This entry is going into two very different directions. 1) I picked up THE SATURDAYS recently, a childhood favorite by Elizabeth Enright. In it, the Melendy siblings pool their allowances, which allows one child to have a spectacular outing. But many of the chapters center on discovering a story about someone they might have not otherwise thought had a story. The same device is used to even greater effect in Enright's SPIDERWEB FOR TWO. In writing "The Girl in the Green Raincoat," I knew I owed a Read more [...]

Many years ago, maybe five, a young teacher from New Jersey wrote me about my book, Every Secret Thing. We had some mutual friends, we became friends, I watched as he went on to publish his own PI fiction (the excellent Jackson Donne series). I dropped in on his blog, forgave his love of the New York Yankees. (Yankee love, is, in fact, much easier to forgive than Met love.) Over time, I noticed that the young writer, Dave White, had a pronounced fondness for a television show called HOW I MET YOUR Read more [...]

For the most part, I don't. Procrastinate, that is. Give me a deadline and I'll usually come in under it, then use the leftover time to loaf. It's the best loafing, the loafing of the smug and sanctimonious. Part of the reason I prefer self-employment to working for others is that when I finished a task early at the Baltimore Sun, I was expected to do more work. Where's the incentive in that? When I finish a book early, I go buy earrings.But, as some readers of this blog have surely noticed, I haven't Read more [...]

. . . and written in "just the facts" Memory Project style. Here's my experience on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson.I arrived in Los Angeles Wednesday night after a blessedly uneventful flight. Just before leaving for the airport, I had done a "pre-interview" with one of the show's producers. She told me that the interview would be unlike any other I had done on television. I confessed to being a fan and a nerd (not necessarily in that order), so I had seen the show quite a bit and also gone Read more [...]

I compose in Word (although I might be trying something new soon) and I keep the current book on my desktop in a single folder, with all the multiple drafts contained therein. Eventually, I move that folder off the desktop into my document file, where it's no longer visible. I did that today with LIFE SENTENCES. The new book, the work-in-progress, now has the desktop to itself. This annual ritual feels almost Oedipal, or at the very least a case of sibling rivalry. Time for you to shuffle off, LS, Read more [...]

I did a local news show this morning to promote the Maryland Film Festival, where I am introducing one of my favorite films, Funny Bones, this weekend.

Here's how it started: "Welcome to Baltimore, Laura."

Everyone's talking about shopping in one's own closet during these times; today I went browsing in my own bookshelves. Granted, I'll never stop buying books. I bought books when I was barely making minimum wage and all I have to show for it is . . . well, actually, some valuable modern firsts. Last week alone, I purchased two books and scored a free one on a visit to my publisher. Today, I was trying to winnow my collection again -- I periodically select books to be boxed up and stored in the basement, Read more [...]