I posted recently on Facebook about my extraordinary time in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. One thing I didn’t talk about is the devastating threat this pristine wilderness currently faces: sulfide mining. Unlike iron mining, sulfide-ore copper mining generates waste rock full of sulfates, which, when exposed to air and water, becomes sulphuric acid, … Read more
My novels have been translated into many languages, none of which I can read. I always wonder if meaning gets mangled in the process. I’ll probably never know for sure, but a look at what translating has done to some of my book titles might provide a clue. Here are some of my books with … Read more
Every good author does research to make sure the facts are right. But sometimes mistakes occur. More often than not they’re just stupid errors, things we think we know, so why look them up? Or continuity errors—we start with a particular make of automobile in a scene and somewhere along the line change our minds … Read more
Back to the journey and to my final blog on Boundary Waters. Tony Hillerman is, of course, one of the major reasons I write what I write. He was one of the first mystery authors I discovered. I confess that before I began to write mysteries, I didn’t really read them. My father was a … Read more
Boundary Waters was the second book in a two-book contract that included Iron Lake. When Pocket Books (now Atria Books, a division of Simon and Schuster) bought the books, they knew nothing about the second book. I didn’t even have a title for it, only a vague idea. Contractually I was obligated at some point … Read more