I heard recently from a friend whose sister applied to Storyknife and didn’t get in. I wrote back as follows. Please do tell your sister to apply again. We had 599 applicants last year, it was tough. There are even more this year (our poor adjudication committee). In some ways this is very gratifying, but…
So there I was, descending down into Egyptian tombs and crypts built three or four thousand years before, doing research for the Eye of Isis novels. The craftsmanship of the tomb paintings and temple carvings is such that it does not require much sleight of mind to imagine yourself back in that day. Although, sometimes?…
This photo was taken from the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan during my visit to Egypt in December 2019. And it was the direct inspiration for this snippet from Theft of an Idol: The banks of the canal slipped past. Two boys in a rickety rowboat paddled out to catch hold of the rail and hitch…
No one wanted me to write the Eye of Isis series. Business associates said, “No, no, keep writing Kate Shugak novels, they are what sells.” My agents didn’t want me to write them because they couldn’t sell them without a multi-book contract that included a, you guessed it, Kate Shugak novel or a Liam Campbell…
I wrote the first Eye of Isis novel, Death of an Eye, before I went to Egypt. When it came time to write the second in the series (Disappearance of a Scribe) I knew I had to have a better sense of the Red Land and the Black Land than I could get on YouTube,…
Must be Tuesday …ten days from deadline… 4:20a Eyes pop open in realization that expository lump in Chapter 11 is neither informative nor amusing. 4:44a Bitterly acknowledge that there is no getting back to sleep and stagger into the kitchen in search of coffee. 5a Sit down at desk, open book, find section, rewrite, wonder…
Some people who like my books have formed an organization called the Danamaniacs. They have a page on Facebook, here, and have given me permission to post there. On June 5th, I gave them an update on the status of Theft of an Idol, aka Isis3 or the third Eye of Isis novel, as follows:…
[from “Cherchez la Femme,” a Kate Shugak short story] Most women hated Dulcey Kineen as much as their men loved her, of course. Margaret Meganack had erupted into Bobby Clark’s house when Marvin, that morning’s guest on Park Air, had strayed from the advertised topic, which was the current red salmon run or lack thereof,…
Read more …that little episode a while back involving Dulcey, Norma, and Norma’s boyfriend Chuck.
[from “Wreck Rights,” a Kate Shugak short story] Jim sighed. “My night for drunks in pickups.” “Every night’s a night for drunks in pickups,” Hazen said. “The woman driving the Ford Escort is dead. So’s the eleven-year old riding in back of her. The teenager riding next to her has at least a broken arm.…
[from “Under the Influence,” a very short Kate Shugak story] Kate stood up. Mutt cast a languishing farewell look at Jim and padded to her side. “You’re scaring me, Chopin. You’re starting to sound like a crusader.” I’ve already got a cause, he thought as he watched her walk out the door.