Laurie R. King, interviewed by Dana Stabenow

Over the years, the NorCal East Bay chapter of Mystery Readers International has had many "At Homes" -- intimate evenings with favorite mystery writers. We've hosted Anne Perry, Lawrence Block, Sue Grafton, Elizabeth George, Janet LaPierre, Sharan Newman, Laurie King, Rochelle Krich, Carolyn Hart, James Ellroy, Steven Saylor, Janet Evanovich, Eddie Muller, Taffy Cannon, and many others. These events are held in private homes, and they're similar to Literary Salons. Since so many of our cyber members and friends aren't able to attend these intimate evenings, I thought it would be fun to have a "visiting" author each month interviewed by another "visiting" author. This month we feature Laurie R. King interviewed by Dana Stabenow. Laurie R. King, a third-generation Californian, was born in the San Francisco Bay area. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz (where she did an independent study in alchemical symbolism and a senior thesis on "The Role of the Fool in Western Culture") before concentrating on the area of Old Testament theology, doing a Master's degree at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Her thesis was on "Feminine Aspects of Yahweh". After receiving the MA, she spent some years deeply immersed in the world of the householder, with two small children, three acres of garden, and a crumbling farmhouse to work on. When the younger child entered preschool, freeing his mother three entire mornings a week, she began to write fiction. The Beekeeper's Apprentice was written in 1987, although it was not published until 1994. Laurie has averaged a book a year since she began writing. She is the author of two series (the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mysteries and a police procedural series featuring homicide detective Kate Martinelli) and three stand-alone novels. Keeping Watch, which focuses on Allen Carmichael, the "ghost" from King's novel Folly, will be published in March 2003. --Janet Rudolph

Dana Stabenow: Given the rabid nature of most Baker Street Irregulars, how did you dare to invade the sacred land of Doyle with the Mary Russell series?

Laurie R. King: BSI aren't rabid, although some of them do foam around the mouth a bit when a new Russell comes out. Had I realized the sacrality of The Canon when I first began to write Russell, I might have hesitated. No, come to think of it, I probably wouldn't have. In any case, because I had no idea at the time of the entire Sherlockian/Holmesian movement, had never come across any of the secondary commentaries (had, in fact, not even read the Conan Doyle stories in their entirety), I plowed ahead in blithe ignorance. If I had known of the Holmes industry before I stumbled into it, probably my own writing would have been slightly more self-conscious, as I worked deliberately into "the game". However, even now I try to follow the dictate of Dorothy L. Sayers, who defined the game of Holmesian higher criticism as needing to maintain the serious demeanor of a county cricket match played at Lloyd's.

DS: And you desecrate the shrine even further by giving that practicing misogynist Sherlock Holmes a love interest! Explain yourself!

LK: Holmes retired a relatively young man (and if you're interested in my rationale for his age, you'll have to check out the article on "A Holmes Chronology" on my web site under "Mutterings") with a well-known relationship with the good Doctor Watson. I thought he needed a change, of the sort that opened up the aspects of his personality not previously explored during his Baker Street days. Mary Russell is his opposite -- young, female, Twentieth Century, feminist, theologian, half American -- and yet she is precisely the same in how she sees the world and how she approaches problems. He needed a challenge, and he got one.

And if you object to my taking the partnership one step further and making a marriage out of it, I will note merely that the only woman, according to Watson, who succeeded in tweaking Holmes' interest was Irene Adler, who is also the only person to beat him in a recorded case. Clearly, Holmes responds to strong, capable women.

DS: Was there one person, place or thing, one image, an event, even one of the stories from the canon that gave rise to The Beekeeper's Apprentice? What was it?

LK: In "His Last Bow," which is set on the eve of the Great War, Holmes gives the German spy a copy of a book he claims is a code book, but which turns out to be his own work on the art of beekeeping, subtitled "With some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen." That evocative subtitle was my own original title, until my editor pointed out that "segregation" was not generally a positive image.

According to Conan Doyle, Holmes retired to the Sussex Downs to keep bees, a study the detective found fascinating, due no doubt to the logical ruthlessness of the hive. In the process of Mary Russell's bringing Holmes out of his so-called retirement, I began to play with the idea of the segregated queen, both in beekeeping and in chess. Mary's segregation from Holmes is the key plot element to the book.

DS: Did you know The Beekeeper's Apprentice was the first in a series when you wrote it? If you didn't, is there something different you might have done in that first novel had you known you would be writing -- 'strewth -- how many is it now, six, and at least two more planned?

LK: Unlike A Grave Talent, Beekeeper's Apprentice was from the beginning a clear candidate for a series. The book itself is a series of episodes describing the growth of Mary Russell, and serves to create a setting for further adventures. Did I originally imagine eight or more of the things? No, I don't think anyone does.

DS: And then you, a known heterosexual, chose as your next protagonist a lesbian named Kate Martinelli. How did that happen?

LK: Kate is a perfect example of the writer's cliche that your characters both choose you and write the story. If I'd stopped to think about the effrontery of a straight writing a gay character, I probably would have backed away from it. But I was writing a story about a cop, an outsider in a lot of ways, and Kate just, er, "came out" that way.

Sorry.

Besides, writing Kate has meant I get to be on a lot of cool panels at conferences, with writers of other characters named Kate. Like Dana Stabenow.

DS: What's more important to the ethos of the Martinelli novels, that Kate is a lesbian, or that Kate is a police detective? Why?

LK: Kate is a cop first and foremost. She is, obviously, a woman and a lesbian and an Italian and..., but the mentality, the self-awareness, the us-and-them of the police officer permeates everything she does and is. She is an outsider in a lot of ways, but she is at base a member of the San Francisco Police Department.

DS: I've heard our friend Val talk about beating stand-alone novels into submission when they want to give birth to a sequel. I can't help but notice that the main character of Keeping Watch came from Folly. Was this a voluntary act on your part, or did Allen Carmichael Himself step out of the bushes on Folly Island and demand to be heard?

LK: When Allen came out of the bushes on Folly Island, it occurred to me that he would be an interesting person to get to know, and not just for Rae Newborn. I had been thinking of doing a male protagonist for a while, and Allen seemed a good place to start. Then, knowing that I wanted to do more with Allen than just shove him into Rae's life and arms, I made him a degree more interesting in Folly than the book itself called for, laying the foundation for his appearance in Keeping Watch.

DS: You've published three stand-alone novels in the last two years. Given how happy your publisher has to be with the success of the Russell and Martinelli novels, how did you strongarm them into buying a non-series book?

LK: I have been incredibly fortunate in my publishers and their willingness to go along with my pet projects. My first book with Bantam was A Darker Place, and although my editor's reaction was that the sales force wouldn't be happy with its "cult" elements, which would make the book a harder sell for them, she nonetheless very generously went along with the project. I am lucky to have an editor who is a joy to work with -- hard, demanding, maddeningly picky at times, sure, but she helps me craft a stronger book, and she's as enthusiastic about the non-series as she is the Russells. And when time comes for me to do another Martinelli, she will no doubt take that as well. She's even thinking about a futuristic novel project, as a paperback original, though I have no dates for that yet.

DS: What's up with you writing a basketball short story for an Otto Penzler anthology? (Sorry, couldn't resist.) And while we're at it, why write short stories when it's obvious you don't need to? What's easier to write, a short story or a novel?

LK: Hey, I used to play basketball. I was the tallest girl on the team in eighth grade, until I turned to intercept the ball and dislocated my knee. Otto asked me to do a story for one of his sports series, and since basketball is the only sport I know anything about (other than soccer -- I can even spot an off-sides fault -- but he isn't doing a soccer book) I said yes. Admittedly the sport itself plays a very small part in the book, but the form of the short story is interesting, and some day I'd like to publish a cycle of stories that come together, a sort of Joy Luck Club crime.

DS: Do you still write your books in longhand? Perhaps that should be, Why on earth do you?

LK: Not any more, since I found a laptop small enough that I can sit in exactly the same position that I used to write longhand in, which has enabled my brain to make the shift between ink and keys. I still use the pen, when I need to think more closely about what I'm trying to do. It's a more organic approach: muscles, ink, paper, and words.

DS: Does the King laundry room still smell like dead skunk?

LK: It never did smell like dead skunk, not even when it's filled with my teenage son's socks. It smelled like live skunk. And after I invented a means of excluding skunks from their hole, and then filled in said hole with a couple yards of concrete, they only wander around outside, staring wistfully in. But I have to say, there's nothing for clearing the sinuses like having six skunks living downstairs.

Archived At Home Online Interviews:
Track 1:
Val McDermid, interviewed by Ian Rankin
Ian Rankin, interviewed by Peter Robinson
Peter Robinson, interviewed by Michael Connelly
Michael Connelly, interviewed by Laurie R. King
Laurie R. King, interviewed by Dana Stabenow
Dana Stabenow, interviewed by Jan Burke
Jan Burke, interviewed by T. Jefferson Parker
T. Jefferson Parker, interviewed by Harlan Coben
Harlan Coben, interviewed by Laura Lippman
Laura Lippman, interviewed by S.J. Rozan
S.J. Rozan, interviewed by Qiu Xiaolong
Qiu Xiaolong, interviewed by Cara Black
Cara Black, interviewed by Peter Lovesey
Peter Lovesey, interviewed by Anne Perry
Anne Perry, interviewed by Carole Nelson Douglas
Carole Nelson Douglas, interviewed by Nancy Pickard
Nancy Pickard, interviewed by Carolyn Hart

Track 2:
Ken Bruen, interviewed by Reed Farrel Coleman
Reed Farrel Coleman, interviewed by Megan Abbott
Megan Abbott, interviewed by Theresa Schwegel
Theresa Schwegel, interviewed by Michael Koryta
Michael Koryta, interviewed by Steve Hamilton

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