The History of Kate Shugak in 22 Objects – 4
WARNING: Spoilers spoken here.

WARNING: Spoilers spoken here.
ONE “I’ll get it,” Kate said, and fetched the Crisco forthwith. Auntie Vi eyed her. “Your auntie not that old, Katya.” “I know, auntie,” Kate said. “But I was closer.” She had, in fact, been in the next room at the time, but Auntie Vi, exercising monumental, not to mention unnatural restraint, forbore to comment.…
Vodka diplomacy from Mao Zedong to Richard Nixon, as practiced by a Swedish Forest Gump, a tale held together by a continuous twinkle, to wit: The part of the story Benny found hardest to stomach was that a person had been put to death and subsequently packed for export. Lord, what fools we mortals be!…
I wanted the gold and I sought it, I scrabbled and mucked like a slave. —Robert Service MY GRANDMOTHER GAVE ME a copy of Robert Service’s The Spell of the Yukon when I was ten years old. He is better known for Sam McGee and Dan McGrew but I loved the title poem best, with its…
Read more Dad said it was a wet, dirty, dangerous job for which nobody ever paid him enough money.
WARNING: Spoilers spoken here.
WARNING: Spoilers spoken here.
After a twenty-year print hiatus, the fourth, fifth, and sixth Kate Shugak novels are back in print in the US! Click on the cover art above for buy links. In honor of this event, Aries had me write 500 words on the Kate Shugak series, as below. Enjoy! If I had been smart enough to…
WARNING: Spoilers spoken here.
“Yuck!” The pool of slush covered the road from snow berm to snow berm and thirteen-year old Andrea Kvasnikof had just stepped in it up to her ankle and over the tops of her brand-new, white on white Nike Kaj. “Ms. Doogan! Ms. Doogan, my shoe’s all wet!” “This is where the leading edge of…
A collection of correspondence that includes the original, a transcript, and a précis of the events surrounding the writing of each one. George Harrison took out a mortgage on his house to finance Monty Python’s Life of Brian. (I always knew George was the best Beatle.) Alec Guinness couldn’t remember Mark Hamill’s co-star’s name (Tennyson Ford?…
Read more By turns hilarious, chilling, and poignant and always fascinating