurie’s comments from the Q&A with Laurie R. King group.

Laurie wrote: " Heather wrote: I have always been impressed by the extensive historical research that goes into these books. I would like to know how Miss King does it? Does she prefer books, online, or some comb..."

Both. Lots of old books, and odd snippets of stuff I've found online.

Perhaps it's more Russell Judaism than Reform: a community of the mind and occasionally of the body...

Laurie wrote: " Sabrina wrote: [Do] you have a favorite character and why? Along with who you found the hardest to write?

And just for fun... out of all the characters in your books:
Who would you invite to a dinner party?
Who would you dread meeting?
Which character would you like to befriend?

Villains are tough to write, to keep them three-dimensional and fully justified, but they're also great fun. As for the fun questions, probably:
Robert Goodman
Sherlock Holmes
Mrs Hudson

Laurie wrote: " Mike wrote: where did Ms. King learn so much of Indian lore, customs, decor, clothing and such? Very well done. "

I've been to India a couple of times, and my husband was born and raised in pre-Partition India, so made a convenient source of insider info.

Laurie wrote: " Jane wrote: Laurie, do you have a research assistant? "

I have various informal assistants, whom I can call on for specific areas of their expertise, from the San Francisco homicide department to early 20th century sailboats.

And of course, the general research librarians at my library!

Laurie wrote: " Rick wrote: I very much enjoy Ms. King's novels- the sense of atmosphere is so perfectly evoked- How much research into Victorian England must go into each novel? "

Victorian England? Almost none. Early 20th century? Lots and lots. I have a small library of peculiar books either published in the 20s or written about them, from war photographs to fashion. And of course, new books added all the time that reflect the interest of that particular book (India in the 20s; the San Francisco earthquake; etc)

Laurie wrote: "Phili asks: Do you have full "CVs" of your main characters for coherence? Especially with Kate there is a lot of moving back and forward and gaps "

No, I just bumble along, and hope my preliminary readers catch things in time to correct them in the actual book.

Hi Henry et al, sorry for the late entrance into this discussion. Fiction characters in general are larger than life, and can embark on things a mere author cannot, be that accurate darts or a gift for languages. And of course, as a series goes on, they accumulate, until a list of unlikely things that would have seemed absurd in book one doesn't seem to utterly impossible twelve books later.

Having said that, Russell is intended to be an extraordinary person, a young female Sherlock Holmes. Given that, it would be odd if she DIDN'T have a lot of extraordinary skills.

Thanks, I'm somewhat relieved by the negative answers.

And Anne, thanks for your truly excellent book--I love Scenes of the Crime, and have used it often, woefully lacking acknowledgment I fear!

Oh heavens, writing novels was the last thing I anticipated when I did either the BA or the later MA in Old Testament. It was contemplating the trials of a PhD that turned me to fiction, definitively as it turned out.

There seem to have been two Mountain Charlie/Charleys in the Santa Cruz mountains. The one I mean was a stagecoach driver who turned out, after death, to have been a woman (and probably the first one to vote in an election.)
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cru...

Oh yes, thank you Alice, as you say, I always get that wrong. He's so much younger than I remember...

But yes, I'm sure that now Holmes has got his oar into the books, we'll be hearing from his voice again.

Yes, the peripheral characters are always a lot of fun, and tempting indeed to follow off into the wilderness. I doubt that Goodman will reappear, since he feels like someone who inhabits just the one book. I would like to do another Martinelli, as well as a prequel and sequel of Califia's Daughters, but with only so many writing hours available in any given year, it's hard to know when those will be.

I so enjoy it when readers like to play the game along with me!

I wish you strength, and time to read!

Now, this is a question that I wanted to ask.

Is Russell a Mary Sue?

Is her cleverness cloying? Are her accidental attributes annoying? Is her coincidental life convincing?

Is Mary Russell just the sad fantasy of a middle-aged mother of small children?

Yes, the Sayers estate was quite generous in permitting me to use him in that scene, but clear that he was not a character for general use. A pity, since he'd be fun to revisit, although I wouldn't want to tackle an entire novel in his voice.

The really fun one was Fernando Pessoa, in Pirate King. Talk about real-life people odder than fiction!

For the romance side of this thread, I'd suggest you wander over to the thread titled "The Russell Holmes relationship" since I've been talking about that over there.

As for first deciding to incorporate such a character as Holmes into the stories, if I'd stopped to think about it, I'd probably not have had the temerity to continue. But by the time I realized what nerve it took, the deed was done.

Yes, the Japan book is coming, sometime. I only made it to Japan myself this spring, so I couldn't very well write about it before that!