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

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

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

Phili asks: Did you develop a (side) character in any one of your books that you would like to develop further into a stand-alone/ spin-off?
(Besides the already existing spin-off from Folly to Keeping Watch)
Any character that recently really triggered your interest for writing about?

Kristen wrote: Small feminist presses created the audience for the lesbian mystery genre. With large booksellers dominating the market, and presumably shaping what is getting released to a wide audience, is there a place for a lesbian detective at the moment? I think the Mary Russell series is great, but I also wonder about Kate Martinelli and the future for the that kind of niche genre finding its audience again.

Lauren wrote: "I love the series and can't wait to read the next one! My question relates to the intro provided in the first couple of books - the "author" of the books was writing as if it was a non-fiction acc..."

The preface material in the first four books was threatening to evolve into a separate story, so in order to keep it under control, I cut it off. However, the further adventures of Russell & Holmes in the modern era are here, as free short stories entitled "MyStory" and "A Case in Correspondence."

Enjoy the Game:

http://www.laurierking.com/etcetera/m...

http://www.laurierking.com/books/etce...

Building Kate was very like how the reader finds out about Vaun Adams: layers are slowly pulled away. I couldn't even tell you, now after 25 years, whether or not her sexuality was clear to me at first. I'd guess it was, but it could as easily be something I "realized" some chapters in.

by Erika Aug 22, 2012 04:45pm
I loved Kate Martinelli, can't tell you how happy I was to find a lesbian character in a mainstream novel. I would definitely love to see more of her. How did you develop her character?
My favorites are "A Darker Place" and "Folly". Read both of them when I was working nights, and could barely keep my mind on my job!

Jane wrote: "I'd like to know whether you'll ever bring Lord Peter Wimsey back into the action. I'm glad I wasn't reading or drinking when I reached that page; it would have been messy.

Have you ever thought of bringing in other Golden Age detectives?"

I'm not sure I'd want to dabble more in Wimsey's life, or indeed with any of the others. Maybe a short story here or there. But Wimsey is firmly claimed by the DLS estate, and they were very generous to permit me as much as they did.

Nope, no movie rights sold, no deals on the edge of announcement. Much conversation, though.

As for Touchstone, I too love the characters, so much that I talked my publisher into making it a series of sorts. The sequel is about one-third written, and finds Harris Stuyvesant in Paris in 1929. I am having such a good time with it.

And yes, some of the others are in it, too.

by Justaskmom
Two questions here: first, did you sell the movie rights for A DARKER PLACE and FOLLY? Both are great favorites of mine, because they deal with complex older women protagonists. Second, any other standalones collecting on scraps off paper or buzzing around your head?
Touchstone is also a book I re-read often. Love Grey, hate Carstair, love Robbie, hate the voices. Would like to read another book about Grey and maybe his sad American friend (who gets the sister to honor and keep).

Julie wrote: "My absolute favorite book in the Russell series is "Locked Rooms", perhaps because it is set in San Francisco, my home town and references the great quake. I have always wondered where Russell's lo..."

The lodge is somewhere inland and north from Half Moon Bay, I think. Not that the exact lake is there, but there are lakes, and there would certainly have been holiday getaways from San Francisco.

Abby wrote: "When are you bringing Dr. Watson back?"

I'm thinking I should write a book set in England for a change, perhaps in Oxford. I'd intended Language of Bees to be an English book, but it and the sequel sort of got away from me!

As for the sex question.

As I write the relationship, I am always aware that this is a married couple, for whom it would be somewhat freakish to have no physical relationship whatsoever. At the same time, these are the memoirs of a woman in her 80s (or more) who feels strongly that there are elements of her life that others have no business in.

Which means that the only way to write sex into Russell's stories is obliquely, to have her drop the occasional mention that--more or less inadvertently--gives away something much deeper.

The portions of the books where Russell and Holmes come together after an absence are the fun bits, but I've always felt that stretching those sections into an entire book would be rather like an entire meal of desserts. The contrast and the sequence of flavors is key.

Also, I've always been very clear, in my own mind at least, the these are Russell's stories, that Holmes is a supporting player. But because he's such a strong character, the only way to keep him from dominating every scene is to get him out of the room and allow Russell to get on with it.

Garment of Shadows is fun because it alternates Russell's first person sections with chapters following Holmes alone. Tricky for a "memoir" to incorporate the viewpoint of others, but it seemed to work in previous books, and I feel it's acceptable here.

Questions transferred from another thread:

message 6: by C.P. (last edited Aug 21, 2012 06:04pm) Aug 21, 2012 06:01pm
I love the Russell/Holmes books, and I agree with Anne about A Monstrous Regiment of Women containing one of the sexiest kisses in fiction. Although I think the book that interested me most was A Letter of Mary, which followed.

What fascinates me especially is the way that Russell mirrors Holmes without replicating him. It makes her credible as a match for him. But I do notice that as time goes on, they spend more time apart, whereas the interaction between them is what draws me to the series. I wonder why that is, and whether you intend to write another book where they cooperate not only in principle and from time to time but in practice, side by side, throughout the novel.

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message 7: by Anne Aug 21, 2012 08:38pm
C.P., although I agree with you that having Russell and Holmes work together is emotionally satisfying, they think so much alike that it is redundant to them. So it makes more sense for them to spend at least half their time in different places, working different parts of the puzzle. Then, when they put their pieces together, there is a feeling of completion which wouldn't be there if they were together all the time. Does that make sense to you? Laurie, is this the line you were thinking along, or did you have other ideas? Also, I would question Holmes's respect for Russell if she didn't go off on her own.

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message 8: by Amy Aug 22, 2012 07:53am
How difficult was it to write that kiss?! You were 'playing' with one of the biggest literary characters! It had to be sexy without taking them both completely out of character - which I believe you achieved - but was it difficult to write? Or to include in the book? Did you feel a kiss was needed between them in order to move the story on? Sorry a lot of questions I know but I'm always curious how authors take to writing 'sex' into such a popular figure!

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message 9: by Anne (last edited Aug 22, 2012 12:34pm) Aug 22, 2012 08:06am
I think you mean to ask Laurie that question! It was perfectly done, and I could no more have written that scene than I could fly to the moon unaided. As a writer, I always admire a writer who can accomplish something I can't, and like you, Amy, I always wonder how it was done. I have sometimes read a single book 200 times trying to determine how a writer achieved an effect. I think Laurie has been extremely restrained about the sex life of Russell and Holmes, but I do think that one kiss was necessary to make the point. I too want to know how difficult it was to write, and how long it took to write that brief scene.

I very much hope to return to Kate. The publishing world is in such a flux these days, it's hard to go against the stream of what is the more successful (going by numbers, anyway) series. But definitely, if every I get a few free months in which I could write another Kate, I would happily self-publish it as an ebook, if nothing else.

From Carolyn:

You went back to Kate once after a long interval. Will we ever visit her again? Your enthusiasm for Mary Russell seems rather more enthusiastic.

It is as tricky to navigate the currents of a professional/personal relationship in fiction as it is in real life. There is bound to be tension, conflict, and protectiveness both the real and the fictional partnerships, and it's one of the places where I've found myself increasingly interested in the character of Holmes, namely, how would this extraordinary man react when confronted with a situation he's never faced before? To what extent would he be bound by his Victorian upbringing in regards to women, and how much would his own bone-deep iconoclasm liberate him from it?
And I'm glad you find reticence sexy.

Anne asks:

I am honored to be invited to join this group and to meet online with Laurie King. I am a retired CSI and am delighted to see the relationship between Mary and Holmes, because my mentor/partner was twenty-odd years older than I and we had a similar working relationship, although we were both married to other people. I would love to know how Laurie was able to work out how an older man and young woman working together in a dangerous field would interact. My favorite book in this series is A Monstrous Regiment of Women, which includes in the penultimate chapter the sexiest kiss in fiction.

Donna asks:
I love your series, but I have to admit that my absolute favorite book of yours is A Darker Place. Have you any thoughts of writing a sequel? Or more? A whole series. MORE! (Sorry-got a bit excited there.)

And the same question re: Touchstone.

You know, I really can't imagine adding a child to the Russell/Holmes menage. Although the characters are always surprising me, so nothing is impossible.
It's interesting, isn't it, how tough it is to have characters in a crime series who have anything near a normal life? That's one of the reasons I miss writing the Martinellis, because I'd really like to find out how Kate is dealing with having a wife and child while being a cop. It complicates matters a lot, for the character and the writer.
And yes, the Amelia Peabody stories are great fun.