"Rather than being wined and dined, you often end up eating a meal sitting in someone's car with a garbage bag tied around your neck."—from Heart-Shaped Box Launches

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HEART-SHAPED BOX LAUNCHES

New Books
es, I do have a new book coming out late this month. It's called Heart-Shaped Box. In Heart-Shaped Box, Claire receives a mysterious package when she checks into the hotel for her 20th high school reunion. In the package is a hand-carved heart-shaped wooden box, and inside the box is a picture of Claire, cut from her high school yearbook. Claire's boyfriend teases her that the box must be from a long-time admirer. She feels a bit flattered—until another old classmate is found strangled in the parking lot. And in her hand, she holds a heart-shaped box.

I've also just sent a new book, Learning to Fly, to my agent. This is a stand-alone thriller about a woman who survives a chain-reaction car accident. Not only is another woman's body misidentified as hers, but she accidentally ends up with a bag of drug dealer's money—and what looks like a chance to make a new life for herself.

Tour
Harper is sending me on a good-size West Coast tour in February for Heart-Shaped Box, with stops in Scottsdale, Arizona; Los Angeles; San Diego; San Francisco; and Seattle. I'll spend two or three days in each city, usually with time back in Portland in between. I'm learning that these trips can be strange. You spend your days surrounded by strangers, and when you try to sleep, you dream there's a line of people standing in front of you. Rather than being wined and dined, you often end up eating a meal sitting in someone's car with a garbage bag tied around your neck. However, the trip has given me an excuse to purchase new clothes that don't need ironing. I'm also trying to stock up the freezer for my husband. It's hard work touring, but it's even harder being the one at home playing worker bee/single parent.

Cover Wars
There have actually been two different covers for Heart-Shaped Box. The covers featured the same art—a hand (presumably a dead hand lying on the ground) holding a heart-shaped box. What has varied is the way the type was put on the page, and the choice of type face. First it was traditional type, then it was hand-drawn, scary-looking letters, and finally it ended up looking like it did originally. Every time I asked about a change, I was told the old version had been more of a rough sketch.

Movie Deals?
Things in Hollywood are fairly dead right now, as both a writers' strike and an actors' strike are scheduled for the spring and summer. Hope you like reality TV, because I understand that's where the action is right now, as it requires no writers and not actors.

Foreign Rights
This summer, I sold foreign rights to Circles in Japan. They had that manuscript for two years! I have no idea what they will do with the vanity license plates in Japanese.

Amazon
I've written an essay for Amazon, which they will e-mail out sometime in January to people who subscribe to “Mystery/Thriller News” as well as post somewhere on their Web site.

Awards
In September, I went to Denver to see if Circles of Confusion won an Anthony Award at the biggest mystery fan conference of all, Bouchercon. It was extremely nerve-wracking to sit at the banquet, along with about 800 other people, and wait to hear who had won the awards. The people at my table amused ourselves by trying to decide if the yellow scoop of something was really bad risotto or really bad cous-cous. (That particular mystery was never solved.) I didn't get an award, but I was sitting next to Laura Lippman when she did, and got to hear this little squeaky sound she made when her name was called out.

Readings
Never been to a reading? I try to make them funny and interesting and keep them under an hour. I read a bit, talk a bit, and take questions.

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